On Monday, June 7th, the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships sponsored a meeting on "Advancing Interfaith and Community Service on College and University Campuses."
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At that meeting, Eboo Patel, founder of Interfaith Youth Core (IFYC) and member of the President's Advisory Council, invited attendees to ponder the following scenario: "Walk out of this room and onto the street, tap anyone on the shoulder and ask them to say something about environmentalism and human rights, and they can respond. Now imagine asking about religious pluralism or interfaith cooperation. Most would be at a loss." That is the situation that Patel and the White House Office seek to transform. Their shared goal is to transform interfaith cooperation from "niche to norm."
But why should President Obama and the White House care about this vision? As an invitee to this week's White House Conference, that was the question I was eager to have answered. As a predictable progressive committed to the Establishment Clause, I tend to become squeamish when the words "White House" and "Faith-Based" enter into close proximity.
So, how would administration officials like Joshua DuBois and Mara Vanderslice, who run Obama's White House Faith-Based Office, nuance this issue? I found the answer in a phrase repeated by several administration officials: "social cohesion."
Drawing upon the work of Diana Eck, creator of Harvard's Pluralism Project, Patel observed that America is now the world's most religiously diverse country. The question for our country is this: Can such diversity be mobilized on behalf of social cohesion rather than fragmentation? Patel asks, "Will religions become bubbles, barriers, bombs or bridges?" Can we bypass the predicted clash of civilizations?
Obama's leadership team offers an emphatic yes to the latter question. I am pleased to report that despite a remarkable assembly of Hindus, Buddhists, Jews, Christians, Muslims and humanists, there was not a Huntingtonian in the bunch!
There is a question that Eboo Patel wants campus leaders to confront: "Who gets to our youth first? Religious pluralists or religious militants?" The felt urgency of Patel's question should demonstrate that there is nothing Pollyannaish about his vision. He soberly appreciates the strange, seductive power of religious militancy. But what Patel and this White House know still better is the transformative power of interreligious cooperation.
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