Our Annual Holiday Letter

Dear Friends of UCM,

Really, I’d planned on a witty and entertaining holiday fundraiser, like last year and the year before. I thought I’d write a takeoff on “The Twelve Days of Christmas.” “On the first day of Christmas, my interns (or maybe donors) gave to me. . . .” But I never got that one written, and I think it’s because there’s something I need to say more.

We’re not always clear with you about what we do here at UCM, and why. You know a lot about us--about Thursday Supper and Saturday Lunch, about the alternative winter and spring break service/learning trips, about our stream cleanups and community service days and our interfaith organizing and community-building and our ministry to the LGBTQ community and our public witness on social justice issues. And I know you care that we feed the people we feed, and help the people we help, and clean up the things we clean up, and say the things we say. But sometimes we give you the idea that those things are at the heart of what we do, when really they’re the means to an end. And the end is . . . well, it seems silly when I write it out like this, but the end is to save the world.

First, last, and always, we are a campus ministry. And the students we serve have grown up and are coming of age in a world in need of fixing, one plagued by massive economic inequality and injustice, environmental havoc, and violent discord between people of different faiths. They have every reason to despair, to concern themselves with their own survival and to disregard the plight of others--and yet they yearn for the chance, and the spiritual energy and discipline, to make a difference. What we really do at UCM is give them that chance, over and over again. And over and over again, they’re transformed by the experience. Honestly? You and I will not be around long enough to fix everything that’s broken. Any fixing that gets done will get done by people, young now, who have felt this kind of transformation, who have learned how to connect the life they’re choosing for themselves with the things they believe in their hearts. For almost 60 years UCM has been a part of transformations like that.

At the same time, the institutional expressions of our various faith traditions--the denominations, associations, and other structures that support our various communities and movements--face dwindling resources, increased costs associated with their various ministries, and a suspicion among many younger people that the institutions themselves are becoming increasingly irrelevant. Often over the last decade or two these institutions have responded by diverting funds away from campus ministry--especially from ecumenical and interfaith ministries that aren’t explicitly identified with a specific denomination. So that chunk of our annual income has been shrinking--and we can expect it to keep shrinking.

This change in our funding stream is coinciding with two other changes--one you know about, and one you may not:

Change #1: The global economic climate. We share your pain on this one; like you, UCM is trying to make do with less, and like many of you we find ourselves faced with the possibility that we’ll simply have to DO less. But then there’s

Change #2: Despite the money thing, the relevance and effectiveness of UCM’s ministry is growing by leaps and bounds, more every year and especially this year. Whether you measure it by numbers of students participating in our programs, depth of their participation, or awareness of our ministry and mission in the campus community, UCM continues to make a difference here--and the difference we make continues to grow!

To borrow a question from our Interfaith Impact meetings, though -- “so what?” For me the “so what?” is a two-part challenge from me to you.

Part #1: Think about UCM’s world-saving mission, our growing impact on the OU and Athens communities and our transformative influence on the students we meet. Decide how much that amazing work is worth to you. And support UCM to a degree that matches your commitment to the work we do.

Part #2: Help us to get to know the people you know who don’t know us. We need to reach more people with the good news of our ministry here at OU, and the best way to do that is to enlist you, who already believe in what we do, as our goodwill ambassador. Pick a few friends you think would feel as you do about us, and talk to them about why you support us. Encourage them to give us a call, drop by, or make a donation online through our website--we’d love to meet them!

Thanks to our generous donors, UCM has been blessed with meaningful work to do, and the means to do it, for nearly 60 years. Please consider making a contribution now to help us continue our world-saving work. UCM is a registered 501(C)(3) non-profit organization--your contributions are tax-deductible and will finance operating, facilities, and programming expenses. Thank you for your generous ongoing support--we couldn’t do it without you!

With best wishes from the whole UCM family--

Rev. Evan Young, Campus Minister

Better Together

So, we're planning this Interfaith Peace Walk for the 10th anniversary of 9/11. And we send out a press release, and a reporter contacts me and says he's doing a story about the declining level of compassion and unity in the years since 9/11 brought us all together, and can he ask me a couple of questions? Here's how the exchange went:

Him: Why does it take a tragedy to bring us all together?

