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If judged by the headlines, diversity, equity, and inclusion work is in full-scale decline. But, as Susan Sontag once said, “whatever is happening, something else is always going on.”
In this case, that something else is the growing cooperation among a wide range of religious leaders.
Consider this remarkable statement on immigrants and refugees issued earlier this month by a cross section of religious groups: ”We stand united as people of faith in our commitments to welcome the stranger and to care for the most vulnerable — commitments rooted in our common understanding of our Creator’s love for all and call to serve our neighbors.”
The signees, ranging from the chief executive of Central Conference of American Rabbis to the leader of the Islamic Society of North America, have deep doctrinal and political disagreements on issues such as abortion and the Middle East conflict. And yet, they have chosen to push aside those differences and focus on the connections between their traditions and the work they can do together.
This is the only way to have a healthy diverse democracy. People must be able to disagree on some fundamental things, while working together in other areas they also consider fundamental.
Like-Minded Messages
In this way, religious groups are showing what effective diversity work looks like. Note the strikingly similar statements conservative religious communities have issued in recent weeks in support of immigrants.
From the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints: “The Savior taught that the meaning of ‘neighbor’ includes all of God’s children … We seek to provide basic food and clothing, as our capacity allows, to those in need, regardless of their immigration status. We are especially concerned about keeping families together.”
From the United States Council of Catholic Bishops: “…we uphold the belief that all people are conceived with inherent dignity … we recognize that this dignity is not dependent on a person’s citizenship or immigration status.”
Progressives from different faiths are also gathering together to protest administration policies. Many were galvanized by Bishop Mariann Budde’s plea — during the prayer service after President Trump’s inauguration — to “have mercy upon the people in our country who are scared now.”
I know from talking with leaders of some of these institutions that they are in active conversation with one another. As Kerry Alys Robinson, president and CEO of Catholic Charities, told me, “I’ve had more phone calls with my counterparts from other faith-based agencies in the last five weeks than I’ve had in the last five years.”
These conversations are starting to lead to joint action, such as Islamic Relief USA joining with the progressive Christian group Sojourners and the more conservative National Association of Evangelicals to advocate for foreign humanitarian aid in response to the massive USAID cuts.
Philanthropy should view this upswell in interfaith cooperation as a major opportunity to advance a constructive diversity agenda.
There has long been cooperation between diverse religious groups on social services at the local level. What we have before us now, however, is an opportunity for philanthropy to elevate interfaith cooperation to a national stage.
This could represent a cultural shift at many foundations. Much of mainstream philanthropy does not have a great track record of funding faith-based work, even though religious institutions provide a disproportionate amount of support for the most vulnerable people and communities.
A study by the Bridgespan Group found that faith-based agencies contribute 40 percent of the social service spending in the United States and enjoy significant trust in Black, Latino, and low- income communities. And yet, only 12 percent of the human services funding from the nation’s 15 largest foundations goes to faith-based groups.
Funding Interfaith Cooperation
Now is the perfect time to change that funding picture and start spending more on interfaith cooperation. What might grant makers support? Here are a few ideas to get started:
- A marketing effort in the style of the “He Gets Us” advertising campaign. But instead of focusing only on Jesus and the Christian faith, the campaign could feature diverse religious communities working together to welcome the stranger and care for the vulnerable.
- A series of conferences that bring different religious communities together to learn about the teachings in nearly all faiths about caring for one’s neighbor. This would be a good time to reach out to Bishop Elizabeth Eaton of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, who organized the statement I quoted above about immigrants and refugees. Ask her what kind of resources she needs to pull together a series of gatherings of the signatories to develop concrete plans and partnerships for social action.
- Training opportunities for current and future interfaith leaders. Interfaith cooperation requires a knowledge base about different religions, and a skill set that includes how to build relationships among people of varying faiths and facilitate conversations among those who disagree with each other. Such training should be aimed at both current professionals who want to expand their interfaith leadership skills and students looking for university programs that will help them enter the field.
- DEI programs that integrate interfaith cooperation in a more genuine way, using a framework based on respect and cooperation rather than demonization and division.
As foundations consider how to invest in interfaith cooperation, they should remember that much of racial justice work is about correcting what America’s founding fathers got wrong — namely, slavery and the racist ideologies that supported it. Investments in interfaith cooperation, on the other hand, are about fulfilling what those founders got right. By making religious freedom America’s first freedom, as articulated in the First Amendment, they created the world’s first religiously diverse democracy.
Our work is to ensure religious diversity becomes interfaith cooperation rather than faith-based conflict; to follow in the footsteps of George Washington, who wrote in a letter to the Hebrew Congregation in Newport, R.I., that the government must give “no sanction” to bigotry and “no assistance” to persecution.
At a time when the need couldn’t be greater, a growing interfaith movement is ready to do this work. Let’s ensure they can.
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