Last weekend we celebrated 150 years of religious life on our Tufts University Campus. I worshipped with all of the religious communities on campus, I enjoyed an interfaith sacred music concert, and participated in hosting Archbishop Desmond Tutu who gave the James Russell Lecture and received the Dr. John Mayer Global Citizenship Award from EPIIC. The theme under girding all of these experiences was "Hope." I emerge filled with hope for the future and deeply moved and impressed by the people who make up religious life on our Tufts Campus, our diversity, our ability to reach out to one another, and our concern for justice, grace, and peace throughout the world.
I write to say thank you to everyone, students, colleagues in the Chaplaincy, the University Administration, faculty, and honored guests among us, all of whom made the weekend possible. We are fortunate indeed to have such rich religious/spiritual opportunities and expressions of faith that we do on campus. And when I say "religious," I do not only refer to the organized expressions of religion on campus. I also refer to religious skeptics who keep the faith through their actions and moral sensibilities and priorities, and who are open enough to share in Chaplaincy programs.
Each identified religious community on campus is distinct, unique, and steeped in its own history, traditions, and culture. In the United States, and on this campus, we co-exit with one another. I am interested in how permeable our boundaries are, and where we find common cause with one another. I am also interested in the areas in which we disagree and find need for dialogue. Let me hasten to acknowledge that often the differences within traditions are as deep as those between traditions. And finally, I am interested in how our being together challenges each one of us to stretch beyond our current world-views. What can we learn from and contribute to one another?
From my perspective, the religious and the secular are part of a whole. God makes no distinctions between them, for the Holy cannot be confined to sanctuaries or chapels, but is indeed at loose in the world. If we need to make distinctions, let them be between the sacred and the profane. It would be my hope that what we are about, in the Chaplaincy, is the nurturing of all that is sacred. I celebrate and am grateful for our complex and pluralistic religious life on campus.
But, I am not without dreams. In my heart I think there are places which faith traditions need to continue to explore, places where we have not fully been before...at least in recorded history. All of our traditions are, in their historic manifestation, and I would even say, often in their current language and practice, patriarchal. We are, after all, set in time, and revelation, however transcendent, must meet us where we are. I think the Spirit still has something to say to us. Perhaps something hidden, even in our ancient texts.
I also dream of a time when we can worship in our own tradition, believe in our own truths, see ourselves as among God's chosen, and yet, honestly acknowledge that there are many paths to God. Or, put another way, I dream of a time when we all understand the Holy as embedded in and embracing all of creation, and when we see ourselves as partners with the Divine in devoting our energies in this world for the good of humankind and the well being of all creation
Finally, I dream of a time when our religious communities are able to address our sexuality in its depth and not its form. I do not see sexual orientation, chastity or marriage, as being the key to religious ethics. Rather I see the nature of love in relationship as being at the heart of sexual morality, our willingness to be in mature relationships that are nurturing, just, and fulfilling, and which take into account all that we know about human psychology and spirituality.
I celebrate religious life on campus. I have great expectations for the future. And I can dream can't I?