Me: We humans are creatures of compassion. We see another’s suffering, we recognize it as in some sense our own, and we respond with kindness, concern, respect, and generosity. This is built into us, it’s how we are able to do community. But most of the time we’re distracted from our common humanity—we feel separate, we think our suffering is special, we don’t consider the suffering of others legitimate. Until a tragedy strikes that we all in some way experience—through news coverage, through personally feeling the tragedy’s impact or knowing someone who feels it, whatever. In the days following 9/11 we recognized each other as suffering the same pain, fear, and loss, and our compassion took over. In time we went back to feeling separate and not well understood, and we returned to feeling alienated from each other. We forgot that common thread that unites us.

Him: What happened to all that unity [we felt in the days following the attacks?

Me: Well, see above. But there’s more. Because the stories we hear and see most often are about difference, division, and conflict—how Republicans disagree with Democrats, how Muslims hate Christians or Jews, how the poor resent the rich, how the rich think the poor want a free ride, and on and on. Stories of unity, of bridge-building across persistent divisions, don’t get the same kind of attention—even though they’re happening every day, in communities all over the country. Take our Interfaith Peace Walk—and Better Together, the year-long interfaith community building campaign of which the walk is a part. The walk and the campaign tell a story of all kinds of people working together to make the campus and the community better--and judging by the numbers and enthusiasm of the people who want to participate, it’s a compelling story. But I’d be very surprised if we make the cover of Newsweek.
 
I liked my answers, so I thought I'd share them with you. If you like them, you should think about getting involved with our Better Together campaign at Ohio University. This is our year.


-Rev Evan Young

Reflections of a UCM Intern

For those of you who don’t know me, my name is Rachel Hyden, I’m a senior at Ohio University studying public relations and I’m the PR intern for United Campus Ministry. If you follow UCM on Facebook or Twitter, you probably see my updates, and if you walk through campus and see flyers for events, well, those are mine too. My duty is to make UCM visible to the public so all of the Athens and Ohio University community will know just how hard UCM works for spiritual growth, social justice and community service.

Recently UCM has partnered with Ohio University to take on President Obama’s Interfaith and Community Service Campus Challenge, a nation-wide call of action to advance interfaith cooperation and community service in higher education. The campaign will focus on organizing around the issues of water security and poverty, and I am fortunate enough to be involved as a student leader in charge of water security.

Because I am in a leadership position, I, along with UCM’s Campus Minister Evan Young, will be attending the Interfaith Leadership Institute (ILI) in Washington D.C. from July 25 to July 28. The Institute is sponsored by Interfaith Youth Core, a nonprofit organization supporting religious pluralism on campuses across the country. The purpose of the ILI is to equip students, staff and faculty to lead an interfaith movement on their universities campus. Since Ohio University is committing a year to interfaith service, this Leadership Institute will prepare me to help lead this movement.

            As I said before, my position in the campus challenge is as a student leader for water security. I am very enthusiastic when it comes to clean water advocacy, and am genuinely excited that I was chosen for this role in the campaign. I’ll be putting my passion into action by organizing stream cleanups in Southeast Ohio as well as educational events focused on the importance of clean water. A good portion of my agenda for the challenge will be focused on horizontal hydraulic fracturing, a method of oil and gas drilling that can contaminate ground water, essentially ruining our right to clean drinking water.

            My interest in hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, stems from my work as a Clean Water Fellow with the Ohio Sierra Club. I was awarded the fellowship in mid May and have been working on the issue ever since. I do quite a lot of research and even more educational advocacy. I find it highly important that this community be properly informed of the dangers this method of drilling poses, and have made it my utmost priority as a Clean Water Fellow to do my very best at securing clean water for my community.

I am so thankful that UCM has been open to my work with the Sierra Club and that I’ve been given this opportunity to lead a movement according to my passion for water security. Sometimes I can’t believe how things have turned out, just a year ago I had no idea what I was doing with my life, but now, having had experience working for social justice and water security, I know I have found where I truly belong. 

UCM Social Justice Awards!

The Board of Directors of United Campus Ministry is pleased to announce the recipients of the 2011 UCM Social Justice Awards! Join us in a ceremony and celebration of their activism and efforts to promote peace and justice in our community and beyond.

Special music by Divine Covering OU gospel choir. Refreshments will be provided and the event is free and open to all!

Congratulations to our 2011 recipients:

Appalachian Peace and Justice Network for conflict resolution and alternatives to military service education in public schools.

Future Women of Appalachia, an OU student group, for empowering girls and young women in Appalachia.

Good Earth Farm for sustainable agriculture and food security.

Elisa Young for anti-coal and environmental justice activism.

And Bill Sams (posthumous) for his commitment to workers’ rights.

