USU’s first ever Speed Faithing event
“With all thy getting, get understanding.” This phrase, taken from Proverbs 4:7, is one which students of Utah State University are familiar with. It hangs in the entryway of the Merrill-Cazier Library. The phrase also served as the theme for USU’s first ever ‘speed faithing’ event held Wednesday night in the Taggart Student Center Auditorium.
“Tonight is not a debate, it is not about proselyting, it is about getting information,” said Randy Williams, Fife Folklore Archives Curator for the Library. “When we leave here tonight we will have gotten some information, we will have gotten understanding.”
The speed faithing event was the second event held this year by the USU Interfaith Initiative, with the first being the visit of Eboo Patel, the founder of the Chicago-based Interfaith Youth Core, on Sept. 4. The goal of the speed faithing event was to establish an atmosphere where students could share their own experiences with their faith as well as learn about others of different faiths.
“Our goal here is to create safe spaces so that people feel more comfortable sharing who they are,” said Bonnie Glass-Coffin, faculty director of the Interfaith Initiative. “We are here to build religious literacy and learn how religion can be a force of good in the world and to break down barriers between students.”
The event consisted of three parts: the panel discussion, a question and answer session for members of the panel, then lastly the speed faithing portion. Despite the event being called speed faithing, the majority of the event consisted of dialogue from members of the Interfaith Initiative.
The panel consisted of six students of different backgrounds who are involved with the USU Interfaith Initiative organization. They included representatives from six different religions: LDS, Islam, Agnosticism, Christianity, Peruvian Shamanism and Buddhism. The first portion consisted of the panel answering predetermined questions about themselves, how their beliefs has influenced their experience as an Aggie, and why they are involved in interfaith work.
“None of us speak for our entire faith, but we are all experts on our own experience with our respective religions,” Glass-Coffin said. “So that is where we will focus our interaction with each other tonight.”
After that was the question and answer portion which was again directed to panel members. The three questions asked were: what are the basic beliefs of Peruvian Shamanism? Being a Muslim, what are your beliefs on the life before birth and the afterlife? How does prayer influence you?
The last portion was the speed faithing portion of the event. Glass-Coffin gave a briefing to participants before they began.
“This is a very public space and yet the things that we share with one another go fundamentally to the core of who we really are so it is really important for us to observe one of the most important safe space rules which is: what happens in the TSC Auditorium, stays in the TSC Auditorium.”
The questions started very similarly to what one might expect whilst speed dating: where are you from, who do you look up to? As the questions progressed the topics turned to traditions, beliefs and experiences from one’s respective religion.
The majority of participants were members of the LDS faith, but even when attendees ‘speed faithed’ with those who shared religious identity, they were still able to learn about their intra-faith differences as well as those that were interfaith.
“There is also a lot of intra-faith differences in like the LDS faith and Catholicism, in addition to interfaith differences that we need to build bridges between,” Glass-Coffin said.
Camrie George, a senior majoring in literary arts, went to the event in hopes of learning more about the doctrine of other religions.
“I find other faiths very interesting so I wanted to know more about them,” she said. “There are not many events like this where you can talk to specific individuals who living the religion day in, day out.”
George left that night somewhat disappointed; she was expecting the event to be a bit different in structure.
“I thought there would be a lot more interaction and discussion about doctrines and information on religion and it was kind of more about the purpose of interfaith, which is good and helpful but I think there is a way that we can learn about other people’s religions as well.”
USU students will have additional opportunities to learn more about the beliefs of their fellow students by attending other Interfaith Initiative events throughout the school year.
“We should be putting on events about once a month, it’s all up to the student leaders,” Glass-Coffin said. “Some of the events will be more dialogue based and others more service based.”
The next event will be the opening social for the Interfaith Initiative which is due to be held October 1 at 7 p.m. in the LLC Multipurpose Room where students will be able to get to know learn more about the organization and meet its leaders.