Editor’s Note: Mark Alvarez whose name has become quite familiar to readers of The Selective Echo has some excellent insights on the Bridging the Religious Divide project which has been the subject of a handful of posts in the blog. These insights, I think, are particularly timely as we approach the fall mayoral campaign. Also, they seem even more timely today as a counterpoint to the controversial essay written by Paul Mero, who heads the Mormon-oriented Sutherland Institute. The essay, referred to in a Salt Lake Tribune article, concludes that Mormons should vote for the controversial private school voucher referendum in November in order to avoid “cultural extinction.” It is certain that Mero’s essay will be widely addressed in opinion pieces for the balance of the campaign.

When we parted for the last time, Madox used the old farewell. ‘May God make safety your companion.’ And I strode away saying, ‘There is no God.’ We were utterly unlike each other.”
–Michael Ondaatje from The English Patient

Newspaper articles and two recent posts on this site have returned to the religious divide in Salt Lake City, an issue that mostly draws transitory attention during political campaigns. Utah would benefit from more serious and prolonged consideration of the religious divide.

Though at times he has made careless remarks that exacerbate the religious divide, Mayor Rocky Anderson deserves credit for crafting a difficult (perhaps inadequate) compromise on the Main Street controversy and for initiating the Bridging the Religious Divide Project in the fall of 2004. The project built on the efforts of the Salt Lake Interfaith Roundtable, the Utah Psychological Association and the Millcreek Community, one of whose members Christine Balderas was especially helpful to Salt Lake City.

Bridging the Religious Divide began with three public forums at which participants were asked to speak from personal experience and address two questions:

• How do we create a more respectful community?
• What is your personal role in that process?

The forums drew needed attention to often-experienced but seldom-discussed tension in the community.

Bridging the Religious Divide continued through 2005 with meetings of small groups. Participants discussed the religious divide on a more personal level and gained greater understanding of the challenge. A Letter to the Community summarized the small group phase and suggested next steps to expand the dialogue.

Professor Les Roka has noted that Bridging the Religious Divide lost momentum after its first phase. Public discussion dwindled. Media attention became scant. Nevertheless, the religious divide continued. Now, with the destruction and construction that will become City Creek Center, the religious divide looms. We must discuss it.

The public forum questions remain pertinent. In discussion and correspondence, an important principle is that of assuming good intentions. Experience with Bridging the Religious Divide suggested that most people genuinely want to bridge differences and gain understanding. Of course, hard words often led these same people to adopt defensive, even hostile arguments. I once heard a Saudi Arabian official say, “you should use soft words because you never know when you may have to eat them.” Well put and useful in the context of the religious divide.

In conversation, one should listen and consider divergent points of view. Professor David Knowlton once said that if participants thought they were the possessors of truth, then we were all in trouble. The challenge of bridging the religious divide will require work and compromise. It will resist polite smiles and easy words.

Lessons (See Letter to the Community) from Bridging the Religious Divide include:

• interesting insights arose from discussions between Mormons and former Mormons and between Mormons raised outside Utah and those raised inside Utah (e.g. Mormons raised outside Utah tended to be more tolerant of diverse customs)
• consequences from the divide fall heavily on children
• pain from the divide is felt broadly
• greater awareness and understanding of others and of oneself helps ease individual and community tension
• conversation about the religious divide can help build a more respectful community

As conversation turns to alcohol laws, seminary during school hours, the City Creek Center and Mormon bashing, we should be mindful of these lessons. Realistic goals must be set. Terri Martin, who was instrumental in Salt Lake City’s Bridging the Religious Divide Project, said, “Instead of bridging the religious divide, we may have to work on living with the divide.”

In Ondaatje’s world, characters dreamed of living in a world without maps and divisions. Salt Lake City’s Bridging the Religious Divide Project began with an optimism reflected in its title. The challenge of addressing the religious divide is the challenge of breaking the silence.