The Kuhre Griesinger Lifetime Achievement Award is presented to an individual or organization that has received at least one UCM Social Justice Award and demonstrates a high level of sustained social justice activism. This years award goes to Dr. Francine Childs for a lifetime of advocacy and activism in civil rights, nonviolent social change, women and children, and education.

To Celebrate or to Weep?

Osama bin Laden is dead. Shot in the head by Americans during a raid on the house where he was staying in Pakistan. And I'm challenged by my faith.

My own Unitarian Universalist tradition embraces the inherent worth and dignity of every person. And teaches justice, equity, and compassion in human relations. 

I feel these convictions in my heart, and yet I don't know where in my heart to find compassion for this man; I don't know what justice would look like given what he did; I struggle to see the worth in a life spent sowing hatred and plotting destruction.

The Christian tradition in which my own is rooted counsels the believer to "love your enemy, and pray for those who persecute you" (Matthew 5). 

It's no great reach for me to pray for the souls and the families of those who died in the attacks this man planned, and in the compassionate and heroic response to those attacks. I suspect that hating him and the others who executed his plans is beyond me—but I'm not sure it should be, and I'm a little embarrassed not to find that hatred in my heart. On the other hand, I'm not sure I can find my way all the way to loving him.

The Jewish tradition from which Christianity springs says, "Do not rejoice when your enemies fall, and do not let your heart be glad when they stumble" (Proverbs 24). And at the core of that tradition, in the Ten Commandments, we are told, "You shall not kill."

I have never believed that I would be able, in a life-or-death situation, to kill another person. But I have never been in such a situation. And I can love and extend compassion toward those who, face to face with him, found it in them to kill Osama bin Laden.

How then to respond to this event? I can imagine weeping–in sadness, and in relief. Sadness because any death we deal out to any one of us, no matter who, diminishes us all; relief because the specter of fear and harm and mayhem bin Laden personified has been lifted from us all. I can imagine prayer—because a soul in the kind of turmoil this event has produced must give voice to its anguish, must seek solace, must frame in words its yearning for understanding and guidance and order. And I can imagine asking forgiveness–for bin Laden and for all who prayed for his death; for President Obama who bears the burden of having ordered him killed; for our soldiers who faithfully carried out those orders; for the families of his victims who yearned for revenge; and for all of us who, time after time, lash out in fear and anger when we are hurt, though we know the better course is compassion. I can’t imagine cheering, or celebrating, or pumping my fist or waving a flag.

I understand that as flawed and fallen humans we sometimes feel inevitably compelled to take the life of another. And I understand that the turmoil produced by that compulsion might move us to justify our actions, to proclaim our right to vengeance, to take it upon ourselves to decide what is justice and to mete that out with a lordly hand. But I believe that at such times the best in us is that piece that humbly asks forgiveness for transgressing a divine law we revere but cannot fully embrace. Can we accept that we felt we had to do this, that it goes against what we believe, and that our lot is to live with the consequences? That would be a hopeful sign indeed.

-Rev. Evan Young

Interfaith Cooperation is a Must at Ohio University

Letter to The Post and The Athens News

The White House launched an Interfaith and Community Service Campus Challenge on March 17. President Obama’s address challenged college students and administrators to promote religious pluralism through interfaith service projects on their campuses.

The president cited Ohio University’s interfaith campaign to combat water pollution as an example of work already happening at universities that he hopes to replicate next year at other universities across the country.

OU’s Interfaith Steering Committee, in partnership with the local nonprofit United Campus Ministry, chose to combat the issue of water pollution at the beginning of this year because we believe that access to clean water is a fundamental human right.

In March, we raised a total of $250 for LifeStraws personal water filters to be sent to Haiti, providing about 50 Haitians with clean water for one year.
As part of my yearlong fellowship with the Interfaith Youth Core, I have worked with students who identify with Judaism, Christianity, Islam and Unitarian Universalism.

I have been inspired and deeply moved by their determination to help those impacted by the earthquake in Haiti and to clean up our local streams. Through conversations with each of these students, I have seen that they, like me, draw their inspiration to serve others from their various faith traditions.
It is more important than ever for students to demand religious pluralism and participate in interfaith service projects at OU and at other campuses throughout the nation.

We have heard the voices of intolerance rise in recent months in cases such as the Ground Zero mosque controversy and the shooting of two elderly Sikh men in California in early March.

It is time for us to raise our voices and show the world that those from diverse faith backgrounds can and must work together to promote the common good.
I, along with the rest of the Interfaith Steering Committee, would like to invite you to join us in this effort.

