WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – People should be open minded about religion, 6 distinguished speakers and a moderator discussed as a panel Wednesday night on Purdue campus.
The contributor to MSNBC, Ron Reagan, used his personal story about refusing his father to go to church in his childhood to show his perspective that how we communicate with each other matters. We can not have discussion with one another if we are not open to change our minds, he said.
Wednesday’s panel discussion on “Religion, Polarization, and the Public Space” is part of Purdue University’s “Democracy, Civility, and Freedom of Expression,” a series of events held by Purdue, which aimed to engage people in these important social topics. Amy Goodman, the moderator of the discussion, was the host and executive producer of Democracy Now! Other panelists consist of internationally famous people with different religious backgrounds.
Melissa Rogers, nonresident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, stated the importance of religious freedom for everyone. This was also her motivation to attend a law school when she learned about the constitution was aiming to protect people from every religion.
She said, “an attack on any faith is an attack on every faith.”
Arun Gandhi, grandson of Mahatma Gandhi, used the parable of “Blind Men and an Elephant” to support the idea that every single one has different perspective. According to him, we all believe in something that we think is true.
There are also other perspectives brought up during the discussion. Reza Aslan, Iranian-American scholar of religious studies, put forward racism is about ignorance. If you just learn more knowledge about black people, Muslim people, or Jews, you wouldn’t be racist against them, he said.
“We are equal to each other,” said Sarah Hurwitz, Ameican speechwriter.
But, according to her, few of us actually apply this in our lives. We would never treat a homeless person the same way as we treat a celebrity, she said.
Naomi Tutu, daughter of archbishop Desmond Tutu, talked about her own religious background as it differed from other panelists. During her childhood, when she did not begin to form into a mature perspective about religion, she was highly influenced by the social religious culture. As she was living in a Christian country, she said, the church had been a part of her life.
But she changed her faith from the time she saw “this white man looking down and surrounded only by white people”.
The white man I saw was the white man abused people who look like me, she said.
For James Woodford, a native audience, Naomi’s story resonated with him most. As he was also from Africa and lived a religious life since childhood, Naomi’s perspective about her faith did not ask her to respond the society in a nice way impressed a lot, he said.
I was really impressed to see religions are being used to help people, he said.
For more information about the speakers and future activities of “Democracy, Civility, and Freedom of Expression,” please visit https://www.purdue.edu/diversity-inclusion/events/.
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