Pluralism in Practice: Case Studies of Leadership in a Religiously Diverse America (Elinor Pierce & Diana Eck) - A Review
PLURALISM IN PRACTICE: Case Studies of Leadership in a Religiously Diverse America. Edited and written by Elinor J. Pierce. Afterword by Diana L. Eck. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2023. Xix + 244 pages.
Whether some in our midst are
willing to admit it or not, the United States is religiously diverse. Christianity
may remain the largest religious group in the United States, but even
Christianity itself is diverse. In my immediate neighborhood, there is a Roman
Catholic Church, a Romanian Pentecostal Church, a Serbian Orthodox Church, and
two evangelical churches, one of which offers services for several ethnic/language
groups. Not far away are Chaldean, Syrian Orthodox, Coptic, a Korean United
Methodist Church, a mosque, a synagogue, and a large Hindu Temple. That’s just
a few of the possibilities that lie within my city. As you can see, here in my community
the diversity runs far beyond traditional Protestant, Catholic, and Jewish.
That makes some people rather nervous. My community is rather diverse, but we’re
not unique. This diversity provides both challenges and opportunities for our
communities. If our nation is increasingly pluralistic, how do we put this into
practice?
Elinor Pierce, who is the research
director and lead case writer for Harvard University’s Pluralism Project, has
gathered together case studies that describe for us some of the ways in which
pluralism exists and is practiced in the United States. The result of her work
is titled Pluralism in Practice: Case Studies of Leadership in a Religiously Diverse America. The Pluralism Project is an effort that is housed at
Harvard and is directed by Diana Eck.
Pluralism in Practice offers
the reader case studies that retell the stories of the ways religious diversity
works in America. Many of these cases focus on how faith communities have
encountered and overcome resistance, often by Christian groups who fear their
presence in their communities. While the case studies remind us of the many
challenges faced by faith communities, especially those who do not represent
the majority faith, they also offer words of hope. In a brief foreword to the
book, Diana Eck defines pluralism for us. According to Eck, "Pluralism is
not diversity alone, but the energetic engagement with diversity" (p.
vii). Religious diversity is a given. It's here among us. It might be more
present in my community, which has a large foreign-born population, many of
whom come from Asia, than in some others, such as the community where I grew
up, the diversity is present. As for pluralism, as defined by Eck, that is not
a given. Rather, as Eck suggests, "it is an achievement" (p. vii). When
it comes to diversity, tolerance might be a starting point, but it isn’t enough.
Tolerance doesn't require much from us, and it leaves in place stereotypes,
half-truths, and fear that can lead to division and even violence. Embracing pluralism
involves actively seeking "understanding across lines of difference"
(p. vii). That isn’t easy because it requires much from us. What we need to
move toward embracing pluralism are resources, such as the case studies found
in Pierce’s Pluralism in Practice, which is designed to help us move
across those lines of difference toward greater understanding.
All but one of the case studies included
in Pluralism in Practice are based on extensive research and interviews.
Only the "Fliers at the Peace Parade" case study is based on
secondary sources. They are designed to lead us toward a decision in favor of
embracing pluralism. The goal here is action on the part of the reader and not
mere abstract reflection. With this in mind, each of the case studies is
divided into two parts. Part A introduces the problem, person, and place that
defines the case. Following the presentation of the case, we pause for a set of
questions that help us reflect on the case. Then Part B offers a discussion of
how the case was resolved. Finally, the writers provide a postscript or update
so we can see how things developed. Again, the goal is to inspire us to engage
the religious diversity present in our community, especially through interfaith
dialogue. The cases discussed in the book emerged over fifteen years, running
from the late 1990s up until 2022. Unfortunately, Pierce points out that the
postscript reveals a darker context, where a polarized political and media
landscape has raised concerns about the future of democracy in America, along
with the rising tide of hate crimes "against communities minoritized by
race and religion." In other words, there is still much work to be done.