On April 16, we will be completing a stream cleanup with the local nonprofit Rural Action to remediate acid mine drainage practices that have damaged Monday Creek, located in the northwestern part of Athens County.

On April 27, we will be hosting a Better Together Reception to celebrate our work and present opportunities to get involved in the campaign next year. These events are free and open to students of all or no faith traditions. Contact gk184406@ohiou.edu for more information.

This can be our moment. Our work has inspired the president of the United States to show his support for interfaith action. Help us prove we’re better together.

Guru Amrit Khalsa is a senior at Ohio University majoring in journalism. She is completing an intensive yearlong fellowship with the Interfaith Youth Core, an international nonprofit organization that builds mutual respect and pluralism among young people from different religious traditions by empowering them to work together to serve others.

Baker Peace Conference in Name Only

Letter to the Editors of The Post and The Athens News

To the Editor: I must say that as a member of the OU and Athens peace and justice community, I am very disappointed with the theme and speakers of this year's Baker Peace Conference (held last week). Having a peace conference featuring mostly men and representatives and proponents of the military and defense industry is ironic at best and dangerous at worst. Where are the nonviolent peacemakers in your conference line-up? We are out there (and here and everywhere), and the Contemporary History Institute missed yet another opportunity to seriously, and with integrity, promote values and real nonviolent strategies for peace and justice.

You have been given a great opportunity (and the resources) to put on a conference that could work toward undoing militarism and violence and domination, yet you choose to support it through the very themes and voices you chose to showcase. We should be able to look to the annual Baker Peace Conference as a venue for serious academic theory and activist praxis for peace and justice, and sadly this has not been the case. This should be a conference which promotes critical engagement with racism, militarism, sexism, colonization and other oppressive systems so that participants may further our understanding of the roots of conflict and how we might undo these systems at a personal as well as national and global levels.

I hope that the Contemporary History Institute will seriously reflect on their responsibility to the OU and Athens communities and not allow this Orwellian "war is peace" doublethink/speak to continue to dominate the annual Baker Peace Conference. As for me, I ain't gonna study war no more.

Melissa Wales
Executive Director
United Campus Ministry (UCM: Center for Spiritual Growth & Social Justice)
Athens

Preaching Truth to Power

UCM's campus minister, Rev. Evan Young, delivered the opening prayer at the Ohio House of Representatives today (April 5, 2011). "I confess to a certain ambivalence about this," Young said, "because I'm not certain prayer belongs there. But since it is there, I think it's incumbent on me to speak a progressive word of truth to power." Here is the prayer he offered: 

Spirit of Life, source and ground and destination of us all--here we are, in this chamber of power, gathered to do the work of leading your people who live in this great state of Ohio. Those in this chamber have the power to decide and determine what rights and privileges our government will protect and defend, and who qualifies to enjoy those rights and privileges. Who is entitled to a say and who is not concerning the conditions under which workers' labor is bought and sold; who may marry and who may not; what sort of treatment we the people will consider hateful and abusive and who should be protected from such treatment, and how; to what great moral purposes the taxes collected from the people of Ohio should be put. The power concentrated in this chamber is powerfully attractive to those who wish to see their own interests furthered by the decisions made here; so attractive that they bend every effort to ensure that their voices are heard here and their interests are represented here. So, as we begin this session, we pray that the hearts of these representatives who have answered the call to serve be turned ever toward justice. We pray that they be given to understand that the measure of our justice consists in how we treat those who have been pushed to the margins of our society. We pray that they yield not to the temptation to listen only to the voices of those with the power and privilege to make their voices heard here, but that they strive to hear and attend to the voices of those who have been too often silenced by oppression or alienation. We pray that they humbly and steadfastly focus on the "all" in "justice for all," and seek to extend justice across all the lines and walls that so often divide us. And most of all we pray that the decisions they make produce the just, merciful, and compassionate society we dream of for all of Ohio's children, for their children after them, and for all the children who find their way here by whatever means in the years to come. Mindful of all that we have been given through your abundant grace, we lift up this prayer in all the many names we give to you who have always been beyond naming. Amen; blessed be.

