How to engage with people across differences | Joel Altena | TEDxLCCUniversity

Quick Overview

The speaker argues that true religious freedom is achieved through hospitable pluralism, which involves actively engaging with people of different faiths and convictions with love, kindness, and respect in the public sphere, rather than merely tolerating differences or privatizing faith practices. This principle, exemplified by interfaith dialogues like the one between a Christian chaplain and a Muslim Imam over Eid, deepens one's own faith and creates necessary spaces for peacebuilding.

Key Points: The speaker advocates for hospitable pluralism as the path to peace, contrasting it with permissive tolerance or privatization of faith. Hospitable pluralism requires actively engaging with people of different faiths and convictions in the public sphere with love, kindness, and respect. An example of this engagement involved a Christian chaplain and a Muslim Imam collaborating on an Eid celebration at LCC University. The speaker learned from Muslim students about their religious traditions, such as fasting during Ramadan, and Christian student traditions like Easter. The speaker found that such interactions deepened his own Christian faith, as it reinforced the core principle of living out faith through hospitality and kindness. The ultimate goal is to create spaces for peacebuilding and demonstrate that peace is possible by acting out of the core of one's being in public interactions.

Context: The speaker, Joel Altena, shares a reflection stemming from an experience in December 2022 when he visited Oman with a group including pastors, a Hindu chaplain, and a Jewish rabbi. This visit was organized by the Al-Amana Center, a Christian organization working in Oman for over 130 years to create spaces for multi-faith and interfaith dialogue. The core concept he explores is the difference between mere tolerance and active, hospitable engagement across religious lines.

Detailed Analysis

Joel Altena recounts his trip to Oman in December 2022, where he engaged with Muslim Imams, a Hindu chaplain, and a Jewish rabbi, organized by the Al-Amana Center, which promotes interfaith dialogue. He illustrates the concept of hospitable pluralism by sharing a photo from his backyard in Lithuania showing his children's toys—a red swing and a pink scooter—lying next to an apple tree, symbolizing the beauty of diverse elements coexisting. He contrasts this with the common notion of permissive tolerance, which merely allows people to hold different beliefs privately. Instead, Altena argues that true religious freedom demands active engagement in the public sphere, showing hospitality, respect, kindness, and generosity in interactions. He cites specific examples from his work at LCC University, where he and a Christian and Muslim leader collaborated on an Eid meal, and where he learned about the fasting practices of Muslim students during Ramadan and the Easter celebrations of Christian students. He concludes that these shared experiences, which involve living out one's faith publicly through hospitality, deepen one's own conviction and prove that peace is possible in a world often marked by division and violence between faiths.