Untangling Representation: For Whom Do You Speak?

Student Religious Life at Johns Hopkins University emphasizes interfaith education and collaboration. 15-20 students, many of them representing one of the campus' active student religious groups, participate in a weekly forum, the Interfaith Council. The subject matter of these meetings varies. Students may go around and share a particular aspect of their tradition, such as prayer, coming of age, gender roles, holidays, or food customs, and sometimes the evening centers around an exercise or activity designed to help students develop greater religious literacy and sensitivity. The aims of this council are not only to encourage our students to get to know and work with one another on campus, but also to help cultivate tools for dialogue across difference - we want our students to learn to see the diversity and plurality of our world as a resource, and to know how to use it for the betterment of all. Quite often, our students remind us - the "adults" in the room who convene the meetings each week - that the work of interfaith is a constantly moving target, and that we are a far way off from having all the answers to its difficulties. Read more here.

Counter Point: State of Formation and the Council on Foreign Relations

By Hussein Rashid: Here at State of Formation, my colleague Joseph Wiinikka-Lydon argues against participation in the Council of Foreign Relations. I wish I could say I disagree with his premises, but the reality is that I do not. However, I have come to a different conclusion than he has. I am not only submitting a piece for the “Religion and Foreign Policy Bulletin,” but I am in the third year of my five-year term member cycle with CFR. I have chosen to do this because, as Joseph points out, there is not much informed discussion about the role of religion in policy. It is reactive, and often reifies religion in such a way as to separate it from all realms of human activity. Read more here.

Point: Why I will not apply for the Council on Foreign Relations’ “Religion and Foreign Policy Bulletin”
 

By Joseph Wiinikka-Lydon: State of Formation recently announced an opportunity for its Contributing Scholars to apply for a  writing slot with the Council on Foreign Relation’s “Religion and Foreign Policy Bulletin.” This is a great chance both for State of Formation and for the writers on this blog. I have seen caring, critical engagement on this site, and I think it important that the U.S. foreign policy establishment hear such voices.

I will not, however, throw my hat in the ring. My reasons come from personal experience with our foreign policy in action, and the vision of the world, and our role in it, that the Council assumes. Read more here.

Managing Editors note: as a reminder, the views and statements expressed by State of Formation Contributing Scholars are representative of their individual views alone and do not represent the position of State of Formation or any organization/institution it is affiliated with.