Why Interfaith Impact Matters

"I find that altogether odd and unsettling things happen to my vision as I struggle to see and hear the merciful, reconciliatory heart of religion despite riveting, better-publicized rancor. This angle of approach to the broken world resists choosing sides and accepts antithesis and contradiction as given realities much of the time. I find that I grieve as bitterly for the broken humanity of the perpetrators of crimes as for their victims. I excel at righteous indignation, full of loathing for self-serving people who behave destructively and arrogantly in the name of faith. But I find it harder and harder to label and dismiss them, render them abstract. I am constrained to be mindful of both the fragility and the resilience of the human spirit. I sense that seeing the world the way God sees the world means, in part, grieving in places the world does not forgive, and rejoicing in places the world does not notice. It would mean, therefore, to live with a patience that culture cannot sustain, and with a hope the world cannot imagine." (Krista Tippett, Speaking of Faith: Why Religion Matters--and How to Talk about It. New York: Penguin Books, 2008, p. 171)

Interfaith Impact every Thursday at 7 p.m.-- 18 N College St, UCM lounge. 

Find us on facebook.

Interfaith Impact Aims to Serve Body and Mind

Ohio University student group Interfaith Impact is moving– not just the day and time, but moving deeper.

In an effort to feed more than just the spirit, but the body too, Interfaith Impact’s new meeting day will be every Thursday at 7 p.m., giving members an opportunity to attend UCM’s weekly free meal, Thursday Supper, at 5:30 p.m. Both programs are held at UCM, 18 N College St.

United Campus Ministry’s Campus Minister, Evan Young, will now be attending all meetings, providing structure and creating a safe and sacred space for students to share and explore their spiritual journey. The group is also adding a community service aspect to its core, giving students the chance to put their faith and beliefs to action.

“Too often we hear about faith as something that divides us,” explains Young. “I want Interfaith Impact to be that space where what you believe and what you think will never keep you out. But what you yearn for and what you can envision might bring you in.”

Interfaith Impact is part of UCM’s endeavor to promote dialogue and cooperation across faith lines and to build a genuinely interfaith community. Programs such as Interfaith Bible Study, and organizing efforts like the Interfaith Youth Core campaign at Ohio University, make UCM a pioneer in interfaith work. UCM's important role in this work was recognized recently in an entry in President Obama's weekly blog announcing the White House's Interfaith and Community Service Campus Challenge.

“A big part about what we’re doing is relating what we study and learn to what we experience in our lives,” says Young. “It’s the ‘so what?’ question for me--that point where you explore and explain how what you believe leads you to choose and to act in your own life. And that’s the key to Interfaith Impact; engaging people in the ‘so what’ factor.”

UCM gets mention in President Obama's weekly blog!

Last week, President Obama launched a campus interfaith initiative and in his weekly blog posting he mentioned Ohio University as one of the campuses across the country that are already working towards interfaith community! Although he doesn't go into the specifics of what organization is spearheading the interfaith movement on Ohio University's campus, it should be noted that it's Interfaith Youth Core at Ohio University and United Campus Ministry organizing these efforts. He speaks of our upcoming stream clean up with Rural Action's Monday Creek Watershed Restoration Project, which will be held on April 16. If you're interested in getting involved with the service project or the interfaith movement with UCM, contact Melissa Wales at ucmathens@gmail.com.

Interfaith Action Strengthens My Commitment to My Faith

The Kara is a steel bangle worn by male and female Sikhs. It is one of the five external articles of faith that identify Sikhs to the outside world. It is in the shape of a circle because, like the eternal Lord, it has no beginning or end. The Kara is a constant reminder to me to do God’s work as a Sikh disciple, and it keeps the mission of performing righteous actions as advocated by the Guru (spiritual teacher/saint) in the forefront of my mind each day.

On the way home from the Interfaith Youth Core winter training I attended for fellows alliance members, I lost my Kara in the airport. Though it may sound silly, this got me thinking about one of the main ‘fears’ I have encountered doing my interfaith work: is my commitment to interfaith action chipping away at my faith identity and watering it down?

I contemplated this on the plane ride home. And the more I thought about it, the more I realized that in fact the opposite is occurring: my commitment to interfaith work has greatly strengthened my relationship to my own faith of Sikhism. I thought back to the times this year when I served others, and how much more inspired I was to serve others after thinking of service as an interfaith experience. One of the central tenets of Sikhism is the importance of serving others, and Sikhs throughout the world are famous for hosting frequent and generous free meal programs (langar). Interacting with members of other faiths and acting as spokesperson for the interfaith movement on my campus, has forced me to become more familiar with aspects of my faith I had forgotten or lost touch with in the course of my college years, as others have inquired about my personal faith beliefs constantly since I began my fellowship.

