|
|
|
|
|
Making Peace: Meditations On Activism Topic #18: Religion as a Source for Activism Wednesday, January 18, 2006 Many religious traditions tie a devotion to a religious life with demands for social justice. It is not surprising, then, that many religious people are moved to activism for social justice and that many activists draw on their religion as a source for their activism. The following group of Chicago area activists from diverse religious faiths addressed these and other questions during this discussion of Religion as a Source for Activism.
The Reverend Alison J. Buttrick Patton
www.ctschicago.edu
www.chicagopeacenow.org Umnia Khan is Program Associate for the Chicago Action Program at the Interfaith Youth Core. Umnia is extensively involved with the Muslim community in Chicago. She is an active volunteer with Inner-City Muslim Action Network (IMAN), serves on the planning committee for the Intermediary Youth Project with the Muslim Community Center, and is a regular program participant with the Nawawi Foundation. Prior to her work with IFYC, she taught at a British Consul preparatory school in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Currently, Umnia is studying Arabic, and pursuing a degree in Religious Studies, with a concentration in Religion and Culture. Dharma teacher at Lakeside Buddha Sangha Jack has served as President of the Buddhist Council of the Midwest and on the National Board of Directors of the Buddhist Peace Fellowship. Jack began Zen practice in 1973 and was initially a student of Roshi Philip Kapleau. In 1992, he was ordained as a Dharma teacher by Ven. Thich Nhat Hanh. I was born and raised in the inner city of Cleveland, Oh. Both of my parents are social service workers and always instilled the concept of helping others to me and my other 10 siblings. I received a B.A in Political Science/Public Administration from Fisk University and an M.S in Public Service Management from DePaul University. As a community organizer, I serve to educate residents and youth on various issues such as: education reform, violence prevention, community involvement, and youth leadership. I am also the Program Director for the Young Empowered Sisters Program at Bethel, to teach young teenage women the importance of social and business etiquette. Through faith and prayer I believe the youth of today can lead us into a future of dedication and open-mindedness that no other generation could accomplish.
|
The Rev. Alison J. Buttrick Patton is the Director of Admissions and Recruitment, and Dean of Community Life, at Chicago Theological Seminary (a seminary of the United Church of Christ with a broadly ecumenical student body). She is a clergywoman ordained in the United Church of Christ, and serves as a pastoral associate at The Peoples Church of Chicago (which is dually affiliated with the UCC and the Unitarian Universalist Association) in Chicago's Uptown neighborhood. Alison has trained for almost four years at Thousand Waves, where she has achieved the rank of advanced green belt in Seido Karate. She is also mom to 3 1/2 year old Tobey Patton and newborn Ian, and partner to Craig Patton.
Samuel Fleischacker is a Professor of Philosophy at the University of Illinois, Chicago. He studied at Yale University, receiving his Ph.D. in 1989, and taught at Williams College before coming to UIC. He works in moral and political philosophy, the history of philosophy, aesthetics and the philosophy of religion. His publications include The Ethics of Culture (Cornell, 1994), A Third Concept of Liberty (Princeton, 1999), On Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations: A Philosophical Companion (Princeton, 2003), and A Short History of Distributive Justice (Harvard, 2004). In addition to his scholarly work, Professor Fleischacker attends an Orthodox synagogue, is the Vice-President of Chicago Peace Now — the local support group for the Israeli peace movement “Peace Now” — and is active in a variety of local initiatives to promote interfaith dialogue, especially Jewish-Muslim dialogue.