Pictured from left to right, Nate Osborne, Eboo Patel, Dougie Barnard, respectively
This morning I had the pleasure of attending the Interfaith conference held at the Interfaith church of Indianapolis. I heard about the conference from Nate Osborne’s mom. We were having lunch on Sunday talking about the Kenya Club and she mentioned this interfaith conference at which we would be able to give a short presentation. I thought, wow, that could be really cool, but what would I say? They invited us to come and share because of Nate’s work through the Kenya Carnival, which is a kid-led interfaith carnival which supports students through high school in Chulaimbo, Kenya. That was our connection to this prestigious meeting. Once we got the green light, all systems were a go. From there Nate and I met a few times to discuss our presentation. This morning Nate and his mom picked me up at 7:45 to drive to the interfaith church for the 8:15 conference or get-together. When we arrived I felt a little out-of-place. We walked in and they asked for our names. They had a name-tag for each of us along with a packet of information. I felt so official, like I was someone important or something. Then we made our way up the stairs and into the room where the gathering took place. There was an extravagant assortment of breakfast items and juices laid out upon multiple tables. I didn’t have the stomach to even think about eating something. I was thinking about my talk and I had butterflies in my stomach.
Mrs. Osborne has so many connections and she made her rounds to greet everyone she knew and introduce us as well. I felt like an absolute nobody. A nobody who happened to be wearing a gold, brebeuf says yes, ken-ya help us t-shirt. After walking around for a bit, Nate and I decided to scope out our seats. We found three open seats in the front row and parked there. Let me describe this room to you- it was an old fashioned wooden room with stain glass windows along one side of the wall. It had a cozy, tight knit vibe. There were rows of chairs lined up all facing the front of the room where there was a podium and a screen along with a projector. I also noticed a ginormous camera set up facing the podium with the microphone. There was an American flag standing tall against the wall in the front of the room.
As I was listening to a few of the opening speakers, I had the sense that I was at some sort of presidential election because of the microphone, podium, flag, and huge mega tripod video camera. It was so cool. There was an older lady who spoke about world peace and she closed by reading a beautiful poem in her European accent. At least it sounded beautiful- I couldn’t quite make out all of the words because of her unique accent. But everyone else in the audience seemed to get a kick out of it, so it must have been a pretty good poem.
Another speaker was the Dean of Social justice at Indiana University. He spoke about his efforts to pursue ongoing efforts for various movements centered around justice. I was quite impressed by his words. I felt that he spoke with dignity and power. He introduced one of his friends whose name is Klaus (kuh-lao-se). Klaus is from Cologne, Germany. He looks like the cutest man you have ever seen in your entire life. He seems to be about 75 and walks with his head kind of down. He has sort of a hunch over posture. He is always smiling. He radiates joy. Anyway, so the dean of social work at IU spoke a few words about Klaus. He said that he had met Klaus many years ago at a conference for world peace. He spoke to Klaus for a few minutes and was touched by his vision. Klaus tugged the coat sleeve of the dean and said to him, you are going to make a difference in the world through your work in Indiana. The dean was very moved and maintained a relationship with Klaus even after they parted ways. After the dean finished talking about Klaus, he walked over and gave Klaus a token of appreciation for the work he has done throughout his lifetime to promote world peace. It was obvious that this act of kindness touched Klaus. He proceeded to approach the microphone. When he spoke, I was absolutely amazed by his accent. It was unlike any other accent I have ever heard before. The way he spoke was of the utmost sincerity. His tone of language was of gentle love. He even choked up when talking about his vision for world peace. It was one of the most adorable things I have ever seen.
The next speaker was the advisor to Mayor Ballard. This strong, tall black man was yet another impressive public speaker. He shared many of the ideas of Mayor Ballard and how they are working to shape our community. Their goal is for Indianapolis to become a world renown center for social change in this world. I have to say, it was pretty moving. I thoroughly enjoyed his talk. He then introduced the man behind organizing the conference who spoke about what a pleasure it was to have so many people here today. Next he invited four students from Immaculate Heart of Mary to come up and share about their experiences with their diversity dialogue.