Anxiety slowly turned into a deep contentment. A smile came to my face as my thoughts turned to interfaith Sikh leaders such as Guru Nanak and the Siri Singh Sahib. Guru Nanak (1469-1539), the founder of the Sikh religion, was famous for building bridges between Hindus and Muslims in India. He incorporated the writings of famous Muslim and Hindu theologians in the primary scripture of Sikhism, the Sri Guru Granth Sahib. The Siri Singh Sahib (1929-2004) was the first to spread Sikh teachings to the West, and my parents were some of his many followers during the counterculture movement in the 1960s. He served on countless interfaith panels throughout his lifetime, and even met with Pope Paul VI and urged him to take the lead in creating an intentionally interfaith space where leaders of the major faiths could meet to convene on important issues. At that moment, I felt the peaceful and beautiful presence of these saints smiling down upon me.

Interfaith action does not necessitate compromising one’s values. It does not mean that we must become a “melting pot” of religious watered-down religious values in order to reach a consensus. Instead, we can maintain the beautiful diversity of our unique faith traditions, while engaging with members of all and no faith backgrounds over common values of service to others, greatly enhancing our global impact for good and lessening violence and conflict between adherents of different faith communities.

Guru Amrit Khalsa is a senior at Ohio University majoring in journalism, with a concentration in world religions and global leadership. She is the treasurer of Interfaith Impact, and is completing a fellowship with the Interfaith Youth Core this year, where she organizes large-scale interfaith events and service projects at Ohio University, and promotes a climate of religious pluralism via social media outreach and engagement with the press.

Interfaith Action Strengthens My Commitment to My Faith

The Kara is a steel bangle worn by male and female Sikhs. It is one of the five external articles of faith that identify Sikhs to the outside world. It is in the shape of a circle because, like the eternal Lord, it has no beginning or end. The Kara is a constant reminder to me to do God’s work as a Sikh disciple, and it keeps the mission of performing righteous actions as advocated by the Guru (spiritual teacher/saint) in the forefront of my mind each day.

On the way home from the Interfaith Youth Core winter training I attended for fellows alliance members, I lost my Kara in the airport. Though it may sound silly, this got me thinking about one of the main ‘fears’ I have encountered doing my interfaith work: is my commitment to interfaith action chipping away at my faith identity and watering it down?

I contemplated this on the plane ride home. And the more I thought about it, the more I realized that in fact the opposite is occurring: my commitment to interfaith work has greatly strengthened my relationship to my own faith of Sikhism. I thought back to the times this year when I served others, and how much more inspired I was to serve others after thinking of service as an interfaith experience. One of the central tenets of Sikhism is the importance of serving others, and Sikhs throughout the world are famous for hosting frequent and generous free meal programs (langar). Interacting with members of other faiths and acting as spokesperson for the interfaith movement on my campus, has forced me to become more familiar with aspects of my faith I had forgotten or lost touch with in the course of my college years, as others have inquired about my personal faith beliefs constantly since I began my fellowship.

Anxiety slowly turned into a deep contentment. A smile came to my face as my thoughts turned to interfaith Sikh leaders such as Guru Nanak and the Siri Singh Sahib. Guru Nanak (1469-1539), the founder of the Sikh religion, was famous for building bridges between Hindus and Muslims in India. He incorporated the writings of famous Muslim and Hindu theologians in the primary scripture of Sikhism, the Sri Guru Granth Sahib. The Siri Singh Sahib (1929-2004) was the first to spread Sikh teachings to the West, and my parents were some of his many followers during the counterculture movement in the 1960s. He served on countless interfaith panels throughout his lifetime, and even met with Pope Paul VI and urged him to take the lead in creating an intentionally interfaith space where leaders of the major faiths could meet to convene on important issues. At that moment, I felt the peaceful and beautiful presence of these saints smiling down upon me.

Interfaith action does not necessitate compromising one’s values. It does not mean that we must become a “melting pot” of religious watered-down religious values in order to reach a consensus. Instead, we can maintain the beautiful diversity of our unique faith traditions, while engaging with members of all and no faith backgrounds over common values of service to others, greatly enhancing our global impact for good and lessening violence and conflict between adherents of different faith communities.

Guru Amrit Khalsa is a senior at Ohio University majoring in journalism, with a concentration in world religions and global leadership. She is the treasurer of Interfaith Impact, and is completing a fellowship with the Interfaith Youth Core this year, where she organizes large-scale interfaith events and service projects at Ohio University, and promotes a climate of religious pluralism via social media outreach and engagement with the press.

