Bridge Builders and Spiritual Engineers

In a time of religious and racial intolerance and misunderstanding, (when hasn’t that been the case) there are always a few who are not content with complacent hand-wringing. There are always people around us who are trying to bridge divides. Eboo Patel is a Muslim community builder who is trying to do just that. And he says the most frutiful ground for creating interfaith cooperation is on college campuses and in churches.

He builds on the ideas of sociologists Bob Putnam and David Campbell and their recent book, American Grace, who say that one of the most effective ways to improve attitudes toward people of different religious backgrounds is to have a positive, meaningful encounter with them. Do something together and attitudes change.

That means we are in a unique position in a church community. We are situated in the very place where change for the good, can and does happen.

We are blessed with a community of bridge builders, spiritual engineers. Blessed are we!



Peter