Rev. Dr. Jimmie Wafer Reflects on InterFaith Community Values Project

Rev. Dr. Jimmie Wafer Reflects on InterFaith Community Values Project

Rev. Dr. Jimmie Wafer, Pastor of New Mt. Zion Missionary Baptist Church and board member of the Interfaith Leadership Council, offered these remarks to the IFLC Community Stakekholders Meeting, November 2021. 

Good afternoon to all, and welcome to the beginning of an excellent opportunity to initiate incredible moments of reflective, insightful, and transformative experiences. We believe that our community is at a difficult crossroads. Our public lives have devolved into expressions of our resentments. Rather than looking upon our diverse community as a source of hope and potential joy, we are too often fearful. We need to do something about this. And so, we come today to present a proposal, The Interfaith Community Values Project.

I feel a growing excitement deep within about the challenging Interfaith Leadership Council Community Values Project. The genesis of this project is IFLC. But the concept includes all people of goodwill who desire to come together to share and hear values that incentivize the growth of the “Beloved Community.” We seek to foster a unique community where humanity thrives, encouraging every individual to be significantly prosperous and freely express the inclusive community-building values they hold dear. We endeavor to co-create a forum with you and many others that solicit and encourage the sharing morals they depend on and trust to build, grow, and maintain critical relationships and robust communities.

Today is a challenging and critical moment that informs us of a variable history that propels us to bring forth a collective and truthful articulation of the peculiar values and mindsets that we hold dearly and defend with all our hearts, minds, and souls. We are equal creations by the Sovereign of the universe, members of humanity, citizens of this country, and an integral part of the world given the privilege of living on this terrestrial ball—earth! We identify as progressive intellectuals, but collectively we choose to live in webs of confusion that trap us in many kinds of hateful and destructive responses to fundamental human qualities. It appears that our comfortable places of influence have become cauldrons full of deception and destruction with the ability to hold us hostage and diminish our potential and desire to contribute to a fruitful inclusive “Beloved Community.” We seek the formation of a unique community that values the essence of every person whose being articulates a relationship with the Supreme Power of the universe distinctly, uniquely, and contributes to the collective entity of humanity. IFLC often inserts its wisdom into many situations where progressive, diverse, and transformative ideas give radical new ways to hear, address, and offer unifying alternatives to challenging conditions that ordinarily foster division, hate, and destruction.

We, IFLC, consist of various faith traditions. However, we are unapologetically here to entertain the value of listening and hearing the importance values dear to people of goodwill. We offer this invitation hoping and trusting that solutions will emerge from many radical discussions of precious matters that will become transformative when listened to and appreciated. We hope this will be the beginning of a movement where listening and understanding will add an abundance of moments that lead to inclusive interactions that bring forth appreciation and desire to change and expand the collective mindset that will seek to affirm the value of all creation.

I believe that we gather today with a deep yearning in our hearts to find solutions to the trouble that systematically plagues the land. In a world that knows how to travel to the moon, Mars, and unimaginable distances, billions of miles, into space, and we are woefully unable to bridge the gap between various beliefs and traditions. We all know that transformation can happen when we are willing to learn from each other. We learn when we encounter others with open ears and minds that can hear and appreciate their essence and values. A great question that opens hearts and minds is what makes you tick and the values that give you self-worth that can change how others see and appreciate you and your contribution to the world. We challenge you to encounter someone seeking to understand and appreciate their sense of their value as a human being. They are an essential part of this adventure of being and living because they are vital pieces of this interdependent puzzle of life in the community. It is a valuable assurance to know that we all hold different and critical unknown components, and we cannot make a successful journey without each other.  Our radical hospitality and kindness to others are so much about how the power of understanding their values changes us, presents tremendous opportunity, and opens our minds to how we may influence them to encounter us in a different light.

We offer what appears to be a radical exercise in awareness of self and others. The past mars our lives in what we perceive as positive and negative persuasive moments. The radical realization for me is that moment is beyond my ability to change it, and I am powerless to go back to change what happened, but I can change how the past influenced my life. So, I must have a comprehensive understanding of the past and how it affects me to move and express my being in a relationship with other people and the whole of creation. Once I know who taught me what I know, I am free to examine, evaluate, and overcome the influences of generational sins (mindsets) that limit my life and community vitality. This realization gives radical insight into a brave new kind of existence that combats the evil targeting the weak, uninformed, misinformed, and indifferent. Life in the twenty-first century shows us that an unexamined position of strength is naïve and dangerous. We are created fragile, vulnerable, and dependent human beings uniquely reliant on each other and therefore only as strong as the weakest segment of society. We are here, and I believe the universe has some requirements of you and me? Listen to these words from the prophet Micah, “He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” (Micah 6:8).

