Tag Archives: religious diversity

Academic Articles, ADR Advisors, Authors A-H, Religious Diversity

DEI, Religion, and Hate Crimes – by Deborah Ashton, Ph.D.

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Introduction

Deborah Levine requested that I join her group on Black and Jewish Dialogue in 2021. Given today’s atmosphere, dialogue is crucial. Levine is the editor-in-chief of the American Diversity Report (ADR). She is a Holocaust documentarian (Courter, 2023; Levine, Untold Stories of a World War II Liberator, 2023), whom I am sure when she launched ADR never anticipated that diversity and DEI would be equated with anti-Semitism. Yet the cry has been aimed at academia and business (Cohen, 2023; Notheis, 2024) I am baffled by the cry to silence and dismantle DEI. 

Through my DEI journey and practice since 1991 in corporate America, DEI has been inclusive and provides respect and dignity to all across religion, race, ethnicity, national origin, sexual orientation, gender, physical and mental ability, and other demographics. I will provide some examples later in the article.

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DL Opinion columns

Finally, diversity programming is beginning to include faith – by Deborah Levine

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Originally published in The Chattanooga Times Free Press

I could barely contain my excitement a few days ago when the Chattanooga Times Free Press published this article, “Businesses face calls to include faith in diversity program”. Do you know how many years I’ve been promoting the idea of competence in religious diversity? It began over 30 years ago when I created the DuPage/Chicago Interfaith Resource Network and got a call from the county’s police chief. DuPage County had acquired an amazingly diverse population as it developed into Chicago’s technology corridor. And law enforcement officers were struggling, especially when there was a death, like someone run over on the highway. Apparently they were asking all the loved ones if they should call a priest and were offending everyone who was not Catholic. Would I please wear a pager 24/7 so that they could call on me to help them with the correct language?   

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Levine ADR articles, Religious Diversity

The How and Why of Religious Diversity Training- by Deborah Levine

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Why does the Diversity, Equity & Inclusion field include so little religious diversity training? The cultural awareness and cultural competence inherent in DEI are increasingly embraced as the major tools of the global market place of the future. Yet, there is a black hole of information on diverse religions. The silence is due to a paralyzing sense of being overwhelmed and under-prepared, not to a lack of interest or visibility. Turn on the TV, open a newspaper, or check the internet and religion pops out as a major issue across the planet. Look at the increase in EEOC complaints based on religious expression as well as the growing antisemitism, anti-Muslim and other hate-related trends. Yet, the vacuum of expertise in religious diversity exists in most relationship-oriented sectors of our society: business, education, government, and human services.

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Authors A-H, Religious Diversity

Diversity and Speech #33: Bi-Religious – by Carlos Cortés, Gary Cortés

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Brotherly Perspectives on Religious Experiences

A co-authored Interview

Carlos: Last year I wrote a column about the tribulations of Growing up Bi-Religious in our religiously-mixed household in Kansas City, Missouri: Dad a Catholic with a Mexican immigrant father – Mom, a Reform Jew with a Ukrainian immigrant father and an Austrian immigrant mother.  I had to deal with family conflict and I avoided mentioning my religious background to parents when I picked up my dates.  But your experience was so different.
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Interfaith Podcasts, Make a Difference Podcasts

Rev. Fred Davie Podcast: Religious Diversity at Interfaith America

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religious diversity Reverend Fred Davie is a Senior Advisor for Racial Equity at Interfaith America, where he executes programming with a primary focus on the intersection of race and religion. He is also a minister in the Presbytery of New York City, and recently served as the Executive Vice President at Union Theological Seminary.
Hear Rev. Davie address these vital questions:
  1. Why does Interfaith America consider religious diversity a foundational American strength?
  2. Why should religion be front and center in conversations about both diversity and social change?
  3. How does religious diversity help build better institutions and a better civil society?
You will be inspired to engage in ongoing discussions of …
  • The need for a positive conversation about religious pluralism.
  • How our diversity conversation should be more focused on highlighting the contributions that America’s varied communities bring to our potluck nation rather than continually centering tension and oppression.
  • How religion is a force that inspires many and is a bridge of cooperation between our diversity and the largest contributor to our civil society.

