Clergy Beyond Borders' conference, “Human Rights in Judaism, Christianity and Islam,” brought together 70 religious leaders from across the U.S. and around the world, along with several seminary and graduate students, to explore human rights issues from perspectives based in their respective and collective faiths. Conference photos on Flickr page
The gathering, held primarily on December 14-15, 2009, at American University's Kay Spiritual Life Center, also permitted a number of smaller and less formal meetings of participants within and across faith groups.
For some of the international Muslim participants, the gathering provided their first opportunity to shake hands with Christian and Jewish clergy or even to meet a Jew. For others, the conference was a first opportunity to grapple with topics such as the role of evangelism/outreach in interfaith action and the interplay of faith and civic participation in a pluralist society.
"International Voices for Human Rights," panel moderated by R. Marc Gopin
Faith-specific teachings were shared, commonalities recognized, and fundamental difficulties explored. Next steps were discussed and relationships fostered. Participants reported hearts opening and minds changing. Rather than offering bland recitations of their faiths' more positive texts, participants were self-critical and even repentant for their communities' failures.
“It was fantastic!” Rabbi Marc Gopin, world leader in conflict resolution, conference participant and Clergy Beyond Borders (CBB) vice chair, said afterward. “Important things happened that will change our work.”
The conference program and participant list were developed in concert with Evangelicals for Human Rights, Imams for Human Rights and Dialogue, and Rabbis for Human Rights-North America. Five panel sessions each included presentations from one Christian, one Jewish, and one Muslim clergy member and/or scholar. Question and answer periods were lively, sometimes heated, and discussion continued during meals and in the hallways.
Six international clergy members, whose participation was supported by the United States Institute for Peace, provided their perspectives during a special session set aside for that purpose, as well as throughout the conference. International participation helped illustrate urgent needs for interfaith understanding worldwide – between Christians and Muslims in Pakistan, for example – as well as the power of dialogue to spur collective action in crises. U.S. and international participants alike noted dangers of isolation, recognized that no one community had “the answer,” and identified areas where an international network for faith-based human rights activism could make a strong and immediate impact.
All sessions were filmed for future reference and sharing.
Interfaith introductions and meal, December 14
The first CBB event helped forge relationships beyond the clergy network itself.
The Kay Spiritual Life Center at American University was an active “participant” in its way, with facilities and staff – particularly Chaplain Joe Eldridge and administrator Christine Gettings -- offering deeply felt hospitality. Future collaborations seem likely and desirable.
Evangelicals for Human Rights (EHR), Imams for Human Rights and Dialogue, and Rabbis for Human Rights-North America co-sponsored the conference, providing panelists and helping to create the program. In addition, Mary Head, EHR's project administrator, provided on-site logistical support for the event, along with Virginia Spatz, CBB's program director.
The owner of a local halal caterer, while not able to offer a supervised kosher kitchen, worked with CBB staff to create meals that honored Jewish participants' dietary restrictions, expanding his own knowledge and sensibilities as well as those of the participants. Mealtimes offered impromptu lessons in comparing halal and kosher requirements as well as eco-kashrut practices including recycling and composting.
“I have previously planned conferences for several hundred, involving simultaneous interpretation and other complicated logistics as well as cross-community sensitivities,” reports CBB's program director. “I have never been involved in anything as complex as CBB's first conference, however, and have never seen 80+ people -- with rare exceptions, which only proved the rule -- enter into such palpable spirit of cooperation and interest in cross-community understanding. There were elements that might have gone more smoothly. But there was an extraordinary energy at this gathering that clearly had value in its own right, beyond whatever is accomplished by CBB in the future.”
Widening Base. Next time – and participants were adamant that there must be a next time – women must be more fully represented among international invitees ( and a wider range of Christian religious leaders should be recruited. This time, three of the five rabbis and two of the Muslim scholars were women; there were suggestions, however, for widening the concept of “clergy” to “religious leaders,” in ways that encourage more Muslim and Christian women's participation.
“The Kabob.” One participant, attempting to decipher 'CBB' in English script, asked about all the references to “this kabob.” In response, Rev. Majid Abel of Pakistan began telling people, “I am prepared to stand for 'the kabob.'” He was not alone among participants in being eager to take up the work of Clergy Beyond Borders.
