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ON COMMON GROUND Guide for Teachers and Students
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curriculum in a multireligious America. And what about hospitals? How are these important institutions beginning to address medical care for a widely diverse patient population?
For Teachers and Students: Questions and Projects
1. Encountering Religious Diversity
When you watch the movie Building Bridges, listen carefully to what each person has to say about religious differences and interreligious encounters.
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How do they suggest that people of one faith might view the diversity of faiths? What are their attitudes toward religious differences in U.S. society? What experiences of interfaith dialogue do they describe? Where do these dialogues take place?
Having thought about these questions and taken some notes, watch the movie again and discuss it in class or in a small group.
Make your own contribution to the movie by writing a one-page essay on the most important encounter you have had with someone of another faith. If you do not belong to a religious tradition, write about the most important encounter you have had with a person who is deeply religious
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What was important about the encounter? What attitudes toward religion or religious differences were expressed in that encounter? Did you learn anything about the other person? About yourself?
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2. Perspectives on Religious Differences
What attitudes toward religious difference have shaped the United States? What historical encounters of religions, cultures, races, and ethnicities does America bring to the multireligious challenges of today?
Use the Historical Perspectives section to think about these questions and to investigate the historical encounter of Americans of different religious traditions. Choose one of the selections under Historical Perspectives, study the essay, and read the documents. If the documents are long, divide them up among a group of three or four. Try to place them in their historical context. What perspectives do these documents offer on the encounters of people of different religious traditions?
For example, the "Native Americans and Christians" section contains letters and reports by early Christian missionaries, letters from Roger Williams and William Penn on the treatment of Native peoples, statements by Red Jacket and Chief Joseph about their experience with the newcomers to America, and two late-twentieth-century documents—the Native American Religious Freedom Act and "A Public Declaration and Apology" made by church leaders to the Native Americans of the Pacific Northwest.
