2021 DFW Alliance for Religious Freedom Summit Promotes Understanding, Cooperation, and Friendship

Featured Photo: Summit panelists Aboobaker Ebrahim, right, and Imam Azhar Azeez. Photo by Joe Carbone.

When we talk about wedges today, we usually mean the kind that separates people—politics and religion being the two most common ones. Stories are told about hidden wedges that can destroy huge, healthy trees. And families, and nations.

How best to avoid wedges between people, between groups? If the answers were easy, wouldn’t we have peace on earth, freedom from want, happiness everywhere?

The truth is, of course, that we do know the answers. Implementing them is the hard part. Frameworks begin to matter in this effort.

In 2018, the founders originated the DFW Alliance for Religious Freedom to build that framework. They recognized that people of faith need to work together on common goals rather than allowing those wedges to separate them further. Opposing forces might be unjust laws or misguided opinions, but they might also be armed protesters at a mosque or uninformed workplace practices.

For its 4^th Annual Summit, the Alliance invited speakers not only from around the country but also from different walks of life. Following opening remarks by SMU’s President R. Gerald Turner, attendees heard speakers who are professors of art and history, lawyers and law students, faith leaders, a judge and a state senator, a journalist, and an author. Topics included America’s founding documents, interfaith outreach, Gen Z trends, and human dignity, to name a few.

The luncheon keynote speaker, Judge Thomas B. Griffith, retired from his seat on the United States Court of Appeals of the District of Columbia Circuit and recently was appointed to serve on President Biden’s Commission on the Supreme Court. Judge Griffith is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Citing a talk by Dallin H. Oaks, a Church leader who was himself a former judge, he stressed the importance of the Constitution. Preservation of its concepts is essential to the preservation of religious freedom.

To discuss moderation and unity, he described the grueling process of crafting the US Constitution in the hot, crowded Philadelphia of 1787. Two key factors figured in the Convention’s success: George Washington’s rules for debate and emerging friendships between the delegates.

General Washington insisted that the delegates face the speaker, not interrupt, not read, not write, not eat or drink. These days, he would have to add email and text. Listening without planning a response does not come naturally. It takes effort and commitment.

Philadelphia was the biggest city in the country with only about 40,000 residents, but that wasn’t big enough to accommodate all the delegates comfortably. They had to share rooms at inns, and taverns were crowded. They formed supper clubs because they ate together so often. The result? They listened to each other and came to know each other, well and deeply.

Individual presenters from many faiths shared messages that echoed these two principles. Harbhajan Singh Virdee, president of a local Sikh community, talked about having friends from all over the globe, expanding the richness of his understanding. Bishop Ekong leads the Brotherhood of the Cross and Star. A group of pastors at the airport asked him about his group’s white robes. Later, his choir went to the pastors’ churches to sing their unique songs of praise. Dr. Karen Hollie founded a church and a seminary for women; she recently awarded Juneteenth advocate Opal Lee an honorary doctorate. Cantor Don Kroll of the Congregation Beth-El Binah described the transformation of feelings about his LGBTQ group, once not welcome anywhere, when love and respect grew. Cantor Kroll also shared his experience befriending Palestinians who own a pizzeria he frequents. Emrah Aktepe, now a board member at the Dialogue Institute, explained his group’s outreach with Ramadan dinners, served to other faith communities all over the metroplex. He has also participated in one-on-one family dinners between families of different faiths.

What are the takeaways from a meeting with such diversity? Can seeing a letter from Thomas Jefferson inches away be transformative? Can hearing about struggles across the world spark an interest in learning more?

Sometimes it’s just a word or phrase that prompts change. What can we become next? Unifier. Mediator. Listener. Friend? One panelist quoted Winston Churchill: “A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.” Opportunities abound. Pastor Wayne Walker spoke passionately about his church’s work feeding the homeless, who will always be with us.

Wedges are also used to hold things closer together, a lesser-known principle. A shim is a wooden wedge. A door stopper is a wedge, really, and it keeps doors open. There is plenty of work to be done. Being quiet is a beginning, loving is another. Let nothing keep us back.

Photography by Joe Carbone