Adamant as participants were that there should be a "next time," most were equally determined that CBB not devolve into an annual conference but become a vibrant force for change, supporting clergy around the U.S. and beyond to improve human rights, work for justice and seek peace.
1) “The Concept of Human Rights within Judaism, Christianity and Islam”
Dr. Glen Stassen, Lewis B. Smedes Professor of Christian Ethics, Fuller Theological Seminary; author of Just Peacemaking
Imam Yahya Hendi, Muslim Chaplain, Georgetown University; founder/president, Clergy Beyond Borders
Rabbi Brent Spodek, Rabbi in Residence, American Jewish World Service [R. Spodek was unable to reach DC due to airport conditions; his presentation was offered by R. Simkha Weintraub, Jewish Board of Family and Children's Services]
Moderator: Rabbi Ellen Lippman, Rabbi, Kolot Chayeinu/Voices of Our Lives and member RHR-NA board of directors [Rev. Carole Crumley, Senior Program Director, Shalem Institute for Spiritual Development, originally scheduled moderator, was unable to attend due to illness]
2) “Human Trafficking and Slavery in the 21st Century”
Rev. David Batstone, professor of ethics, University of San Francisco; president, “Not for Sale" Campaign
Dr. Azizah al-Hibri, professor, Richmond University Law School; founder KARAMAH: Muslim Women Lawyers for Human Rights
Rabbi Rachel Kahn Troster, Director of Education and Outreach, Rabbis for Human Rights
Moderator: Dr. Jamal Barzinji, Vice President, International Institute of Islamic Thought
3) “Prisoner Treatment in Peace and War”
Rev. Tim Floyd, professor and director Law and Public Service Program, Mercer University; author of Can a Good Christian Be a Good Lawyer?
Imam Radwan Mohammad Mardini, American Muslim Center, Dearborn Michigan
Rabbi Melissa Weintraub, North American director, Encounter; author on war ethics and religious responses to terror
Moderator: Rev. Joseph Eldridge, Chaplain, American University
4) : “Role of Religion in the Public Square of a Pluralist Democracy”
Rev. David Gushee, Distinguished University Professor of Christian Ethics, Mercer University; author, The Future of Faith in American Politics
Rabbi Sid Schwarz, founder PANIM: Jewish Institute for Leadership and
Values; author Judaism and Justice: The Jewish Passion to Repair
the World; founding rabbi, Adat Shalom Reconstructionist
Congregation ; founding rabbi, Adat Shalom Reconstructionist
Congregation
Dr. Sherman Jackson; Professor of Near Eastern Studies and Afro-American Studies, Visiting Professor of Law, University of Michigan; author Islamic Law and the State
Introduction: Houda Ezra Ebrahim Nonoo, Ambassador of the Kingdom of Bahrain (sent regrets)
Moderator: Cynthia Schneider, Distinguished Professor in the Practice of Diplomacy, Georgetown University; former U.S. ambassador to the Netherlands
5) “Human Rights Post 9-11, Civil Liberties and Respect for Immigrants and the Other”
R. Nancy Fuchs-Kreimer, director, Department of Multifaith Studies and Initiatives and associate professor of religious studies, Reconstructionist Rabbinical College
Rev. Rick Love, Postdoctoral Fellow at the Yale Center for Faith and Culture, Yale University Divinity School; member, EHR Steering Committee
Dr. Ingrid Mattson, director, Macdonald Center for the Study of Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations, Director of Islamic Chaplaincy Program, Professor of Islamic Studies and Christian-Muslim Relations; president, Islamic Society of North America
Moderator: Imam M. Bashar Arafat, Founder, Civilizations Exchange and Cooperation Foundation
6) “International Voices for Human Rights”
Moderator: Rabbi Marc Gopin, Director, Center on Religion, Diplomacy and Conflict Resolution, George Mason University
Rev. Majid Abel, Presbyterian pastor active in several local and national interfaith efforts, Lahore, Pakistan
Imam Umer Ilyasi, President, All India Organization, New Dehli, India
Imam Khaled Ramzi Salem Karim, Imam, Amman, Jordan
Imam Mohamed Mufti, Imam, Amman, Jordan
Imam Abdujalil Sajid, Chairman of the Muslim Council for Religious and Racial Harmony, of the United Kingdom, Brighton, England
Muhammad Zabair Abid, Deputy Secretary General, National Peace Committee for Interfaith Harmony, Islamabad, Pakistan
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