faith and young people

Jesus once summarised the divine law into two commandments. “Love God and love your neighbour” was his pithy sound-bite.

As the sectarian violence within and between faith communities continue to rage in Iraq and beyond I often speculate as to how we can apply Jesus’ teachings into this arena.

It seems to me that the most effective way is through an educational encounter between young members of different faiths. One project I was involved with in Birmingham was called Young People and Faith. It was designed by an inner city schools worker called Andrew Smith. He drew up an educational program which he felt would help to encounter the ignorance and prejudice which was a daily feature in the life of inner city school students.To see this project in action was a wonderful experience. Two groups of students representing different faiths (on this day it was Christian and Muslim) were to spend the day together. The morning started with ‘icebreaker’ type questions such as “What kind of music do you enjoy listening to?” “What are your favourite movies?” “What do you do at the weekend?” And so on.

They did talk about their religion and described their religious communal life and how they felt and experienced their respective faith. There was no proselytizing but rather a sharing of what God meant to them. There was also a basic introduction to both faiths given by a representative of that faith.

What really united the young people however was their shared sense of injustice and their common concerns about drug abuse, bullying and prejudice.As the day progressed, it was so encouraging to see the atmosphere transform from mutual wariness to a warm and light acceptance. Laughter broke out, jokes were shared. The end of the day was marked by going out to a bowling alley where the two groups mixing freely now, swapped phone numbers and e-mail addresses with promises of keeping in touch. For those young people, barriers of ignorance and hostility had been breached with trust and laughter. It is difficult to be prejudiced against someone who is your friend.

All this was achieved in the space of one day. Clearly it will take a lot longer for the damaged young people in places like Iraq and Palestine. It is not impossible though. For example, summer camps bringing together Palestinian youth and Jewish youth have done much to neutralise the hatred fostering in their young hearts towards one another. It is but just a small step in seeking to “Love God and love our neighbour.”