The Social Justice Gospel

From time to time, usually at their invitation, I sit down with representatives of one of our supporting denominations, to tell them about us and to answer their questions. And almost inevitably, one of them will ask me, “How much of your programming would you say is for social justice?”

This is, on its face, a pretty simple question. But it brings me up short, because I'm pretty sure it's usually meant to locate this campus ministry on the left-right political spectrum, and probably to place us on the left. Sometimes it can feel like a trap, and I don't like feeling trapped.

I also wonder at my resistance to this. After all, we do a lot of “social justice programming,” and we embrace a lot of causes--like peace, economic justice, anti-racism, anti-heterosexism, and stewardship of the environment--that are commonly considered calling cards of the political Left. Why not claim the label?

Here’s what I'm afraid of. If I say, “90 percent of our programming is oriented toward social justice,” the group I'm talking to will slap the “lefty” label on us, put us in that box, and that will be that. All of their deliberations about supporting and funding our ministry will be based not on what we do, not on the transformations that happen in students who participate in our programs, but on this group’s assignment to us of a particular political identity. And that would be a disservice to the ministry we do. I want them not to know us by label, but to really understand us.

What we do here is based deeply on the Gospel message. And when I say “gospel” I mean the Christian message, AND the Buddhist message and the Jewish message and the Muslim message and the humanist message, and the message of any faith community or tradition that calls us to orient not toward our desires or aspirations, but toward each other. I mean the Gospel message that calls the privileged among us to concern themselves with those who lack, and calls the oppressed to call society to account for their suffering, to insist on their own humanity.

Is programming that proclaims, in the face of war, the value of peace “social justice programming”? What about proclaiming economic justice in the context of a widening gap between rich and poor? What about racial equality? Or fair legal treatment regardless of sexual orientation? What about service to vulnerable populations” And does spiritual growth arise out of this kind of orientation toward each other, or can it be separated out into its own set of programs? These are the questions I asked of the committee. Not to guide them toward a definitive answer (I didn’t have one), but because I believe that the process of faith requires that we grapple with the incongruities of our context, that we train ourselves to ask (in whatever terms best suit us) “how is God moving in all this?” I believe people who grapple this way inevitably grow in faith--and that’s a Gospel message we could all stand to hear.

-Evan Young

To Serve the Spirit

Looking through an old photo album. Really old. And there's a picture of my father, holding a baby that turns out to have been me. And what draws me in to the picture are his eyes as he's looking at me. You may have seen this expression before--part joy, part fear, part awestruck responsibility, part hope and excitement. And all the parts add up to a certain knowledge that, in that moment, everything is changed.

I remember that moment from my own life, when my daughter was born and I held her and looked into her little face. Everything was different, in a good way, a way that was calling a better self out of me. I knew she needed me, would need me from here on, in ways I couldn't even imagine. And I knew, with that same certainty, what I was going to do about it: whatever it takes.

I was reading an article the other day by a colleague in campus ministry. Talking about how students today are concerned about whether they'll have the opportunity, the skill, the determination, the whatever to "change the world." They want to feel like they'll have an impact.

I get this--it's a big world with a lot of problems, and it needs all the changing it can get. Periodically we remind ourselves of this, by celebrating the lives and work of the remarkable people who have changed the world before us. And I think sometimes we allow ourselves to be not inspired, but intimidated by their example.

What I want our students to know is that they will change the world. They've changed it already, and they're changing it every day--just like I changed my father's world, just like my daughter changed mine. Just by being there and needing, at the beginning; then by asking hard questions, then by doubting the answers, then by casting visions and dreaming dreams and putting their backs into the hard work what they care about requires. Asking whether one will have a chance to change the world is, I'm convinced, asking the wrong question.

The right question, the one we ask here at UCM all the time, is "How will you change the world?" What vision of the world will your time and effort and passion and energy move us toward? Because it's going to move us. We're moved by the free meals that are served, and by the couches that are burned; by the impassioned calls for justice, and by thoughtless consumption and waste. And eventually, at the end of our moving, we can only hope to be satisfied with, rather than ashamed of, our answer to the hard question asked of us by that child we held, the one who needed us in her helplessness: "How did you change the world for me?" Through our work together, let us write our best answer--over and over again, as many times as it takes.

