Had Enough? Healing a Polarized World with Brian Farr J.D.

 “Volatile Tribalism”. That’s how Stanford sociology professor Robb Willer
describes the current state of affairs in the U.S.A. It’s a problem that plagues much of the world. Willer asserts the situation will eventually right itself but not until the public decides it’s had enough.

This session will engage participants in discussing (i) how we got here, (ii) some exacerbating factors, (iii) how we sometimes unwittingly contribute to the problem, and (iv) what we can do to help right the situation. Decide you’ve had enough. Let’s fix this now!

Brian Farr is a Board member and past Chair of the Salt Lake Interfaith Roundtable, the North American Interfaith Network, and the Rotarian Action Group for Peace. He sits on
Human Rights and Interfaith Outreach Boards of three area universities.

Connecting Multiracial Families and Interfaith Work with Rorri Geller-Mohamed

Learn about how to create an inclusive and diverse environment as a means of incorporating multiracial families in interfaith work and spaces.  This workshop will be facilitated by a licensed family therapist that is in an interfaith marriage (Jewish/Muslim) and grew up in a multiracial family.  Discussion will focus on strategies to support and celebrate unique identities, connecting with each other through community, and coming together for positive change.  

Rorri Geller-Mohamed, LCSW (Rorri@upowerchange.com) is the founder of U Power Change and a family therapist that specializes in working with multiracial, multicultural, and interfaith/multifaith families.  Her experience growing up in a multiracial family, being in a Jewish-Muslim interfaith marriage, and raising children in a multi-identity family is her inspiration for working to create a more just, equitable, and inclusive world.

Complicating the Picture: Why Both/And is Not Always the Right Response with Michael Kinnamon

People involved in NAIN believe that religion, especially through
improved interfaith relations, should be a force for reconciliation in a polarized world. We also know from experience, however, that
religions have been a source of polarization and are often examples of it. As sociologists Robert Putnam and David Campbell put it in their book, American Grace, “polarization and pluralism are the principal themes in the
recent history of American religion”–a judgment that applies throughout North America. Any serious attempt to advance a pluralistic agenda must confront the complexity of this history.

One way to approach this is to acknowledge that, while interfaith advocates prefer to say “both/and,” there are times when we need to make “either/or” choices and judgments.
Ironically, religious resistance to social and political polarization demands that we say no to certain ways of being religious. In this presentation, I will flesh out the tension suggested above and invite discussion of it.

The Rev. Dr. Michael Kinnamon, one of the most prominent and influential ecumenical leaders and educators of our time, was the ninth General Secretary of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the USA. Dr. Kinnamon, now retired, was a seminary and university professor for thirty years, also serving as Dean of Lexington Theological Seminary from 1988-98. (read more of his bio here…)