Imagine sitting in a room with people wearing all sorts of colorful traditional clothing. The smell of food from different cultures fills the air, making your mouth water. Before long, a group of youth file onstage and begin dancing in a way you’ve never seen before.
Welcome to an awesome interfaith event! One like this was held in Australia last year. More than 300 people from 20 different faith backgrounds and community organizations came together for an evening of sharing and celebration. You can read about it here!
Around the same time, thousands of miles away in Ghana, teenagers were meeting new people and sharing ideas at an interfaith youth summit. Their theme was “Strengthening the Rising Generation.” The youth from our Church who participated got to make friends from Islamic, Presbyterian, Anglican, and other religious backgrounds. Check out their story here!
We hope you’ve enjoyed learning about different religions this week, and have been able to see that we have a lot in common with those of other faiths. There are so many other religions out there that we didn’t highlight, but still include wonderful people and teachings. People of faith—in whatever form that takes—are a strength to our communities.
“Most religions exhort their believers to give to the poor. Most also teach their believers that they are accountable to God for this duty,” President Dallin H. Oaks taught. “Religions also play a vital role in contributing to social stability. Societies are not held together primarily by law and its enforcement, but by those who voluntarily obey the unenforceable because of their sense of accountability to God.”1
As members of The Church of Jesus Christ, we believe that truth and light can be found in many different places, and that the restored gospel brings these together into one whole. Let’s continue to represent our Savior as we show respect and love to people everywhere!
Have an Interfaith Conversation
Notes
1. From “Pursuing Religious Liberty Worldwide,” a message given at a religious liberty summit in July 2022.
Search Gospel Living using the tag “interfaith relationships” to find more about this topic!