Perusing the latest issue of the Southern Poverty Law Center's Teaching Tolerance, Fall 2010, I was appalled to see how far we've yet to go in sowing the seeds of tolerance just in our nation's schools. From bullying to overt and covert racism, to hate preaching of religious zealots, there seems to be little escape.
However, one solution offered in the issue is a contest to develop new tolerance activities (under the SPLC Activity Exchange) which can be integrated into an existing curriculum. That led me to lay out my own proposed plan for activities on religious tolerance, to be submitted to the Editor. The basic outline is as follows:
1. What is religious tolerance?
a) The diverse religions of the world (surveys of Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, Unity-Science of Mind, Catholicism, Protestantism etc/)
b) How can one recognize a tolerant religion or creed by its examples?
c) How can one express tolerance toward those of other religions?
(i) Engaging in cooperative social justice activities (e.g. feeding the homeless)
(ii) Reading passages of each other's sacred books to the whole class (e.g. The Qur'an, the Upanishads, The Torah, the Bible - both KJV and New Revised Standard Version)
(iii) Demonstrating each other's special rituals - e.g. how to pray toward Mecca for Islam, and focusing on the "OM" for Hinduism, plus teaching transcendental meditation to all students as an effective way to calm nerves and promote harmony.
However, one solution offered in the issue is a contest to develop new tolerance activities (under the SPLC Activity Exchange) which can be integrated into an existing curriculum. That led me to lay out my own proposed plan for activities on religious tolerance, to be submitted to the Editor. The basic outline is as follows:
1. What is religious tolerance?
a) The diverse religions of the world (surveys of Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, Unity-Science of Mind, Catholicism, Protestantism etc/)
b) How can one recognize a tolerant religion or creed by its examples?
c) How can one express tolerance toward those of other religions?
(i) Engaging in cooperative social justice activities (e.g. feeding the homeless)
(ii) Reading passages of each other's sacred books to the whole class (e.g. The Qur'an, the Upanishads, The Torah, the Bible - both KJV and New Revised Standard Version)
(iii) Demonstrating each other's special rituals - e.g. how to pray toward Mecca for Islam, and focusing on the "OM" for Hinduism, plus teaching transcendental meditation to all students as an effective way to calm nerves and promote harmony.
(iv) If possible, attending one another's place of worship.
2. What is religious intolerance?
a) How can one recognize an intolerant religion or one that advocates hate crimes?
(i) Using the Bible to express or justify hate speech or hate crimes
(ii) 'Witnessing" and attempting to terrify religious minority students with the myth of "Hell"
(iii) Using graffiti to deface the property of religious minority students, e.g. inscribing a cross on their notebooks, or the initials 'KJV' or whatever.
(iv) Quoting objectionable passages in the Bible which appear to justify intolerance toward a group or person, or killing them. (E.g. the Leviticus authorization of murder for homosexuals)
b) Passive aggressive religious intolerance:
(i) Writing down objectionable bible verses on scraps of paper and pasting them to the notebooks of religious minorities
(ii) Sending judgmental or other "Christian verses" to religious minorities via Twitter or regular email.
(iii) Making overt religious gestures including saying prayers out loud in a secular group setting (such prayers violate the 1962 federal law against prayer in public schools)
3. How can religious intolerance be dealt with?
a) Teacher correction of such behavior when and where it's observed, and using it as a model for "parable" on how not to behave.
b) Encouragement of the teacher to allow other (victimized) minority students in the class to share their feelings when victimized, to the victimizer(s).
c) Use of carefully selected stories, short fiction etc. to weaken the overtly frighteningly claims of the religiously bigoted students toward minorites. For example, reading the short story 'Devils and Satan are for jokes' to minority religious students to allay their fears they may be sent to "Hell" for not believing in Jesus Christ as "Savior".
d) Explaining to the class how the Jesus Christ story is at root a particular interpretation anyway, and not an absolute truth - since we have solid evidence the gospel accounts were copied from earlier pagan tracts (e.g. of Mithraism).
All of these can be useful in the school activity setting and can be implemented by any teacher who cares enough to interject studies on religious tolerance. In addition, recent events in the wider world can be used as discussion points, such as the attempt to prevent construction of the Cordoba Civic Center in Manhattan, and the recent episode of a crazy pastor to burn Qur'ans in Florida.
All of these are ripe for topical presentation, and the manner and mode are limited only by a dedicated teacher's imagination.
At the end of the day, the key and overriding objective for any activity must be to weaken the meme of religious intolerance in our society, especially launched or instigated by the Christian fundamentalists- who are the primary culprits.
2. What is religious intolerance?
a) How can one recognize an intolerant religion or one that advocates hate crimes?
(i) Using the Bible to express or justify hate speech or hate crimes
(ii) 'Witnessing" and attempting to terrify religious minority students with the myth of "Hell"
(iii) Using graffiti to deface the property of religious minority students, e.g. inscribing a cross on their notebooks, or the initials 'KJV' or whatever.
(iv) Quoting objectionable passages in the Bible which appear to justify intolerance toward a group or person, or killing them. (E.g. the Leviticus authorization of murder for homosexuals)
b) Passive aggressive religious intolerance:
(i) Writing down objectionable bible verses on scraps of paper and pasting them to the notebooks of religious minorities
(ii) Sending judgmental or other "Christian verses" to religious minorities via Twitter or regular email.
(iii) Making overt religious gestures including saying prayers out loud in a secular group setting (such prayers violate the 1962 federal law against prayer in public schools)
3. How can religious intolerance be dealt with?
a) Teacher correction of such behavior when and where it's observed, and using it as a model for "parable" on how not to behave.
b) Encouragement of the teacher to allow other (victimized) minority students in the class to share their feelings when victimized, to the victimizer(s).
c) Use of carefully selected stories, short fiction etc. to weaken the overtly frighteningly claims of the religiously bigoted students toward minorites. For example, reading the short story 'Devils and Satan are for jokes' to minority religious students to allay their fears they may be sent to "Hell" for not believing in Jesus Christ as "Savior".
d) Explaining to the class how the Jesus Christ story is at root a particular interpretation anyway, and not an absolute truth - since we have solid evidence the gospel accounts were copied from earlier pagan tracts (e.g. of Mithraism).
All of these can be useful in the school activity setting and can be implemented by any teacher who cares enough to interject studies on religious tolerance. In addition, recent events in the wider world can be used as discussion points, such as the attempt to prevent construction of the Cordoba Civic Center in Manhattan, and the recent episode of a crazy pastor to burn Qur'ans in Florida.
All of these are ripe for topical presentation, and the manner and mode are limited only by a dedicated teacher's imagination.
At the end of the day, the key and overriding objective for any activity must be to weaken the meme of religious intolerance in our society, especially launched or instigated by the Christian fundamentalists- who are the primary culprits.
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