After they shared it was time for me and Nate. The moment we had been waiting for. It was as if a wave of pressure crashed into me. But no need to fear, this was no different than standing up to give a speech in Mr. Hick’s class right? After listening to a variety of powerful speakers, I seemed a bit humbled which made the butterflies in my stomach flap around even more rapidly. But I have always had a way with public speaking. I get nervous before hand, which is normal, but when my moment comes, I shine. I feel very comfortable in that moment, when all eyes are on me and I have a chance to let my light shine. It is such a thrilling experience- public speaking. Especially at this occasion because I had never spoke at an event with so much class and sophistication. It was truly an honor. Nate spoke first and then turned it over to me. I remembered all of the points in my speech and even threw in a quote from Margaret Meade to close it: “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world. Indeed it is the only thing that ever has.” Boom. haha.
The next speaker was the reason why all of us attended this conference. His name is Eboo Patel. He is one of the two Muslims on the faith advisory board for Obama. To sum up his speech, let’s just say I was swept off of my feet. I was blown away. I had tears in my eyes. I gazed at him with the utmost respect and admiration, noticing how the sun reflected through the stained glass windows to make his face glow a bright yellow. I had an awakening, a realization, a stirring of emotions inside of me to the likes of which I had never experienced before. I have never heard a more powerful speech in my entire life. His language, eloquence, matter-of-fact manner, wit, intelligence, and passion all came together to take the listener on such a great ride. He led us back into history and frequently took us between the past and present. I was astounded by his vast knowledge of people, books, movement, and faiths. If only you had been there. I swear to you, it would have blown you away. After listening to him speak (it was 45 minutes long) every single person in the room saw first hand why this guy is on Obama’s faith advisory board. He is brilliant. I want to go into his speech but it would be a lengthy discussion. So I’ll give you the message of his speech in shortened form. Just as we were torn apart as a country by the color line (racial segregation) 60 years ago, so are we now torn apart today by the faith line. Interfaith world peace is of primary importance today. And he gave facts, data, stories from books, personal experiences, and hundreds of inspiring phrases along with that. I want to get the video of his speech. I would love to watch it again and share it with others.
After hearing Eboo speak, I thought about the diversity and religious differences we have at Brebeuf. I recently attended the diversity dialogue at Brebeuf to try to tackle some of these issues. One point I would like to make is this: Diversity is not always a positive thing. Our school is looking to increase its diversity but unless we foster attitudes of love and acceptance of different religious and racial groups, diversity can actually tear us apart. When I think back to Eboo’s speech, I remember him saying that data shows that if a person has a positive experience with a different faith tradition, they are likely to view that faith tradition as a whole in a much better light. Although Brebeuf is a Catholic Jesuit preparatory school, we have students from several different faith traditions. It is important for us to recognize that as a student body, we are predominantly Jewish and Christian. We have all school masses, Christian prayer over the announcements, mass served during the prt’s, and we recognize Jewish holidays. When it comes to Islam, I believe that we do not make enough of an effort to include it and learn more about it. Aside from seeing the names of important Muslim holidays in our assignment notebooks, I feel that the religion is excluded from our daily lives as much as possible. I know that we are a Catholic school, but let’s work towards developing positive experiences with the religion of Islam. In doing so, we will be open to growth and we will exhibit interfaith values. Eboo Patel spoke about his visit to Franklin college the day before. He visioned the president of Franklin college shaking the hands of his students on graduation day. He asked us, wouldn’t it be nice if the the president could look into the eyes of every single student graduating and know that they exhibited interfaith values? That would be incredible. To know that every student had been exposed to positive experiences with other faith traditions and would continue to be leaders and preachers in the future.
