Religious Diversity is My Day Job. The Hamline Muhammad Controversy Isn’t Easy.
January 13, 2023

I recently spent two weeks at home with my family before returning to Chicago and my work at Interfaith America. The time at home was restorative and joyful, and also full of polite silences that make the diversity of viewpoints in our family navigable.
When I came back to the office I quickly learned about the events at Hamline University in St. Paul, Minnesota. A simple summary: after warnings to students, both verbal and written, an art history educator showed an image of the Prophet Muhammed. An observant Muslim student, whose tradition prohibits the display of an image of the Prophet, complained to the educator and the administration. The story took root in campus conversations and ultimately the educator’s future contracts were canceled.
I’m a leader in an organization committed to engaging religious diversity in the United States, so you might guess that I can offer remedies to what occurred, that perhaps I have insights on how each participant might have acted differently so that a more harmonious result would have occurred. Maybe I will have data-backed reasons to say which side to take and which outcome would have been best.
Spoiler alert: I don’t. But, in addition to it being my actual job to think about how to navigate religious differences to strengthen our diverse democracy, I also have lived in deeply diverse communities. My adult life has centered on staying in relationship with those communities, finding ways to remain connected even when it’s hard, even when headlines say I shouldn’t, even when the tension between who I am trying to be and the values of communities I hold dear seem too great.
To me, the work of navigating fundamental differences in service of building community is work worth doing.
Knowing what I do about the events at Hamline, it seems like the student acted in accordance with her understanding of her faith commitments. The educator acted in accordance with her understanding of her professional commitments. The administration decided to take action.
The administration’s action reminded me of something I observed during my time at home. When the conversation turned difficult, we erred on the side of action. We all rushed to change the subject whenever my cousin brought up her views on gender and sexuality. I politely attended church services rather than explain my unbelief to my parents. My family has a preference towards action when awkward moments or polite silences, brimming with disagreements we would rather ignore or realities that threaten our happy cohesion, emerge.
To me, the work of navigating fundamental differences in service of building community is work worth doing.
These strategies are not unique to my family or even unique to families. In diverse communities, it is easy to find silences born of a consensus that broaching a subject with depth, articulating an observation, might result in disaster. Ostracization. Isolation.
Such fears have firm foundations. Countless moments in history show how words can beget grudges that beget feuds that beget wars. Friendships gone cold or the family members we no longer speak to litter our smaller histories with examples of the wrong word’s power.
I wonder how often the fear of lost relationship occludes the possibility of transformative community. What would happen if I talked honestly with my dad about what it means to practice the lovingkindness I learned from him outside the context of a faith tradition? What would happen if I got curious about my cousin’s views and listened without the intent to change her mind, no matter how much I disagreed?
A common misconception of interfaith work is that it always results in dulcet outcomes, our differences simply a funny misunderstanding or just a need to see things from another’s perspective. That’s true. Sometimes.
And sometimes the differences are irreconcilable. Too irreconcilable to gloss over or minimize or dismiss. So irreconcilable that the differences overwhelm the room. The relationship. The possibility for connection.
Those differences might seem like a betrayal of the promise of interfaith work. Those differences seem to expose the limits of the skills of interfaith leadership.
Maybe.
For me, these differences reveal a latent risk of doing interfaith work: that this work invites us to stay in relationship with people with whom we disagree. Deeply. That this work invites us to stay our actions and create space where uncomfortable, perhaps even irreconcilable, conversations can occur. That this work invites us to sit in uncertainty, while still remaining open and vulnerable when relating to others. That this work invites us to keep coming to the table over and over and over and over and over again, even when solutions elude us.
This work invites us to stay in relationship with people with whom we disagree.
It is nice when interfaith work results in a clean outcome and most parties are satisfied with the results. But the reality of interfaith work also includes discordant moments like what is unfolding at Hamline. Moments that seem to snowball towards hard lines and narrowing conversations. Moments where attempts at reconciliation or repair seem naively hopeful.
In these moments, it might be helpful to remember that we live in a world where exclaiming We did it is often celebrated more than We’re trying. We like neat and tidy things. But in moments like these, We’re trying is the better mark of successful interfaith work. Trying to remain curious and open while extending compassion to others and self, whether or not a resolution is possible, is an unsung skill of interfaith leadership. Trying doesn’t guarantee success. But it does keep community. It increases the chance for connection. And if a possibility for reconciliation or repair emerges, it’s the folks who are still practicing the interfaith skill of trying who will be poised to receive it.
LaTanya Lane is Director of the Interfaith Leadership Institute at Interfaith America.
Share
Related Articles
Higher Education
American Civic Life
American Civic Life
Work in Progress: Learning and Relearning to Build a More Perfect Union

January 31
Art, Religion, & Academic Freedom
Join us as a distinguished panel of educators discuss the recent events at Hamline University and suggest constructive ways for leaders in higher education and other sectors to navigate conflicts in a religiously diverse democracy.
Register Now