Local religious leaders from the Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, Muslim and Buddhist traditions will discuss the intersection between religion and homosexuality at a panel tonight.
The panel, which will take place at 6 p.m. in the Interfaith Center, is the culminating event in a semester-long series of film screenings and discussions on religion and sexuality that senior Elizabeth Field and LGBT Center Director Tom Bourdon organized.
The first part of the panel will feature a discussion in which LGBT Center graduate intern Clayton Harmon, who will moderate the discussion, will pose questions that probe the panelists on their respective religions' position on homosexuality. This will be followed by a question and answer session.
The intention is for the panelists to speak as religious experts rather than to present personal opinions on the subject. "What the chaplains are saying at the panel are not their own opinions," Field said. "They are acting as experts."
Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg, the senior Jewish educator at Tufts Hillel and one of the panel's speakers, did not think that panelists would have trouble maintaining objectivity. "I am perfectly capable of separating what I think and what I know is going on," she said.
According to Alexander Watling, a sophomore intern at the LGBT Center, the aim is to "foster an event where there could be a candid and very open discussion about where these religions intersect with homosexuality and homosexual behavior."
Field said that a commonly held conception was that religion and the queer community were incompatible with each other. Organizers hope that the panel will be a forum to correct this misconception by introducing students to the diversity of religious views on homosexuality.
"People seem to think that religion as an institution has a single opinion about sexuality, that there's no diversity … I want to recognize a variety of opinions, policies and ideas within the church or different religions," Field said. "I do want to talk about the fact that some churches are not welcoming to LGBT people, but I want to recognize that LGBT people can be religious."
Ruttenberg felt that the discussion would be a valuable exercise in exploring the process by which each religious tradition arrives at its position on this controversial issue.
"The way that each tradition makes sense of what is a very hot issue across the board — even if we come to the same conclusions — I presume the paths to get there will be very different," Ruttenberg said.
Watling expects tonight's turnout to be large, based on the responses to the three film screenings that took place earlier in the semester. Each film dealt with homosexuality in a particular religious tradition, namely Judaism, Islam and Christianity.
The screenings were followed by discussions with religious leaders from the respective faiths, which Watling said went well.
"We had some very good discussions there," he said.
LGBT Center, student group Conversations, Actions, Faith and Education (CAFÉ), the Catholic Community at Tufts and the Interfaith Center are co-sponsoring tonight's panel.
Other panelists include University Chaplain David O'Leary, Muslim Chaplain Naila Baloch, Protestant Chaplain Kerrie Harthan and Buddhist Sangha Advisor David Around.