That has become abundantly clear as war in the Middle East is again with us,
leading both to anti-Semitic attacks and increased Islamophobia.
Among the organizations discussed
in Pluralism in Practice is one that I once helped lead, even if I wasn’t
involved in its founding or the events leading up to its founding. That case
study involves a response by parts of the faith community where I have lived
and served over the past fifteen years to an act of exclusion related to a local
observance of the National Day of Prayer. The central figure in that case is a
close friend. So, I am as the reviewer of this book an engaged participant in
the practice of pluralism and I do so as an ordained minister who is fully
committed to my Christian faith.
When it comes to the case studies,
Pierce has divided them into six parts, each having two individual cases. Part
1 is titled "Constructing Religious Diversity." The two cases
discussed in this section focus on a crisis over the presence of Christmas
trees at Sea-Tac Airport (Seattle/Tacoma). This first case involved a
traditional practice of putting up Christmas trees in the airport terminal, a
practice that was challenged by a Jewish group that wanted to add a Menorah,
which led to the removal of the trees, followed by an outcry, and ultimately a
solution that might not be perfect, but moved things forward. The second case involved
a festival of religious faiths developed by Brad Braxton, then with the Smithsonian,
that was to take place on the National Mall in 2023. The goal was to highlight
the diverse religious traditions in the nation. The outcome here was largely
positive.
Part 2 is titled "Religion in
the American City." The first of the two cases is titled "Trouble in
Troy." This case involves the experiences of a Hindu woman, my friend
Padma Kuppa, who sought to participate in a National Day of Prayer event hosted
each year at city hall. Though she had the support of the mayor, the planning
team opposed her inclusion, arguing that it was a Christian event. As a result,
the City Council rebuffed her request. When some other members of the local faith
community heard about her experience, they rallied around her and planned a
separate event. Ultimately that event led to the founding of the Troy
Interfaith Group. Three years after its founding, I moved to Troy and joined
the group, eventually serving in leadership for a time. Interestingly, some
years later, Padma Kuppa, the main protagonist in the story, would get elected
to the Michigan House of Representatives, representing the community that once
rejected her participation in a National Day of Prayer event. As you can imagine, this case is close to my
heart. The second case in this section is titled "A Call to Prayer." It
recounts the efforts by the local Muslim community in Hamtramck, Michigan, a
city near Troy, which was once a predominantly Polish community but now has a
Muslim plurality, with large Bangladeshi, Bosnian, and Yemeni populations. The
question here deals with the request of a local mosque to broadcast the Islamic
call to prayer, which takes place five times a day. They based their request on
the presence of bells rung through the day at a Roman Catholic Church across
the street. That was resolved amicably, but it wasn’t the only issue arising in
the community. Later a question was raised about the presence of a pride flag
at city hall, which was opposed by the same community that sought to gain
permission for the call to prayer. The situation in Hamtramck illustrates the
complexity of diversity and pluralism.
In Part 3, titled "Fault Lines
in Interfaith Relations," we read first a case about tension present in a
small city in Massachusetts when a synagogue was to host an interfaith event.
The problem was that the synagogue had posted a sign that declared "We
Support Israel." The question was whether this sign might offend Muslims
in the community as they attended the event and whether it should be removed
before the event. The youth leading the event believed the sign would prove to
be a problem. The questions raised by the youth led to a fruitful conversation
about the Israeli-Palestinian issue. As they pondered the question, they were
able to offer an interfaith iftar meal that got conversations going. The second
case study involved "Fliers at a Peace Parade." This case study,
which is the only one based solely on secondary sources, involved fliers passed
out by a fundamentalist Christian pastor at a parade sponsored by the local
Sikh community that took place in the Central Valley of California. Here the
question has to do with the challenge of proselytism, especially in contexts
like a celebration planned and carried out by a minority faith community. The
message here is that interfaith work should not involve proselytism.