Eboo addressed the issue of religious differences by saying that there are four ways to deal with them. The first is a Bubble of Isolation. We can bubble ourselves within our own faith traditions and cover our ears from the views of other religions. The second approach is a Barrier of Division. We can acknowledge that others worship differently than us and use that difference to separate ourselves from those people. The third is a Bomb of Destruction. If you turn on the news or read the newspaper, you will notice that every single day people use faith as a means of violence. Do you ever notice that these suicide bombers are always between 18-24 years old? This isn’t a coincidence. The extremist groups are targeting the youth. They are brainwashing kids from an early age to view differences in religion with hatred and hostility. The fourth method of dealing with religious differences is a Bridge of Cooperation. This is the way we wish to deal with all sorts of religious conflict/difference. In order to work together for the common good not only as a country but as a human race, it is vital for us to deal properly with differences in faith/worship. World peace is the ultimate goal. Al-Qaeda is our enemy. For every meeting we hold for interfaith prosperity and world peace, there are five meetings occurring throughout the world to promote wars and violence based off of religion. Let me make this clear, we are not competing on neutral ground. They are winning right now. It is our job to spread messages of love and cooperation through interfaith dialogue. Through our words and actions we must work and encourage others to work towards making religious differences into a Bridge of Cooperation.
One of the coolest moments of the day was when Eboo gave a shout out to me and Nate. I will never forget it. The first thing he said when he got up there was that he was gonna blow us up on twitter (he pointed to us- in the front row) because he was mad inspired by us. I couldn’t even believe it. It was a dream. After he spoke Nate and I waited in line to talk to him. He is such a incredible human being. I need a poster of him to hang up in my bedroom. He is hero of mine. Nate and I also got a picture with him. Pictures last forever. I will never forget it.
I took so much out of this experience. After hearing Eboo speak, we had a break in which everyone walked around, spoke to each other, and grabbed muffins or juice. I can’t tell you how good it felt to have people pat me and Nate on the back and say, you guys are incredible. There were random people who we had never met before that came up and starting talking to us. The quality of the people at this small get together/conference was out of this world. I mean it was just phenomenal. I was in awe. There was one girl in particular that stood out to me. Her name is Julie Singer. She is about 25-30 years old. She approached me, introduced herself, and asked me about visiting Kenya. She was very intrigued and she took me by surprise when she said, I’m fluent in Swahili. I go, WHATTTTTTTTT! Immediately my jaw dropped and my perspective of this guy just went out of the roof. I was fascinated to learn that she minored in African studies and has traveled to several countries in Africa. But for her to be fluent in Swahili, the language spoken in Kenya, that is just too perfect. I said Teach me. She said, I would love to. I was also surprised to hear from her that Swahili isn’t really that difficult of a language to learn. And she told me, You will be surprised how impressed the Kenyans will be when you open your mouth and speak their language. She said they will absolutely love you. So I got her card and I may email her to set up a time for her to teach me how to form some sentences in Swahili. I cannot wait! In my head I can picture myself standing in front of a classroom of students and speaking a paragraph in Swahili (which I memorized) to just blow them away. I want to do that this summer so badly! And Julie Singer will help me get there.
One more thing that I learned is to not judge people. From first glance, and from first impression, I was a little skeptical of Julie. When I first shook her hand, and smelled her cigarette breath which encompassed me, I thought of her in not the nicest way. But after talking to her, I realized that judging a person before you get to know them is such a shame. Because boy i would’ve missed out on an incredible girl in Julie Singer. It is such a lesson to be learned. It is so easy for us to form opinions in our heads of a person based off of appearance when it is the personality that really matters. So I challenge myself from this point forwards to take the time to get to know each person that I can. The person who will touch our hearts and really make an impact on our lives will often be the person we least expect to.
Thank you Julie for teaching me about love. you were a stranger to me and only five minutes later, I felt I had known you for many years. The power of love is remarkable
