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Leadership Lens: Interfaith Work in a Divisive World
February 17, 2025
This past year-and-a-half has proven particularly challenging for many of us interfaith types. A tsunami-like tidal wave of “othering,” politicization of activities and thought (that previously did not appear to intersect with politics), overt antisemitism, islamophobia and racism, and disturbingly, a push toward nationalistic sentiment that is the polar opposite of “nation” building. Perhaps, Websters might consider “divisiveness” as its word of the year.
Of late, my 20-year plus desire to build bridges among those of various faith-based traditions, sadly, has felt more like Quixote’s tilting at windmills and less like Galahad’s quest for the holy grail. The willingness to work toward mutual understanding (and not necessarily agreement) has been the objective. It has never been assured, but at least there was hope.
Here is a recent realization: Many who profess to engage in “interfaith work,” while willing to attend interfaith social gatherings, movie viewings, iftars, seders, and lectures are seemingly unable or unwilling to directly dialogue with those whose interests or beliefs are seemingly, intractably incompatible with their own. All those activities are terrific, but make no mistake, it’s the effort expended to build and/or maintain those bridges in the most difficult of environments that constitutes the “work” of interfaith work.
Because I understand that I possibly am preaching to the choir, I am taking this opportunity to request that you redouble your efforts in practicing bridging skills. It doesn’t matter that we succeed by some arbitrarily established measure. Invariably, we are imperfect, and we will fall short; we will falter and experience loss. But the reward (if that’s an appropriate expectation) is our rediscovered resilience in the face of adversity, notwithstanding our imperfection and mistakes. The cause is too important to abandon and, in the end, if we only achieve others’ recognition that we are earnest in our bridge building, this, in itself, may yield unexpected results. In my heart, I cannot advocate that “hope springs eternal,” but I do submit that now would be a good time to muster the divine traces of hope that surely reside within each of us.
Bryant M. Frank
Board of Directors, The Interfaith Leadership Council of Metropolitan Detroit
