Lots of Talking

Interfaith dialogue. Intercultural living. Interreligious understanding. Harmonious coexistence. What do these words even mean? As a student attempting to get a well rounded liberal arts education, you take a lot of classes about broad ideas and principles which are put up on a pedestal as ideals for societies to aspire towards. You do a lot of talking and theorizing and postulating and as some would say, bullshitting, but it can be hard to find a forum to actually put all these ideas into practice. I think our house has been making strides toward that goal this year.

Our first round of programming has consisted of dialogue sessions about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Every week, a small group of people get together to do some more talking. But instead of the academic setting of a classroom, the backdrop is our living room. In lieu of a lecture and debate, we have informal conversation about our opinions. In the past, in classes I have taken on this subject, it was easy to find moderate viewpoints. People were interested in learning about both the narratives and engaging in informed academic discussion. When I went to the Middle East for a semester, it was the opposite. Everybody was on a side and there was little room for a middle ground. I guess it makes a huge difference when you're actually living through a conflict versus observing it from afar. Now that I'm back at Georgetown, I'm trying to reconcile both ways of looking at things.

That is what I think our dialogue sessions are attempting to achieve: the expression of opinions in a safe space without watering them down but with the goal of learning from each other.

Berkley Round Table Discussion

I got an email from Georgetown's Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs; they have been interviewing randomly-selected members of the class of 2011 since we were freshman. Plied with the promise of a $30 gift card to Amazon (in addition to genuine curiosity!), I agreed to sit down with six or so of my peers last Thursday to discuss religion in the Georgetown community.

The five girls and one guy at the table all started off by introducing themselves, and we all identified ourselves religiously. This group, for the most part, was Christian-affiliated or not religiously inclined at all. The first few questions the moderator asked were more personal: how have your religious views shifted since freshman year, if at all? How many friends do you have who ascribe to different religions from your own? I was curious to hear everyone's response to the second question, given that I'm living in the Melting Pot. I was shocked to hear, though, that everyone else at the table said that all their friends were almost uniformly the same religion as their own: "It's sort of just easier, or something."

Then the conversation turned to wider subjects about our school: How open religiously is Georgetown? How comfortable do you feel on campus given your religion? What do you think should change? I appreciated that everyone was very sensitive and respectful in answering these questions, and that there was a general attitude of maturity. Nevertheless, I was in no way surprised to hear everyone gang up, however respectfully, on the Catholic and Jesuit identity of Georgetown. They sometimes did so with little understanding for the other side. For example, critique was offered of Georgetown for not "supporting the partners of gay professors invited to teach at Georgetown." What this means is that Georgetown, like all Catholic-affiliated private organizations, such as Catholic hospitals, will not cover the health benefits of a gay partner to a professor as they would cover health benefits for a marital spouse (not that it won't "support," whatever that means, a gay partner). Were it to, it would lose whatever benefits it receives from the Catholic Church and potential tax status under the IRS code as a Catholic-affiliated organization; it would have to essentially revoke its status as "Catholic."

I explained this in the discussion, and I was heard out politely. But one person did make the comment, "Well, is it really all that important for it to be that 'Catholic'? There must be some compromise." I pointed out that compromise is offered at the point that the student gains entry to the school: come and attend a Catholic school, and get a fine education at a well-respected school but not demand that the school simply stop being Catholic for your sake, or don't come here. It's not meant to be harsh, and if anything, Georgetown has welcomed more and more diversity on its campus. But the same way students are asked to be tolerant and respectful of one another's religions, can we not also show some respect for the religion of the school also? Maybe there are only a handful of us, but some of us came to Georgetown at least in part because it is Catholic. And frankly, it frustrates me that my peers are ever-willing to be respectful of my right to be Catholic, but not of my school's right to be Catholic.