LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY catvincent)

From the ever-superb Slacktivist, this timely post:

'Faithfully Liberal posted an interview with Eboo Patel, founder of the Interfaith Youth Core. I hadn't heard of either Patel or his group before, so the interview provided a good introduction.

I particularly liked this distinction, from Patel. The "faith line," he says:

... does not separate Muslims from Christians, or Jews from Hindus, but rather religious totalitarians from pluralists. A religious totalitarian is someone who seeks to suffocate those who are different from them. ... A pluralist is someone who seeks to live with people who are different, be enriched by them, and peacefully coexist in the world together.

This talk of living with, of peacefully coexisting, and particularly of being "enriched by" people of other faiths and perspectives would not sit well with many of the fundamentalists in the church and school I attended as a child...'

Pluralism is as good a name as any for the spirit we need to foster, the core concept that keeps this group working and the only solution I can see to a small planet with so many different opinions.