CLICK for podcast interview

Authors A-H, Religious Diversity

Diversity and Speech #25: Growing Up Bi-Religious – by Carlos E. Cortés

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 Many diversity trainers tell me that they steer clear of religion.  Not me.  Faith discussions are always welcome in my workshops. I love talking about religion. Maybe that’s because of how I grew up.

ChurchSome people are reared in a strong religious tradition. Others with none. I grew up in a home with two faith traditions. To this day that experience affects the way I view the world around me.

shofar
Rams’ Horn – Shofar

Consider the opening lines of my memoir, Rose Hill: An Intermarriage before Its Time.  “Dad was a Mexican Catholic.  Mom was a Kansas City-born Jew with Eastern European immigrant parents. They fell in love in Berkeley, California, and married in Kansas City, Missouri.  That alone would not have been a big deal. But it happened in 1933, when such marriages were rare. And my parents spent most of their lives in Kansas City, a place both racially segregated and religiously divided.  Mom and Dad chose to be way ahead of their time; I didn’t.  But because of them, I had to be. My mixed background meant that, however unwillingly, I had to learn to live as an outsider.”

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Religious Diversity, UTC Interns

Religious Diversity In Corporate America – by Meg Eslinger, Vivian Schlabritz

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Editor’s Note: Article from DEI in Communications class at the University of TN / Chattanooga where I spoke on religious diversity.

Corporate America makes up nearly 45 percent of American employees. Each of those employees represent diversity in some form or fashion, representing an array of languages, cultures, classes, and religions. With these diverse aspects comes considering dealing with differences between employers, co-workers, CEO’s, etc. Religious Diversity seems to have the most significance when it comes to conflict or dealing with strategic communication. Religious Diversity plays an essential role in Corporate America, especially today in the age of Social Media and the public seeing what corporations are “all about.”

How a big corporation such as Delta, Nike, Target, Verizon, etc promotes being accepting of religion, no matter what religion, is essential from a Public Relations standpoint. Yes, they might look good on the outside to the public for consumer satisfaction and revenue, but it’s not always equally reflected within these corporations. Religion is defined by Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) by saying; “Religion is not limited to traditional, organized religions, but also includes religious beliefs that are practiced by a small group of people and are not part of a formal church or sect.” (SHRM 2008) Religious diversity really shows itself with respect in how employers handle accommodating time off for religious holidays. According to most corporate Human Resource Managers, they report they work with ”most” religious holidays meaning Easter, Thanksgiving, Christmas etc- and not including holidays such as Diwali, Yom Kippur, Ramadan, etc.

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Religious Diversity, UTC Interns

Christianity in 2021 – by Cole Fischer, Sydney Hermann, and Liv Ellis

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Editor’s Note: Article from DEI in Communications class at the University of TN / Chattanooga where I spoke on religious diversity.

As we get older and merge into the world, we are often faced with meeting increasingly more diverse people. It is important to listen to each other with open minds to understand others and how they have lived their lives. Learning and understanding new points of view is the best way to be an active member of a diverse community. Generalizing religious people groups can be dangerous as everyone has different experiences even within the same religion. As Christians, we have different walks of faith and yet, we have had our own experiences in life. The following three testimonies are from college students who identify themselves as members of the Christian faith.

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Levine ADR articles, Religious Diversity

Quick Reference Religious Diversity Cards – by Deborah Levine

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Path to Religious Literacy

Religious DiversityWhile leadership training will often include issues related to Diversity & Inclusion, few programs include instruction in religious diversity. Yet, cultural awareness, cultural competence, global leadership, and cross-cultural communication are embraced as the tools of the market place of the future. What accounts for this black hole of information on diverse religions?  One has only to turn on the TV, open a newspaper, or check the internet headlines to see that religion is a major factor in interactions across the planet.  It is both puzzling and disturbing that a virtual vacuum of expertise exists in the relationship-oriented sectors of our society: business, education, government, and human services. Trying to avoid culture clash of belief systems can result in a paralyzing sense of being overwhelmed and under-prepared. Too many leaders are left scrambling for strategies and resources designed to turn the religious diversity novice into an expert.

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