I hope that everyone celebrating Pesach, Easter, and other spring holidays had a meaningful and blessed weekend. This week, in particular, I’m carrying the moral leadership of the late Jorge Mario Bergoglio, better known as Pope Francis, who in his final message this Easter urged us “to hope anew and to revive our trust in others, including those who are different than ourselves.”
In keeping with this season’s themes of rebirth and redemption, I have been thinking a lot about Interfaith America’s role in nurturing our society into a season of renewed commitment to our foundational principles.
Recently, I shared some of these reflections in an opinion piece for Religion News Service. I highlight that the five freedoms of the First Amendment – freedom of speech, religion, press, assembly, and petition – have long been held as sacrosanct values to all Americans, liberals and conservatives alike.
While I had long known that the late Supreme Court justices Antonin Scalia and Ruth Bader Ginsburg had been close personal friends, I was recently reminded of an interview they conducted together during which, despite their radically different approaches to jurisprudence, they enthusiastically agreed that constitutional rights apply “to everyone who is in the United States, whether they’re citizens or not.” As I argue in the piece, it is vital to the functioning and flourishing of pluralism that we live in a society that upholds and defends fundamental civic rights for all.
It is in this context that I am especially excited to share that Interfaith America is taking the case for pluralism to the streets, quite literally. Beginning last week, Interfaith America will be featured on a giant digital billboard (above) in one of the most diverse locations in the country: Times Square, New York City. Our 30-second spot illustrates the beauty and importance of pluralism with a focal message: diversity makes our country stronger. If you don’t already, follow us on social media to watch as we engage our network and the diversity of Times Square around this message.
If that were not enough, I am also pleased to share that our founder and president, Eboo Patel, played a large role in shaping – and is directly quoted in – a feature piece in The New Yorker about the movement for pluralism in higher education.
Friends, the time for pluralism is now. I am honored to be working alongside you in making it so.