Let us strengthen the chain by listening to the values of the valuable connections that possess radical solutions. We propose the following Nine Noble Community Values as starting points to focus life-changing and community-building moments of discussion and listening.

We will begin with and explore:

Radical Respect for one another

Curiosity – especially Curiosity about our differences

 Humility

Mutuality

Compassion and Care for the Stranger

Demanding Ethics – recognizing that what we believe is often very hard to achieve yet necessary that we try.

Conscious Anti-Bigotry

Creation Care

By their Fruits – recognizing how our actions have consequences for others

Those are at least some of the social values that have emerged from interfaith work over the years. No doubt there are more or, if not more, we will certainly discover different ways to express them. In our diverse community, there is much to learn.

Award-winning Birmingham Educator Rick Joseph Named New Chairman of World Sabbath

 

After 20 years, World Sabbath, a Detroit faith-based event that brings youth and adults together one Sunday each year to offer prayers of peace as an answer to global wars and conflict, is changing leadership. Birmingham language arts and social studies teacher Rick Joseph, who in 2016 was recognized by the Northwest Evaluation Association as Michigan Teacher of the Year, will take over the chairmanship position as Gail Katz steps down after 20 years of involvement and service.

 

Usually held in March, World Sabbath draws hundreds of worshippers and participants into a house of prayer into a multi-sensory experience with prayers, songs, and dance. Planning a future event will be a challenge due to the ongoing pandemic, Joseph acknowledges. The next in-person World Sabbath is not slated until early 2022 and is set to be hosted by Temple Israel. To mark the day in 2021, Joseph hopes he can coordinate with local religious leaders and educators to create an online compilation and collection of expressions and prayers for peace across Detroit’s diverse faith population. 

 

Joseph believes that World Sabbath is the embodiment of “what makes us spiritual beings and is a celebration of the ties that bind us in how we come together in peace to acknowledge the Creator.”

Children participating in the Parade of Flags, World Sabbath

“Coming together as we do each year at World Sabbath helps create a more peaceful loving world. I am looking forward to cultivating relationships with local religious and educational leaders to increase the diversity represented at World Sabbath.  

 

As a social studies teacher, Joseph always encourages his students to have deeper conversations by asking hard and sometimes uncomfortable questions to learn how to respectfully engage in civic discourse. Joseph said that sometimes, questions that can come off as offensive are okay if they are framed in a curious, non-accusatory manner. When a student learns effective communication tools such as how to ask questions on sensitive topics, everyone comes out ahead if it means those questions lead to learning and understanding more about another student’s religious or ethnic backgrounds. 

 

“There are no elephants in my classroom. No topic – religion, politics, race – is off the table. And though sometimes some questions or opinions raised by one student may seem offensive or even bigoted to another, I see them asking the question from a point of curiosity. It is then my job to reframe the question so it will have constructive and educational results.”

Joseph looks forward to his new role and hopes to continue Katz’s legacy of “creating community wherever she goes and whomever she comes in contact with.”

“Gail Katz is truly one of the most inspiring educators that I know. She is a true role model for me. From her work on World Sabbath to starting Religious Diversity Journeys, she has shepherded and facilitated relationships that span across religious differences and across Metro Detroit. She is somebody whom I aspire to and will continue to learn from as I move into this position.”

 

As a Catholic, Joseph looks to the verse from the Book of Matthew 5:9 “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God” for inspiration as he embarks on this new leadership chapter in his life to encouraging others across faiths to seek to achieve peace. He is eager to work with other faith leaders who can bring youth from different faith and ethnic perspectives together for future World Sabbath events. 

 

There is a possibility that there will be an online event in 2021 and for that, he is seeking people to submit videos illustrating peace practices in their religious traditions, rituals, or texts. 

 

A World Sabbath History

 

In 2000, Detroit area pastors Rev. Rod Reinhart and Rev. Ed Mullins introduced Katz to the program concept as they sought to create an annual peace event for clergy as a reaction to wars going on around the world.

 

When Rev. Reinhart and Rev. Mullins departed the Detroit area in 2004 and turned the coordination of World Sabbath over to Katz.

 

At the time, she was a Middle School teacher so she put her own spin on the event by asking area youth to participate and offer prayers of peace instead of clergy.

 

Twenty years later, Katz said it is time to “pass the championship torch on” to Joseph.

 

“I’m looking forward to staying on the World Sabbath committee and watching Rick take over as the new chairman of the World Sabbath, who will add his own insights and new ideas to the event as he encourages his own students to become involved in projects that increase their understanding of diversity.”

 

IFLC’s Educational Programs Make No One Feel like “The Other”

By Gail Katz

I spent my early childhood and my elementary school years in Silver Spring, Maryland, in a rather non-Jewish neighborhood.

