Culture, Levine articles, Religious Diversity

Religious Diversity Leadership Strategies – by Deborah Levine

While religion can be the most divisive force on the face of the planet, it can also be a source of communal resolve. Yes, there are wars fought in the name of religion, as well random violence, rape, torture and unspeakable crimes. Many good people prefer to be in the unaffiliated or atheist categories rather than be associated with organized religion. My path has been a religious journey, with a goal akin to a United Nations of Religious Diversity.

I began my religious diversity career working in Chicago’s interfaith arena more than thirty years ago. I’m grateful for my mentors, but know that the best lessons were learned in the School of Hard Knocks. There were many such lessons because interfaith work has much in common with being a trapeze artist without a net. Here were my top 6 rules for working with coalitions of religious groups. They’ve changed very little over the decades.

  1. Expect to be enriched by the experience of interfaith dialogue.
  2. Big changes happen at top levels of leadership; grassroots change is often incremental.
  3. Commit to studying about world religions for the rest of your career.
  4. Keep your network alive even when you don’t need it, because you will.
  5. Always have a back-up plan that will ‘save face’ when something goes wrong, because it will.
  6. Apply your knowledge to the workplace with caution. You can be a valuable asset, or unintelligible to those new to inter religious issues.
  7. Above all, know your own religion backwards and forwards. You represent your faith tradition to others. This is true whether you are ordained or not. Consider yourself an ambassador to an interfaith league of nations. Ask yourself if your knowledge of your religious roots is sophisticated enough to meet the challenges of religious diversity work.

How did I compile this list? In the early nineteen nineties, I was hired by the Central Conference of American rabbis to be the fundraiser to support research for a new prayer book, the prayer book for the next millennium. Part of my work was to interview liturgical experts not only from various Jewish movements, but also their Christian liturgical counterparts. I am well-educated and know the history, geography and famous personalities that shaped religion today. Yet, knowing that context is only helpful if you understand the liturgy and how it evolved, when it is used, and what change means in liturgical terms.

What I learned about prayers, worship and liturgy as a child barely counts in the interfaith world. The sophisticated understanding of religion through the lens of liturgy is nothing a child could acquire. Liturgy is a window into culture, family and history. The diversity issues in developing a new prayer book may surprise you: generational differences, gender-related terms, language translations and disability considerations to name a few. One of the Catholic priests that I interviewed told me, “You think you’re studying how to change liturgy. The reality is that the experience will change you far more than you will change it.” I share that truism along with the advice to pray for those who take the lead in interfaith work.

NOTE: Summer 2016 publication of Religious Diversity at Work – a guide for religion in the workplace.

© Deborah Levine

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