Beyond the Interfaith Outreach in Salt Lake City

Benjamin Smith Salt Lake Community College Professor Marlena Stanford English 2010

I. INTRODUCTION
In the Salt Lake valley there are many religious groups that work together to help the people around them have joy in their lives through service and interfaith activities. These activities are seen differently by members of each religion and can have very different effects on members of these religious groups. Specifically in the Southern part of Salt Lake, there are a few major religious groups that on a regular basis work together in interfaith service and activities. The organizations listed below are those that I researched from each specific religious group. The Christ United Methodist Church, Catholic Church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, and the interfaith ministry make up the majority. The Methodist church provides what is called Family Promise to help the homeless, The Catholic church runs a soup kitchen called St. Vincent De Paul, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is in charge of a very large refugee organization, and the Interfaith Ministry tries to keep every one at peace with one another.

When these groups come together, it can be assumed that the topic of religion comes up eventually, according to Missy Larson, a Member of the board over refugees in Utah from the LDS Church, this topic finds its way into any conversation almost without fail within minutes of the activities beginning. (Larson, M., 3/22/14). This opens the door for a shift of the focus from serving those that are in need to focusing on the tensions that come between members of different religious groups. (SLC World | Interfaith Ministry, n.d.).

The purpose of this paper is to help people see what tensions exist between members of different religious groups when they come together in interfaith activities. It will look into the perspectives of multiple religious groups and help to uncover some of the inside

3 information on the topic of interfaith tension. It will be presented by first addressing some of the problems that some of the religious groups have faced when involved in interfaith activities, then discuss one way that the Methodist church has tried to solve these problems, and finally will conclude by bringing all of the issues and suggested solutions together with a hope that those who read this will be able to come to a better conclusion for themselves.

The information for this paper was gathered using a variety of different methods including: observational study, library research, and ethnography. The observational study was done at the St. Vincent De Paul dining hall run by the Catholic Church where hundreds of homeless Utahans are fed daily. The Library research was done online looking into different religions interfaith involvement and finding connections for personal interviews. The ethnography was done in the form of participant ethnography where both a personal and two email interviews were completed to find out more personal information about interfaith interactions in Salt Lake City.

II. "WHAT'S IN A NAME" - WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE: HOW SLANG TERMS ASSIGNED TO RELIGIOUS GROUPS CAN CAUSE OFFENSE

One of the major religions in Salt Lake City that has been prominent since the settlement of the state is what many people refer to as Mormonism. What many people dont know is that these Mormons are in reality members of what is called The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Many times, when large interfaith groups come together, the slang term Mormon is used and often, unfortunately,

4 leads to offense. The leaders of this church have spoken to their fellow members and encouraged them to avoid taking offense and to simply explain to others what they prefer to be called. This stems from the sacred nature in which they look upon Jesus Christ and the desire to be members of his church. (Ballard, M. R., 2011).

It is no surprise that this term is used today to set members of this church apart because of the long history that it has had. Since the mideighteen hundreds, members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints have been called Mormons by their persecutors and many times by those who simply have never heard anything else. There was a time where they would have called themselves the same, but today with the history of that name, they prefer to use the entire title being a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. (Ballard, M. R., 2011). Mormons are not the only ones who suffer from the improper use of slang terms today and members of multiple religious groups simply do not know what else to call each other. This is an issue that in thought should be fairly easy to fix, but because of the amount of people who are misinformed, it is one that may never cease to be a problem in the long run. (Schwien, J. L., 3/21/14).

III. SHARING RELIGIOUS BELIEFS: BEING TOO OPEN

Missy Larson, a member of the board in charge of helping refugees in Salt Lake City, has had the opportunity to also work as an interfaith outreach representative for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Over the past several years, she has had the chance to work with hundreds of people from all over the Salt Lake Valley who are members

Missy Larson

5 of different religious groups. She has planned many interfaith service projects each year to help the refugees and has also taken part in setting up two refugee gardens in the Southern part of Salt Lake. Throughout all of her experiences, she has said, I have never had the chance to hear so much about other peoples religious views and see how much some people cared about being a member of the best religion, and how accepting other people were of each other and each others beliefs. (Larson, M., 3/22/14).

