Resources
Session Three: May 14, 2008
Struggling with Religious Diversity: Rekindling Respect
The following is a list of take away points that detail how you can carry forward and apply the information presented in Session Three.
Suggestions for your personal development:
- Attend an interfaith event.
- Visit a religious center of a tradition that is unfamiliar to you.
- Make a point of learning a bit about other religious traditions, perhaps by reading articles when you see them in the newspaper, seeing films, or reading novels.
- Explore Web resources on religious diversity.
- Ask questions of people you know, perhaps about a religious holiday they observe.
- Ask yourself which religious traditions you are least comfortable with, and your basis for this. Then formulate open ended questions to explore your assumptions, and look for safe places to ask them.
- Collect personal anecdotes about encountering religious difference.
Encouraging others' development:
- Talk about what you've learned from this session.
- Seek out interested others and share your questions, concerns, information and resources.
- Invite others to join you in attending an interfaith event or visiting a local religious center.
- Look for opportunities for informal, informational conversation on religious difference. Share personal anecdotes.
- Find out about local interfaith groups and consider what parts of their work you could support.
Impact the organization's culture:
- Assess the organizational position in terms of flexible holiday policy, religious accommodations to dress code, and atmosphere in general.
- Find out whether religious diversity is included in corporate diversity statements.
- Consider allies, structural resources, and finding a champion as means of creating change.
- Consider suggesting small, concrete changes such as expanding the list of holidays included in the corporate calendar for informational purposes.
- Pay attention to the calendar of religious holidays and aim to be considerate of colleagues' observances.
- Consider the demographics of workers, customers, suppliers, and international branches and the likely religious demographics. Consider what knowledge might improve understanding, and where to obtain it.
Session Three was the third session of the 2008 NW Diversity Learning Series, Leveraging the Tensions of Diversity: Igniting Sparks of Opportunity. The Series, held in Seattle, WA, is organized by The GilDeane Group, publishers of DiversityCentral.com.
Presenter was Grove Harris, Former director of the Harvard Pluralism Project, speaker, writer and consultant, Cambridge, MA
Session Six: Thu, Nov 13, 2008
Confronting Global Diversity: Imagining a Wide Circle of Inclusion
Patricia Digh
David Robinson