Kaufman Updates
Permanent link for Many Plates Make A Feast: From the Melting Pot to a Potluck Nation at the Interfaith America Leadership Summit on August 8, 2023
This past weekend, I trekked to Chicago for the annual Interfaith America Leadership Summit - three-days filled with workshops and panels, energy and enthusiasm, and hundreds of both well-established and burgeoning interfaith leaders from college campuses across the country. I had the chance to connect with fellow staffers and students alike, all devoted to the exploration and promotion of religious pluralism. The theme of the conference, "Many Plates Make A Feast," called attention to an important change that has taken place within the interfaith movement over the past few years.
Most of you will be familiar with the adage of the U.S. as a 'melting pot', which was en vogue for many years and still has quite a hold on the American imagination. The idea was that our nation represented a mixture of beliefs, backgrounds, cultures, and ethnicities that melted into a unified whole. This metaphor has largely fallen out of favor, the primary critique being that such a melting together erases essential and irreducible differences between individuals and communities for the sake of a predominantly Judeo-Christian homogenized 'norm.' Several other metaphors have been suggested in its replacement in attempts to understand multiculturalism - the kaleidoscope, the tossed salad. Eboo Patel, founder of Interfaith America, and others are turning to the image of a potluck.
Rather than downplay our differences, a Potluck Nation is one wherein we bring our diverse 'dishes' - aka our identities, perspectives, and experiences - to the table in all of their complicated glory. Not an ingredient in someone else's dish but a whole entity on its own to share with the other members of the potluck. This changes the conversation from one of dilution and erasure to invitation and exploration. It also begs the question: What can I bring to the potluck?
At the Summit this weekend, I was simply overloaded by the number and the variety of 'dishes' available. Our conversations ranged from discussions of how to tackle the hot button issues on each of our campuses and navigating murky administrative waters in a world where DEI work is so often under threat to our favorite songs to listen to when we're having a really good day and the moments that bring us pure joy in our work. Some, like myself, were just beginning on their journeys to implement interfaith programming on campus and eagerly listened to the successes and pitfalls of those around them; others had been at it for years and cherished the Summit as an opportunity to rejuvenate their efforts. It was uplifting, overwhelming, and ultimately inspiring. I left feeling both amazingly supported and metaphorically quite full from such a diverse feast.
This shift in the interfaith movement from downplaying our differences for the sake of commonality to celebrating our uniqueness is an essential one. It does mean that dialogue can and often will be messy, that we will be asked to sit with tension and to engage with those who actively disagree with us - perhaps they bring a spicier dish to the table than what our palette is used to! But it is in this messy (and spicy) work that we can truly begin to see others in their fullest, most complex, most beautiful humanity rather than as caricatures or stereotypes. We can begin to engage with the diversity around us rather than simply witness and acknowledge it. This is how we move towards pluralism. This is how we reimagine a better world together.
Liz English
LaTanya Lane, Director of the Interfaith Leadership Institute at Interfaith America, addresses students and educators on the first day of the conference.
Interfaith leaders answering the prompt, "What from your traditions and experiences are you bringing to the feast?"