Green Eggs & Ham?

 "I do not like green eggs and ham, Sam-I-Am!" 

     This fall I began offering a program called "Beans in a Cup". Developed by a former chaplain (The Rev. Dr. Timothy Moore), it is an interactive program centered around religious diversity, both nationally and on campus, as well as students' experience with religion.  It is heavily data-informed, from multiple national and local polls/surveys. Questions range from "How many Americans pray regularly?" to "What's the percentage of students who claim [religion x] as their tradition?" Attendees then "vote" their answer by putting a bean in one of eleven cups ranging from 0% to 100%. Conversation commences with the prompt: "Why do you think that?" Often the answer to that question has to do with limited experience of "the other" (such as "My high school was very mono-cultural").
      In addition to the "percentage" questions, there are also a number of True/False questions. These tend to be less "tricky" (since many of the students reflect the answers). But one question I really love discussing is:  "In general, exploring your faith while, also, exploring and interacting with other faiths makes you less faithful to your own tradition."   The answer (I hope you know) is "False". Again, I always ask "Why do you think that?" when the answer is confirmed. The responses usually center around two main ideas. First, putting one's own tradition in conversation with another often reveals common themes, which can strengthen one's security in their own thinking. And, second, putting one's own tradition in conversation with another can evoke the realization that "Gee, I never thought about it that way!"
       Part of the reason I love asking that particular question is that I have heard, from more than one sector of the religious world (and truth be told, most often from parents), that if students are exposed to another tradition, they might flee "home" and convert. Clearly the data (i.e., the self-reported experience of university students) indicates otherwise! Asking the question, and the resultant discussion, also gives me the opportunity to encourage exploration!

Would you? Could you? In a car?
Eat them! Eat them! Here they are. 

        Today, I am also going to encourage exploration! This evening we begin our first Religious Awareness Week at DU. A dream of mine for some time, we're finally able to offer a wide variety of opportunities for folks to explore something new, religiously. You can worship with Jewish, Catholic, Protestant, Bakhti and Muslim friends. You can hear varying perspectives on how different faith traditions have undergone, or are undergoing "reformation". You can recount what kind of personal "reformations" you've experience, religious or otherwise. You can even post your "thesis" for reform on a red door (and see what others think!). A full schedule of events can be found here; you're bound to find something you may like!

Say! I like green eggs and ham! I do! I like them, Sam-I-am!
And I would eat them in a boat. And I would eat them with a goat...
and I will eat them in the rain. And in the dark. And on a train.
And in a car. And in a tree. They are so good, so good, you see!
So I will eat them in a box. And I will eat them with a fox.
And I will eat them in a house. And I will eat them with a mouse.
And I will eat them here and there. Say! I will eat them ANYWHERE!
I do so like green eggs and ham! Thank you! Thank you, Sam-I-am!*

Namasté

Gary

*From Green Eggs and Ham, by Dr. Seuss (1960). Text retrieved from http://www.thebestclass.org/uploads/5/6/2/4/56249715/green_eggs_and_ha1.pdf