Although Saint Louis University is a Jesuit institution, not all students at SLU are Catholic. The Interfaith Alliance (IFA), an organization made up of students who identify with a variety of faith traditions, is hosting Interfaith Week from Oct. 2 through Oct. 8 to celebrate the diverse religious traditions of the campus community.
Nipun Gupta, the president of IFA, said that the organization started in 2009 after she contributed to an article for One World, a social justice magazine publication at the University. Gupta said that her article, which contrasted religious pluralism and religious extremism, inspired her to organize the IFA and spread the concept of religious pluralism to her peers.
“Ten years ago, interfaith work was done by older people – age-old pastors and rabbis sitting around tables and making commitments to treat each other with respect,” Gupta said, “But that youth component was really lacking.”
Gupta said that the majority of people committing atrocities around religious extremism are within 16 to 30 years old. By creating a youth-based movement at the University, Gupta said that she hopes to combat religious extremism.
“A lot of what IFA dialogues about are shared values of service and shared experiences – things that anyone, regardless of their religious tradition, can come together and talk about,” Gupta said.
IFA held an event on Oct. 4 called “Speed Faithing,” in which participants of various faiths came together to discuss commonalities between religions. One group of participants explored the similarities of the Golden Rule: to treat one’s neighbor as one treats oneself. Participants shared stories from different religious scripts that illustrated this role.
Lauren Segelhorst, a Christian, said that she originally did not want to share the parable of the Good Samaritan with her group because she thought that everyone would have already heard the story.
Segelhorst said she was surprised when her group members were unfamiliar with the story of the New Testament in the Gospel of Luke, in which a Jewish traveler was beaten and robbed and left to die, only to be saved by a Samaritan after being ignored by several passersby.
The story is unique in that Jewish people and Samaritans had generally despised one another, and in this parable the Samaritan treats his neighbor as he would like to be treated.
“This was Jesus’ way of saying that everyone is your neighbor and that everyone should be treated equally,” Segelhorst said.
The IFA invited the SLU community to the Great Issues Committee’s event on Oct. 5, in which Acts of Faith author Eboo Patel spoke. Patel is the founder of Interfaith Youth Core, a national organization that seeks to spread religious pluralism among young people. Gupta said that Patel’s mission coincides with the mission of the IFA.
On Wednesday, Oct. 6, the IFA held a workshop with Interfaith Youth Core trainers. The University has started a chapter of the Interfaith Youth Core on the campus with the intent to spread common ideas of service and faith among students.
, Ali Abunimah will be featured as the guest speaker for Interfaith Week on Oct. 7 at 7 p.m. in Kelly Auditorium. He is the author of One Country: A Bold Proposal to End the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict and the founder of the Electronic Intifada, an online publication. The event is sponsored by Solidarity with Palestine, another student-run organization on campus.
Interfaith Week closes with Garba Raas Bhangra Night, an evening of Indian dancing hosted by the Indian Students Association. Students are invited to attend at 7 p.m. on Oct. 8 in the Bush Student Center Ballrooms to learn about components of religion and to learn basic Indian dance moves.
Gupta, a practicing Hindu, said that she and her friends founded the IFA when they noticed that many of them were of different religious traditions, and she said that those differences have helped her to grow in her own faith.
“My roommate, for example, is Christian and I have gone to church services with her and she has gone to Hindu prayer services with me,” Gupta said. “We have learned to much about each other’s traditions and it has helped both of us to develop our own spirituality.”
Gupta said that going to college gave her the opportunity to question and grow deeper in her Hindu faith without guidance from her family. Although SLU is a Jesuit institution, Gupta said that the University’s universal mission of social justice and service for others is what appealed her to the campus.
“One of the reasons behind coming to SLU is that it is rooted in certain values and certain principles that are important to me,” Gupta said. “Other people here, regardless of their faith backgrounds are drawn to SLU because it has those principles that underline everything we do here.”