-Evan Young

The Need for Interfaith Cooperation at Ohio University

It starts with a simple question. What if students of all faiths and traditions took action together to make this world a better place? What if religion was used as a force to unite us and not divide us, at Ohio University and throughout the world? A common value in almost all religious and philosophical traditions is the belief that fulfilling one’s highest purpose comes in the service of others.

This past fall, we asked this very question in an event: the “What If? Speak In.” On November 10, over 70 students, faculty and local religious leaders came to the Speak In (held in Alden Library). After a panel discussion that featured Sikh, Muslim and Christian professors discussing the need for students of all and no faith backgrounds to come together in service, students left the event inspired to create a climate of religious pluralism at Ohio University. Students and faculty shared stories about interfaith cooperation they had seen or heard about throughout the evening, and discussed personal “faith heroes” such as Gandhi who inspire them.

I, along with the rest of the Interfaith Steering Committee, are partnering with United Campus Ministry to spearhead the interfaith movement on this campus. Our goal is to make cooperation among diverse faith communities the new social norm at Ohio University.

We have selected the issue of local and international water pollution to organize around, as we believe that access to clean water is a fundamental human right. This winter and spring, we are going to channel our common desire to serve others by cleaning up local streams polluted by acid mine draining practices and raise money to send personal water filters to Haiti.

My parents converted to the Indian religion of Sikhism before I was born, so I grew up practicing that faith. Though I do not practice Sikhism as rigorously as I once did, I still hold the Sikh faith in my heart. There is Sikh scripture and theology emphasizing the validity of all religious paths, and a central tenet of Sikhism is that there is one truth, but more than one path to God. There are also examples of personal leadership among Sikhs who engaged in interfaith work. One such example is Yogi Bhajan, a Sikh from India who spread Sikh teachings throughout the West. Yogi Bhajan served on various interfaith panels across the country, and met with Pope John Paul II and urged him to bring leaders from all the major faiths together to convene on important issues.

So not only does my faith call me to serve others, not only does my faith call me to respect members of other religions, but my faith calls me to actively work together with others, from all and no faith backgrounds, in an interfaith capacity. I bet that if you think about it, yours does too: whether or not faith plays a large role in your life, whether or not you support organized religion, and whether your hero is the Buddha, Jesus, Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., Muhammad, Dorothy Day, Rabbi Joshua Heschel, or Guru Nanak.

I believe that in order to combat complex and daunting issues on the global horizon such as overpopulation, scarcity of resources, global warming and massive poverty, cooperation and coordination among the world’s religious communities will be absolutely essential. Though there is severe conflict throughout the world today where religion plays a major role, from the Middle East to central Asia, from North Africa to the Balkans, I believe that it is only a matter of time before cooperation among members of different faiths as opposed to vicious conflict becomes the norm.

We are working to demonstrate this for others to follow at Ohio University and at universities across the country, proving to the world that it is indeed possible.

Some of you joined us in asking: What If? last fall. We truly hope that even more of you will help us prove that we are better together in 2011.

Guru Amrit Khalsa is a senior at Ohio University majoring in journalism. She is completing an intensive year-long fellowship with the Interfaith Youth Core, an international nonprofit organization that builds mutual respect and pluralism among young people from different religious traditions by empowering them to work together to serve others.

Travel with UCM to the US-Mexico border over Spring Break!

United Campus Ministry is planning a spring break trip for Ohio University students to Tucson, Arizona March 20-27. The group will spend time with host organization Borderlinks learning about the U.S.-Mexico border issues and immigration policy.

Students will have the opportunity to meet Samaritans who place drinking water in the desert, visit maquiladoras where cheap labor provides goods for import into the U.S., talk to artists who document the plight of immigrants, and visit with activists who provide services on both sides of the border.


Cost of the trip will be $1350, which includes room and board. Airfare will be a separate expense. A deposit of $200 will be due by January 31, and the full balance will be due on March 11. Passports will be required.

Ten positions are open for students interested, and will be reserved by first come first serve. An information session will be held Wednesday, January 26 at 7:00 p.m. in the UCM basement at 18 N. College St.

For more information or to sign up for the trip contact Evan Young at ucmevan@frognet.net, or 740-593-7301.

New Orleans 2010

UCM traveled to New Orleans over Winter Break 2010 with Ohio University students who engaged in a variety of service projects. The projects were organized by the Center for Ethical Living and Social Justice Renewal, with help from their partner organizations including the Gris Gris Lab, Greenlight New Orleans, Animal Rescue of New Orleans and the Neighborhood Empowerment Network Association in the Lower Ninth Ward.