In an interview conducted with Missy, she spoke of the tensions that she thought existed between members of the religions that she worked with in interfaith activities. Issues of doctrine sometimes were mentioned and some misunderstood beliefs were carefully clarified, but the most common issue that she found was brought up had to do with too much information being shared. As people would join together to work with the refugees, the hope was that they would forget about their differences having to do with religion and simply work together in the service of the refugees. Unfortunately, on many occasions, it seemed that volunteers were in deep conversations about their own religious beliefs and the faults of others. Larsons own personal opinion was that people of Catholic, Methodist, Buddhist, and agnostic groups were becoming increasingly annoyed with members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. It seemed that these LDS individuals were much more willing to share their beliefs with those around them and that they had what she called a spark about them that turned simple conversations into deep and long discussions. Other interfaith groups in the valley have struggled with similar problems in the past and done their best to make sure that the service is the main priority. At the St. Vincent De Paul Dining Hall in down town SLC, one of the chefs shared his own personal opinion of these

6 issues when members of different religious groups came together. "I have been fortunate enough to be able to see this experience through a tinted lens. My job here is to make sure that enough food is prepared to serve a couple hundred homeless people twice a day, not to discuss my religious beliefs and cause tension between members of other religions. Everyone that enters these doors is a brother or sister to me. I treat them all the same as I would any of my own siblings, and there are no problems. Here, we try to refer to one another as brother or sister so that we dont get too personal and so that we keep our conversations pretty general. In my opinion, it has worked pretty well and the only tension I see between people here is when work is done incorrectly and when the food is behind schedule. (Anonymous Chef, 3/23/14). Larsons hope is to somehow find a way to make the interfaith activities just as effective to members of all religious groups without causing tension with over exposure to religious conversation similar to what has been done at St. Vincent De Paul. Her goal has always been to make sure that everyone has a good experience but that the focus stays on serving the refugees, and now is searching for a solution to the tension between faiths. She believes that if she moves forward trusting that everything will work out for the best that people will work out their differences and that the program will continue to be able to bless the lives of thousands of refugees in Salt Lake and also all of those who volunteer their time, efforts, and talents to help them. (Larson, M., 3/22/14).

IV. THE "TRUE" CHURCH: THE CONFLICT BETWEEN CHRISTIAN RELIGIONS THAT BELIEVE THAT THEY ARE THE ONE AND ONLY TRUE CURCH

As people work together for longer periods of time in interfaith activities, they tend to get on the subject of truth and many times can end up talking about the "true" church. It is simply bound to happen in religious settings and where there is strength in numbers of certain religions, there can be serious disputes. Of the hundreds of religions of the world, there are many Christian religions that believe that they are the one and only true religion on the earth.

In Salt Lake City, though many of these religions are not prominent, a few bring other major religions into frustration because of the way that they go about proclaiming that they are the one true church. Many churches in SLC pride themselves in believing that they are simply living their own lifestyle and that others are free to choose what lifestyle they will live. Some believe that just by being a member of a religious group that you will receive the same "blessings" in life, while others believe that if you are not a part of their religion, that you will be damned and unable to move into the life ahead, (at least for those religions that believe that there in fact IS a life to come after this one). (Schwien, J. L., 3/21/14).

V. AVOIDING TENSION: ONE "SOLUTION" USED BY THE CHRIST UNITED METHODIST CHURCH

8 Family Promise was founded in 1995 in Utah as one of the 180 affiliates across the United States. It is the only program in Utah that takes in homeless people, provides them will food, shelter, and money for a week at a time and is run by volunteers. Along with this service, they also work with the homeless people to help them find employment, cheap housing, and a better life in front of them. ("About Us", n.d.). They also have a day care center for kids so that parents can receive training during the day without worrying about the kids. it is estimated that in the past 17 years, "volunteers have contributed over 212,300 volunteer hours to assist over 2,250 individuals in 670 families". ("About Us", n.d.)

