This Tuesday — Join DMARC at Iowa Religious Freedom Day at the State Capitol!
Since 2014, the Iowa Religious Freedom Day has been a tradition at the Iowa State Capitol. This casual program celebrates all the good that faith communities do in Iowa, as well as to remind all Iowans to respect each other’s faith background, whatever it may be. When discourse becomes hostile, we seek to bring the conversation back to a higher plane of fairness for all and dignity for everyone. This is something that the event’s keynote speaker, Micah Fries, has taken to heart in his role at the Multi-faith Network, an organization that has reached nearly 30 cities in the US and abroad with programming that builds mutual trust and respect among faith leaders through civic engagement, authentic relationships, and honest dialogue.
Fries hopes to share with Religious Freedom Day attendees how people of different faiths can build real friendships without compromising what they believe. DMARC caught up with him in advance of the event to hear more about his work and values.
Q: How long have you been with Multi-Faith Neighbor Network?
A: I have been with MFNN for a little more than 5 years, and I have been the Director of MFNN for a little more than 1 year.
Q: What does the term Multi-Faith mean to you, and how does Multi-Faith work differ from interfaith work?
A: Often, in classic interfaith situations, we can try to rally people together around the idea of common, or shared, beliefs. And it’s both true that most major religious communities share some basic ethical commitments, and it is noble to try to help people see the areas in which we are alike. The unintended consequence, though, is that the very real differences that exist between religious communities can be diminished or are even unwelcome. This means that some may not always feel welcome to bring their whole self into the room. In multi-faith, we acknowledge that we have strongly different views at points; theological positions that may even be irreconcilable. But we are not trying to rally people together around shared belief. Instead, we are rallying people together around the idea that every person has inherent dignity, worth, and value that is not connected to their beliefs or practice.
As an Evangelical Christian, I come to that conclusion because of my belief that every person is created in the image of God. Other religious traditions, including some of our MFNN staff members, do not share my view of the image of God, but they do share a commitment to dignity, worth, and value. When this is the foundational building block of our gathering, we can openly bring our differences – our whole selves – into the room, and not be afraid that our differences are going to cause our relationships to splinter – because shared beliefs were never our rallying cry in the first place.
There are other distinctions, but this is the foundational one.
Q: What is the mission of MFNN, and how does it make it incarnate?
A: Our formal vision statement is, “MFNN builds mutual trust and respect among faith leaders through civic engagement, authentic relationships, and honest dialogue leading to resilient, compassionate, and flourishing communities — communities that are more interconnected and resilient to hate, violence, and polarization.”Put more succinctly, we want to help people of strongly different beliefs build authentic relationships with one another; relationships that can flourish even in the midst of disagreements, not by hiding or diminishing our differences, but rather by building a relationship that gives us the freedom to talk through our differences, to understand one another, and to collaborate with each other.
We believe that authentic relationships are the key to effective multi-faith engagement. Other groups may try to start with dialogue, but we start with relationships, believing that dialogue and service naturally flow out of relationships, and will last longer and go deeper when they are built on a foundation of genuine relationships.
We make it incarnate, then, through projects that facilitate genuine relationship building between people of deep, often irreconcilable differences. Our keystone project is a multi-faith retreat that we have now led in 20+ cities across the US and around 20 countries around the world.
Q: How did your journey bring you to this vocation?
A: I have spent most of my life as an Evangelical – Southern Baptist, even – pastor. I was pastoring a church in St. Joseph, MO, not too far from Des Moines, and a mosque was being built in our town. I realized I needed to do a better job leading our congregation to engage with the Muslim community, and so I invited the local imam to coffee. He agreed, but only if he could bring someone with him. I readily agreed to that. It turns out, he wanted to bring a man who could function like a bodyguard with him. His impression of people from my community was evidently that, if we wanted to meet, we were not pleased with him and he might be at risk.
That cut me to the core. It made me rethink, completely, how I engaged communities of people who are not like me. It was not at all how I understood my faith, and how I wanted others to think about me. It made me realize I wasn’t communicating my faith very well. I did not really know how to live well in the midst of people who did not share my faith. I recognized that I have a responsibility to live out and share my faith more faithfully, to love those who disagree with me, even and especially if they never share my beliefs, to be a good neighbor, to better understand those who do not share my religious convictions, and to work together with them as much as is possible for the good of our communities. Multi-faith has helped me live out my faith/religious convictions more consistently, and more faithfully, and it has helped strengthen my own faith, as I spend most of my time with people who don’t share my faith. I’ve found that people who don’t share my faith often ask far better questions about what I believe than people who share my faith do.
Q: What is one thing that everyone can do to better live out the spirit of multi-faith work in our daily lives?
A: I love this question! I don’t think it’s rocket science. I think the best thing you can do, and one of the easiest things you can do, is to share a meal with someone who is different than you are. Find someone who does not share your religious beliefs, maybe at your kids school, or at your job, or in your neighborhood, and either invite them to your home for a meal, or take them out to eat. Ask questions. Learn about them. Be curious. And initiate the beginning of a real relationship with someone who is not like you. You’ll find it’s not as hard as you think. I like to say that if anyone has ever been a teenager, or had teenagers of their own, you are already skilled in the art of loving someone who you often don’t agree with.
Iowa Religious Freedom Day
Multi-faith Breakfast from 7:30 -9:30 am
Iowa State Capitol Rotunda
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Enjoy a free light breakfast in the beauty of the Rotunda
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Gubernatorial Proclamation at 8:30 am
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Bring your faith community and meet new friends from different backgrounds
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Celebrate freedom of religion or belief in a non-partisan setting
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Witness the opening of the House and Senate (if in session) and an interfaith prayer
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Learn ways to improve your own efforts to understand people from different backgrounds
Keynote Speaker – Micah Fries
Multi-Faith Neighbors Network