I was one of a few Jewish children in my school.  The memories that have stuck with me are ones of feeling different from my neighbors and my classmates, although I was never bullied. I started each morning bowing my head with all the other children and saying the Lord’s Prayer in my public school classroom, and even in my sleep today I can recite “Our Father, who art in Heaven, hallowed be thy name.” I remember my third grade teacher asking my mother to come to my classroom in December to talk to my classmates about the “Jewish Christmas” – oh yes, Chanukah!! 

My Judaism mostly revolved around the holidays which my parents acknowledged – Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Passover and Hanukkah, but other than that, I had no idea what being Jewish meant.  My brother went to Hebrew school to prepare for his Bar Mitzvah, but girls were not expected back in the 1950s to get any real Jewish education.  So as a child, I felt conspicuous for not knowing how to read or recite the Hebrew prayers, and when we did go to synagogue on the high holidays, I would sit next to my father, playing with the “tsitsit” (the fringes) on his tallit (prayer shawl), waiting impatiently to go home.  There was always this sense of anger inside me that I didn’t fit in at school or in my Jewish community.

These days we need to encourage and grow the understanding of “the other” more than ever. Just as it is important to instill a curiosity to learn about each other’s faith in children, the IFLC over the past 12 years has offered adult classes, panel discussions, and informal lectures – often free and open to the public

– Gail Katz, IFLC board member, founder of Religious Diversity Journeys

When I was 12 years old, my father got a job with Ford Motor Company and we moved to Oak Park, a community that was about 85 percent Jewish. But I still felt different and was a target for bullying in junior high school as the “new kid”, the “quiet kid,” and “the nerd.” My sense of outrage at not being given respect for being different from the “cool” kids laid the foundation for my later passion in helping students organize diversity clubs.

While all of this was unfolding, my mother’s father came from Far Rockaway, New York to live with us in Oak Park. My Grandpa Aron was very religious, spoke mostly Yiddish, and reminisced with my mother about his old county, Russia, which was Poland when my mother was born there, and today is part of Belarus.

It was my grandfather’s and my mother’s immigrant backgrounds that inspired me to become an English as a Second Language teacher in the Berkley Public Schools. I saw how these ESL students felt ostracized because of their struggle with the English language, their different cultures and religions and their different economic status. I formed a diversity club called STARS (Students Taking a Right Stand) to help address these problems among others.

It was during my teaching career in the Berkley School District that I noticed an article in the Jewish News about a grant that the Jewish Community Relations Council received to sponsor a Religious Diversity Initiative. It didn’t take long for me to get on the committee, then chair the committee, and finally become the coordinator of the program entitled the Religious Diversity Journeys (RDJ) for Seventh graders, which is now a cornerstone program of the InterFaith Leadership Council that has had a lasting impact on thousands of students since 1993.

This program promotes greater awareness and understanding of the many religions prevalent in Metro Detroit and prepares students for life in our increasingly diverse society. The concept of kids in the seventh grade being welcomed into different houses of worship, where they can learn about religions in a non-intimidating environment, where they are encouraged to ask as many questions as they want with the host clergy and volunteer congregants, fits so naturally into the Michigan state required curriculum on World Religions in the social studies curriculum. RDJ can help that one seventh grader who may be the only Muslim or Sikh kid in their class – just like I was the only Jewish kid in my class back in Silver Spring, MD – feel less like “the other.”

These days we need to encourage and grow that understanding of “the other” more than ever. Just as it is important to instill a curiosity to learn about each other’s faith in children, the IFLC over the past 12 years has offered adult classes, panel discussions, and informal lectures – often free and open to the public – to learn about religions through the study of comparative texts, religious symbols, music and traditional clothing.

Though we may need to remain physically separated during the ongoing pandemic, the IFLC will continue to provide opportunities to keep us spiritually and intellectually connected. RDJ will connect more children in the tri-county area than ever before through a virtual program teaching them about Judaism, Hinduism, Sikhism, Islam, and Christianity. And this fall, the IFLC will unveil a virtual, docent-led expedition delving into how ten different Detroit-area artist express their faith through their art.

Programming like this takes much tech-savvy planning and cannot happen without your generosity. The IFLC is very thankful to our supporters. Without you, such past programming, and the friendships that result, would not be possible. With continued support, the IFLC will continue to meet the challenge of teaching others about religion, so that no one ever feels like “the other.” We seek to continue and expand these programs through support from people like you.  Please consider a donation through www.detroitinterfaithcouncil.com, or by clicking on the Donate button below. And once again, thank you.

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In Times of Crisis, IFLC Continues the Work of Building the Beloved Community

Dr. Daniel Buttry

In many ways, doing Interfaith work at first is much like dating. We tread carefully around each other, afraid that we might say something wrong, or that what is precious to us won’t be valued. We dream of good, mutually-affirming and respectful relationships, but what we often end up with is shallow and sometimes wimpy feel-good religious mush.

