From Chaos to Community: Faith and Racial Justice (Faith and Society Series Webinar)
Academic Event Reflection
20 January 2021, Zoom, 3pm-4:15pm
This event was very interesting to me since both my faith and racial justice are important parts of my life. Some of the main topics that were touched on is the church’s role in oppression, the responsibility of religious leaders to speak about politics, how those of different religious groups can work together to combat discrimination and oppression, and what some of the common values that the religions that were represented at the event are. In terms of the church’s role in oppression, the main point that was made with that was that it is not the religion that is oppressing people, but it is oppressors who abuse faith for power (made their faith self-serving instead of authentic). When speaking about the responsibility that religious leaders have to speak about political issues and current events, they all agreed that you cannot ever fully separate current events and religion and that if we see the world like God does that we should all use our platform to speak up for those who are oppressed. They also mentioned that many of the people who are a part of an organized religion are the people who need to hear about these issues the most and that religious leaders should use the platform that they are given to teach the congregation about how to approach the tougher issues such as discrimination and oppression to make change. With the common values and ways to work together topic, all of the leaders believed that the common value that all of the faiths share is that we should love one another which is why the issue of racial justice is so important for religious leaders to be aware of and work towards. They all agreed that we everyone, regardless of religion, could work together to make a change in the world for the better.
I really liked everything that the speakers at this event had to talk about and felt like they all made really good points. I agreed with everything that I heard there and hope that they can continue to speak up against injustice in their spheres of influence. This event related to the topic of international affairs since faith and racial justice are relevant issues in all areas of the world and also affect our international relations. The only question that I would have for the speakers is what their opinion is on religious leaders who feel like they are not responsible for talking about racial justice (especially those in predominantly white areas who feel like they are not affected by this issue). I feel like this is important for everyone around the world to prioritize because that will bring more people to faith when they feel welcomed, loved, and supported by their community. I wish that there would have been more religions represented in this event to see if there are any differing opinions in non-Abrahamic religions. Overall, this was really interesting, and I am glad that I got to watch it.