The most momentous issue of the 20th century, W.E.B. Dubois asserted, was “the problem of the color line.” Presidential adviser and founder of the Interfaith Youth Core, Eboo Patel proposed to National Public Radio that the problem of the 21st century is “the faith line.” Patel argues that the “faith line” in modern society is divided by “religious pluralists” on one side and “religious totalitarians” on the other. Religious pluralists understand civic interaction and responsibility in terms of active cooperation, service in the community, and interfaith dialogue with the goal of understanding and respecting more fully adherents of other faiths and persons of no faith. Religious totalitarians, conversely, stand on the other side of the “faith line” and believe they alone have the right answers to life’s big questions.

This academic year, students at the University of Wisconsin have been engaging this “faith line” in response to the White House Interfaith and Community Service Campus Challenge, a project endorsed by President Obama. Obama’s call supports the idea that interfaith dialogue and service is an essential expression of American civic order, responsibility and social justice, not an optional exercise. The core idea behind the White House Initiative is that college students have the potential to be the vanguard of a national interfaith social movement. Patel uses the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee as a model: Young people on college campuses are perfectly poised to articulate a demand for change because they have energy, power, voice and education. Badgers have a long history of being strong, social activists. Before this year, however, faith rarely has played a dominant factor in social activism on campus.

The UW-Madison White House Initiative of 2011-2012 has put a substantial number of religious and secular groups into dialogue. Units like the Lubar Institute for the Study of Abrahamic Religions, the Morgridge Center for Public Service, and the Multicultural Student Center, along with student organizations like the Atheists, Humanists and Agnostics; the Buddhist Study Group; Hillel; the Malaysian Student Association; the Muslim Student Association; Pres House and The Crossing have worked together on projects serving the campus and greater Madison community through the Badger Volunteers Interfaith Teams, Love Thy Neighbor Day of Service and Savory Sunday. These groups, along with students without a specific group affiliation, have attended numerous workshops and lectures throughout the year, addressing important historical and current religious issues. (For a full list of events, go to http://lisar.lss.wisc.edu/whitehouse.html).

These service projects, workshops and lectures have created a physical space in which students can talk about religion outside their respective faith communities. For those who have been involved in the Interfaith Initiative, Eboo Patel’s lecture, “Interfaith Leadership in a Time of Global Crisis,” upcoming on April 30 (Tripp Commons, Memorial Union, 7:30 p.m.), is a capstone event for a year of social service, expanded horizons, new friendships and deep reflection. For a majority of the students, faculty and staff on campus, however, the Interfaith Initiative did not register.

Yes, UW is a public university, but our stance toward faith, like race, gender or sexual orientation, is a part of each of our identities and should be promoted as part of the campus’ commitment to diversity and equity far more robustly than it is. For too long, UW-Madison has ignored the role that religion plays in society at large and in the lives of students, faculty and staff.

For me, the interfaith movement is powerful because the people involved have been mobilized to action by a shared, yet extremely diverse, devotion to some transcendent object: a divine being, an ordered universe or sense of moral responsibility to the community. Interfaith dialogue and service aim to improve religious literacy. The more one talks about one’s own faith and listens to others talk about theirs, the better one can enunciate the most personal and complex theological and philosophical topics.

Through open discussion, one becomes open to accepting people of different persuasions. They also become increasingly literate and confident about talking about faith. The “other” becomes known, takes on a face and name, and may become a friend. Through this process of familiarization, the Pentecostal belief in the gift of tongues or the Muslim practice of wearing hijab no longer seem odd, but rather represent examples of how groups express communion or supplication to God. Interfaith conversation has an exceptional capacity to deepen our collective religious literacy and make a significant impact on national politics and the world.

But let’s start small. For those already involved in interfaith, I challenge you to speak louder and engage more earnestly in service. For those who are inactive, I challenge you to walk the “faith line,” to confront the 21st century problem, and, through frank discussion, enter into community service, befriend persons of differing beliefs, and be willing to interrogate gently the foundations of those belief systems. Whether the Patel lecture is for you the capstone event of 2011-2012 or the inaugural event of 2012-2013, let us send a message to Bascom Hill that one’s stance towards (or against) faith is an important aspect of student identity.

Ariana Horn ([email protected]) is a Ph.D. student in history and a Project Assistant for the Lubar Institute for the Study of Abrahamic Religions.