Elmhurst on Being: Dr. Paul Parker

I was able to sit down with Dr. Paul Parker, chair of the Religion Department at Elmhurst, as part “Elmhurst on Being”, and talk about his faith identity and his views on religious pluralism and interfaith work. Dr. Parker’s area of specialization is Christian theological ethics, but he teaches broadly across the field of religious studies.

Elmhurst on Being is a new series of short video conversations with prominent members of the Elmhurst College community, in which they talk about their faith or philosophical identity and thoughts on religious pluralism and interfaith cooperation. If you have a suggestion about a member of our community you would like to see featured, please leave a comment below!

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Help! My campus isn’t multi-faith!

Elmhurst College Chapel

Things I didn’t think about when applying to colleges: the party atmosphere, proximity to grocery stores, the importance of a fabulous library, whether the sidewalks are heated (Elmhurst’s are!), and a plethora of other things…including the religious make up of the campus. I didn’t know, coming to college, I would expand so far beyond my 17 year-old Lutheran-youth-group-church-nerd-self in acting on my beliefs and convictions regarding social change and faith-based organizing; I didn’t consider that I might want to attend a college with more religious diversity (or heck, diversity in general). I don’t know that I even thought about religious diversity in much earnest until, in my first week of college, someone invited me to Spiritual Life Council and I went because they did service work.

Elmhurst is 42% Roman Catholic and 21% Protestant, with 29% of our student body “Other, not affiliated, not reporting”, we have all of five active student organizations centered around a religious identity (out of more than 100 clubs and organizations), and yes, sometimes that makes interfaith cooperation an up-hill battle-

Reflections on the journey of a (F)a(i)theist: CRU and SSA

Mr. Stedman speaking with students following the lecture

Elmhurst College is in the middle of a year focused on building interfaith cooperation, hosting speakers and events around the theme of “Still Speaking: Conversations on Faith“. Last week the Spiritual Life Council, a student interfaith group, and the Better Together Campaign brought Mr. Chris Stedman, Interfaith and Community Service Fellow for the Humanist Chaplaincy at Harvard and blogger at NonProphet Status. Mr. Stedman met with small groups throughout the day, exploring the role of the non-religious in the collegiate institution; in the evening, Mr. Stedman presented the lecture “(F)a(i)theist: How One Atheist Learned to Stop Hating Religion and Became an Interfaith Activist” . He shared his journey of coming to identify as a Secular Humanist and his engagement in the interfaith movement. In this blog, leaders of Campus Crusade for Christ and Secular Students Association reflect on what they heard in Mr. Stedman’s address- these students are participating with the Better Together Campaign at Elmhurst College, working to affect hunger and poverty in DuPage County by working on projects with the People’s Resource Center.

On an Identity

This blog was written by Mark Wolfe, IFYC Fellow at the University of Indianapolis. You may read Mark’s blog at uindyinterfaithforum.wordpress.com and follow Mark on Twitter @InterfaithWolfe.

When the comedian Brian O’Sullivan visited the University of Indianapolis, one of the greatest musical hits that he played during the night was called “I’m a WASP,” a parody of the famous Black Eyed Peas song called “Imma Be.”  Throughout the entirety of the song, O’Sullivan listed many of the stereotypes involving WASPs (White Anglo-Saxon Protestants), the most populous group in the United States.  While the majority of Americans are still WASPs, there is an increasing diversity, both racial and religious, that one cannot ignore.  When 48% of Los Angeles County is Hispanic and millions of Muslims inhabit this country, WASPs are not alone anymore.

I am a male WASP. From prior understandings of power in America, I would be at the plateau.  While gender equality is slowly becoming a reality, the pay scale between men and women continues in inequality.  While racial equality is slowly becoming a reality, prejudice and stereotypes continue to cause discrimination.  While I rarely contemplate the nature of my privileges, I will not deny the fact that some of my success may be attributed to my status as a male WASP.  Frankly, I have never known the sting of discrimination based on my identity.

Welcome Back!

WELCOME BACK ELMHURST!

From a long J-term away from campus programming, I hope you are revived and ready to show ourselves and the world that we are Better Together.

In the next few days I will be making sure this website is up to date for spring semester, including updating pages, adding links, and starting to post blogs that were written over break and J-term.

I have started posting more videos on the EC Interfaith youtube site, including the first in a series of interviews titled “Elmhurst on Being”. If you are interested in being interviewed for this series, let me know! Email me at nelsonr1128[at]net[dot]elmhurst[dot]edu or leave a comment below!

Remember, Elmhurst Interfaith is all over the web, not just here, but on:
Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/user/ECInterfaith
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Elmhurst-College-Interfaith/161391713877881
this Blog: ecinterfaith.wordpress.com
and you can follow me, Rae, on Twitter at @PhosphrescntRae where I tweet about interfaith and social justice matters (as well as the odd goofy thing from the internet)

So, get ready, this is going to be a great semester of helping the hungry and exploring faith!

-Rae