Part 4 deals with what has become a
regular point of contention across the country—the building of mosques in our
communities. Part 4 is titled "Mosques in the American Landscape.” It
offers us two cases dealing with resistance that emerged in two communities where
the construction of mosques was proposed. The first case study explores the
debates over the permitting of a mosque in a small Illinois town. The second
case study deals with the efforts to build the Islamic Center after 9-11 near the
site of the Twin Towers attacks. While in the former case, the mosque was built
though it took a lot of courage by the mayor and involved attempts to bring
clergy into the conversation to help answer questions, the second mosque in New
York was never built. What is important in these two cases is that they
illustrate what has become a regular point of resistance to religious diversity
taking place across the country.
Part 5 is titled “Interfaith and
Multifaith Challenges.” The two cases in this section take us in a different
direction from many of the earlier ones, which involved dealing with community resistance
to diversity. Here it is a more internal conversation. The first case study
involves the question taken up by a synagogue as to whether a woman who was
born to a Jewish family but was now a Buddhist leader could become a member of
a local synagogue. The question is what it might mean to be both Jewish and
Buddhist. In part, the question of membership had to do with the possibility of
the woman's son receiving his bar mitzvah. The issue wasn't the bar mitzvah but
the question of being members of two religious communities. The second case
involved an invitation to the synagogue after the Tree of Life shootings in
Pittsburg for an interfaith service. The question here had to do with whether
that was the time to open the synagogue to the larger community. Despite
concerns, a particular synagogue offered an interfaith service that was well
received.
The final set of cases is discussed
in Part 6 under the title: "Navigating Crisis and Change." The first
case, titled "A Quandary in Queens," involved a case of Hindus
leaving offerings in the waters and beaches at Jamaica Bay in Queens. The
question here involved ecology, what makes for trash, and religious rights and
freedoms. We learn that the Hindu community was divided over the issue of
whether they should cease to leave their offerings, which were washing up on beaches.
As a response, discussions took place as to what eco-friendly practices might
look like. The final case titled "Forty-Nine Days" involved the
situation faced by Asian American Communities after the COVID-19 lockdowns and
the emergence of anti-Asian sentiment and activities, which included attacks on
Buddhist temples. How might these be addressed effectively and appropriately?
Each of the case studies discussed
above offers readers opportunities to have deep and meaningful discussions
dealing with increasing our ability to embrace (or not) the religious diversity
present in the United States. Do we resist it? Tolerate it? Or engage it? As
you might imagine the people involved in the Pluralism Project recommend the
third approach, engagement. It’s a position I would embrace as well. The hope
here is that the case studies offered in Pluralism in Practice will serve
as a foundation in efforts to develop informed interfaith leaders who will actively
pursue the kind of pluralism suggested by the authors. Even as Diana Eck defined
pluralism in her foreword, she offers an afterword to the book titled "A
Pedagogy of Pluralism." In this afterword, Eck offers her reflections on
the cases and their usefulness in teaching interfaith dialogue to embrace
pluralism. That is a major purpose of this book—teaching religious leaders who
will pursue religious pluralism.
Elinor Pierce’s Pluralism in Practice is an important contribution to the development of leaders who engage
in interfaith work. This is work that is increasingly important as the nation
grows more diverse. There are strong currents of resistance to this diversity
on the part of people who fear being overwhelmed by this diversity. There is a
fear running through the nation that the cultural foundations of the nation are
in jeopardy, those cultural foundations are said to be Christian. While there
is this resistance rooted in fear, for those of us who have been engaged in
this work for any amount of time, we have discovered that our lives and our faith
experiences have been enriched. It is my belief, as one who has been involved
in this work for many years, that Pluralism in Practice will prove extremely
helpful as we navigate what has become choppy waters, where arguments for religious
liberty and freedom have become in many cases self-serving and exclude the
beliefs and practices of others. May we choose a different path, one that
embraces pluralism rather than resisting it.
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