Even though I grew up in an interreligious family, “interfaith” was not a term I was familiar with. I was raised Catholic, attending catechism throughout my childhood until I was eventually confirmed in the Catholic church. My Dad is a Baha’i, but I was not involved in his religious practices. For me, religion was taught in terms of right and wrong, avoiding sin and participating in sacraments. I lived within a faith I didn’t completely understand, until eventually I was no longer comfortable labeling myself in such an absolute way. For a period, I rejected religion entirely. I no longer wanted to attend church and even began questioning my belief in God. I was uncomfortable confining myself to a set of institutional beliefs when I was still exploring myself and my place in the world.
Arriving at college, I was introduced to the concept of interfaith for the first time. Before freshman year, I attended a pre-orientation focused on learning about different religions and sharing our own spiritual beliefs and experiences. I’m not sure what drew me to this specific program; perhaps it was the openness to different religious perspectives. But during this week-long experience, I immediately found deep connections with like-minded students who were asking the same questions I had been asking myself. It was thrilling to be engaged in these in-depth conversations, though a bit scary to be so vulnerable with people I had just met. I eventually found relief knowing I was not alone in my internal doubt and that there was a place where I could explore these feelings and ideas.
I was not confident that I could fit into one religious group, so I didn’t know how to engage in interfaith dialogue.
Even after this orientation week at Tufts, I was unsure if there was a place for me within the interfaith community on campus. At this point, I was defining interfaith as active engagement between people of different religious groups with the purpose of bridging differences and making positive connections. I was not confident that I could fit into one religious group, so I didn’t know how to engage in interfaith dialogue.
After having the opportunity to connect with many of the chaplains at Tufts, I attended various meetings of campus religious groups. Through this exploration, I found the Humanist group, a community that was asking spiritual questions without the boundaries of a strict religious tradition. It was an opportunity for me to expand my search for religious identity and fulfillment, while gaining a community of supportive, engaged peers. The work I’ve done with this group has ultimately allowed me to connect more to my religious roots, but within a more accepting space that allows for continued exploration and growth.
This revitalization of religious interest led me to more involvement across campus. Last year, I was given the chance to represent the Humanist community on the Interfaith Student Council. In this campus-wide group, I was able to connect with students from almost every faith tradition on campus, including Buddhism, Hinduism, and Unitarian Universalism.
Working alongside one another, we plan events to bring together members of our varied communities, and explore our common purposes through different practices. We coordinate events that welcome students across all faith traditions, creating places for collective expression and mutual understanding. Through this work, the definition of interfaith changed for me again, expanding to include those without a defined religious background as well as those still questioning and exploring their relationship with faith. I experienced a profound realization that interfaith could be a place to explore spirituality, our humanity, and how we make our place in this world.
This involvement has helped me see an integration of my religious life and my secular life—it’s just life.
Joining the Boston Interfaith Leadership Initiative (BILI) this year helped me to accept my own spiritual journey as valid—that it’s okay to ask questions and that these questions have implications far beyond one’s church or temple. Religion for me is about praxis: integrating my spiritual beliefs with other personal beliefs that I carry throughout the rest of my life, the intermingling of the sacred and the secular. I have seen how faith in action takes place every day, everywhere. I see more clearly how this is at the core of many religious practices. This involvement has helped me see an integration of my religious life and my secular life—it’s just life.
Furthermore, participation in BILI has shown me the potential that interfaith work could have beyond religion. Through our guest speakers, readings, and small group discussions, I have been able to learn about the relevance of interfaith engagement in social justice movements today. It’s about politics, power in society, issues of race and discrimination, and identity. Interfaith brings fundamental values that we share to the forefront of our drive to help one another. Interfaith engagement has the potential to imbue everyday life with more compassion, understanding, and inspiration. The spiritual life is not just quiet contemplation and polite conversations. It is action and protest, helps make things happen, and addresses real issues for real people.
I now label interfaith as more than just conversations between people of faith. Rather, interfaith implies exploration, valuing what each unique experience has to offer, working for positive real-world change, and uniting for a common purpose. This is the approach I want to take forward as I continue this spiritual journey.
Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay.