How do we approach religions that are not our own? Personally? Professionally? This course will help you to understand, articulate and clarify, yet complicate, your understanding of diverse religious thought and actions. We begin with basic approaches to religion(s) applied to select religious thoughts and actions from the Haudenosaunee, Hindu, Buddhist, and Jewish sacred traditions. We will then consider the American constitutional mandates of separation of Church and State and freedom of religious expression in the context of current events. Our ideal is to approach religious thought and action without orientalizing, exoticizing, stereotyping, prejudice, heteronormativity, patriarchy or promoting colonial legacies. We will work with several current case studies involving prejudice against religious thought and action, including Native American Mascots and Islamophobia in America, and develop action steps to eliminate these prejudices. [AH, C, R]
- Teacher: Terry Reeder