In an interview with the senior Pastor of the Christ United Methodist Church, where the family promise houses the homeless, she said, "It has been my honor and privilege to be able to work directly with many of these homeless souls and help them to find a better path in life. I have done my best to refrain from preaching to them and have tried to do my best to treat them as I would any of my dear friends. Through them, I have learned not to take what I have in this dark world for granted". (Schwien, J. L., 3/21/14). The Methodist Church has reached out to many other religions to send volunteers to help in order to allow others the chance to serve, but they have done one thing in particular that has set them apart from any other religious group when it comes to interfaith interaction.

When the church makes assignments for people to come and volunteer, they assign each of the other religious groups certain days to fill making sure that anyone from any particular religious group will be with members of their own religion, and NOT someone from another religious group. In a way they have almost segregated their volunteer force to make

9 sure that the focus remains of the homeless and not on the difference between religious beliefs. Wayne Davis, a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, recounted one of his experiences there.

"I was lucky enough to be one of those selected to stay over night with these families to ensure that all was well and had the chance to speak with many of the parents longer than most of the other people that volunteered. One of the most interesting questions that they asked me had to do with my religion and why, when members of so many different religious groups came together to volunteer that there was no tense discussion of religion there. It was not until then that I realized that the people who had been there to volunteer the couple of times that I had been there were all members of my same faith". (Davis, W., 3/22/14). This method used by Family Promise and the Methodist Church is a great example of the awareness of the tensions that hide behind interfaith religious discussion and stand out as an example to those who are looking for ways to volunteer in any circumstance. If you strive to rule out the chance of an issue coming into view, the probability of it happening will decrease, lessening the chance for tension throughout communication. (Schwien, J. L., 3/21/14). Though this so-called "solution" has kept out the tension from the interfaith interaction in this Family Promise program, it has also practically destroyed the "interfaith" interactions that the program was designed in part to create. In the end it leaves you wondering if it really is a solution or if it is simply a group of people striving to avoid addressing the topic directly.

10

VI. UNVEILING COMMON THEMES

For those who have not lived in Salt Lake for a period of time, it may be hard to understand how much religion plays a roll in the lives of the people here, but for many, it is what keeps them going. Some people rely on the history of Salt Lake and the founding of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, while others thrive off of being as distant from the "Mormons" as possible.

The questions that the interfaith programs in SLC that have been discussed draw you to ask yourself... How will YOU react? Will you take offense? Will you be a peacemaker? In Salt Lake City Utah, there are many tensions between different religious groups that will continue to push and pull people away from each other. It is our choice how we act and hopefully we will be ready. Prepare yourself to answer hard questions. Decide what kind of person you want to be so that when these tensions arise. You will be ready.

11 Bibliography

"About Us." Family Promise. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Mar. 2014. <http://www.fpsl.org/about_us.html>. Anonymous Chef, Interview (email), St. Vincent De Paul Dining Hall, 3/23/14 Ballard, M. R. (2011). General Conference. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Retrieved March 23, 2014, from https://www.lds.org/search?q=the+importance+of+a+name&domains=all &lang=eng Boy Scout Food Drive. (n.d.). Catholic Community Services of Utah. Retrieved March 24, 2014, from http://www.ccsutah.org Davis, W. Interview (email), Family Promise volunteer, 3/22/14

Interfaith Relations. (n.d.). The Church of Jesus Christ of LaterDay Saints. Retrieved March 24, 2014, from http://publicaffairsclassic.lds.org/building-relationships/interfaith-relations Larson, M. Personal Interview, Refugee interfaith representative 3/21/14

Newton, I. (n.d.). Isaac Newton: For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction | THE BEST CHAPTER. THE BEST CHAPTER. Retrieved March 25, 2014, from http://thebestchapter.com/2012/07/05/isaac-newton-for-every-actionthere-is-an-equal-and-opposite-reaction/

Schwien, J. L. Interview (email), Christ Untied Methodist Church, 3/21/14

SLC World | Interfaith Ministry. (n.d.). SLC World | Interfaith Ministry. Retrieved March 24, 2014, from http://www.slcworld.org/CommunityOutreach/interfaithMinistry.php