WHY A CENTER?
For decades, popular political debate about religion and social issues in the U.S. has been a clash of religious right and secular left, which has undermined the potential for real, engaged dialogue among the U.S.'s religiously diverse people. Recently, however, we are seeing a new trend as an interfaith movement has been taking hold, leading to greater understanding and cooperation among people of many faiths.
The Center's projects complement that trend by engaging the myriad voices of U.S.'s religiously diverse society in dialogues about issues of public policy and political culture—to gain insights for new, creative, and spiritually inspired approaches to serious public issues of common concern. Through such engagement, the Center is developing (a) public policy recommendations on specific issues, (b) college community interfaith programs to bridge religio-cultural understandings, and (c) methods for creating effective multi-perspective dialogues. Through its projects, the Center hopes to join others in moving the U.S. beyond its current divide, beyond the mere acknowledgment of the fact of diversity to the aspiration of active engagement we call pluralism.