 

But in our nearly 20 years of work since the crushing terror attacks of September 11, 2001, IFLC with many local interfaith organizations has moved the concept of interfaith work way past the dating phase and has moved into deeper relationships with other faiths. Relationships that can both take on the long-term commitments of building better communities, but also relationships that will be strong enough to stand up to the purveyors of fear, hatred and violence.

 

Because we have taken the time to go beyond the superficiality of first dates through forging deep relationships, we know who to turn to in times of crisis. 

 

For example, when radical Christian Terry Jones threatened to demonstrate with White Supremacists and burn a Koran in front of the Islamic Center of America in Dearborn in June of 2014, IFLC countered this act of hatred and 1,000 clergy and lay leaders from across all faiths gathered on the steps of the ICA as a show of support. 

 

When in October of 2018 supremacists carried out the largest slaughter of Jews  in US history at the Pittsburgh Tree of Life Synagogue,  and then when in 2019 a terrorist committed a senseless murder of Muslims praying in a mosque in Christchurch, New Zealand, IFLC again led the way to bring our neighbors together to mourn and cope with our grief. 

 

But we need not have a crisis to come together. For adults, IFLC will continue to offer educational programs such as “Exploring Religious Landscapes”  and “Ask a..” These have proven to be meaningful, personable and informal dialogues about religion, though now we are working to bring them to you in a virtual way.  

 

Through technology and the ingenuity of our board, staff and area educators, Religious Diversity Journeys, our experiential world religions program for 7th graders, will go on virtually for hundreds of local schoolchildren.  RDJ for nearly 13 years has brought children of different faiths together to celebrate our religious differences.   RDJ answers the question of will our religious differences tear each other apart or give us a richness in building a better community? 

 

RDJ is our cornerstone program. It has impacted students, families, educators and school administrators could not have happened without the generosity of our donors. 

 

There’s so much more to do. In a time where our country is facing multiple pandemics from Cornoavirus, racism and religious bigotry, this is the time for more interfaith dialogue rather than less and for a time to go beyond dialogue. IFLC since the pandemic has continued to provide educational and social resources where people can find help and ease feelings of isolation. We have responded to this summer’s scourge of hatred towards our black neighbors and have provided information for congregations grappling with the question of how to open their buildings safely so congregants can worship together again in the near future. 

 

IFLC is ever thankful to our supporters. Without you, such past programming, and the friendships that result, would not be possible. With continued support, IFLC will continue to meet the challenge of building the beloved community. It starts this fall with the launch of our new Faith and Works podcast, a new, video-enhanced lecture series that delves into how faith shapes artistic expression, and continued growth of RDJ. 

We seek to continue and expand these programs through support from people like you. Please consider a donation through www.detroitinterfaithcouncil.com , or by clicking on the Donate button below.

 

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CNN Hero Najah Bazzy asks IFLC friends, patrons, to be ambassadors of love at organization’s 1st Virtual Annual Luncheon

CNN Hero Najah Bazzy asks IFLC friends, patrons, to be ambassadors of love at organization’s 1st Virtual Annual Luncheon

In its first virtual annual meeting and luncheon, the Detroit Interfaith Leadership Council welcomed Najah Bazzy, a critical care nurse, CNN Hero and CEO and founder of Zaman International to deliver the keynote address and kick off the organizational focus and theme for the year: Hate Has No Home Where Love Abides.
“Between the pandemic of Coronavirus and the pandemic of racial inequality, this year has hit us with a lot of reckoning,” said IFLC President Raman Singh. She said IFLC’s strategic plan reflects this reality of raising awareness of the social and racial inequities in our society during a pandemic and a divisive election year. “IFLC will continue to move forward, thinking of ways to keep people connected even though we need to remain physically isolated. It is now more important than ever to maintain connections with our faith and interfaith communities. These are people with whom we can find common values. Often, our faith communities serve as our extended family.”
Before Bazzy’s keynote, IFLC board members briefed about 65 attendees on the Zoom about the organization’s accomplishments in the past year. Particularly, IFLC worked to expand efforts in developing programs that meet at the intersection of faith and healthcare. It partnered with several healthcare organizations to offer online and pre-pandemic in-person seminars on faith-based nursing practices and how different faiths address end-of-life care options and organ donation. There is also an ongoing effort to reach out to clergy to participate in a year-long Diabetes Prevention Program.
IFLC Chair Stancy Adams said such programs would not be possible without partnerships and funding from corporations and organizations such as DTE, Henry Ford Health System, and The Nissan Foundation. In the coming year, Adams said IFLC looks forward to partnering with more organizations and foundations for both financial support as well as supporting other organizations with similar missions.
IFLC Vice Chairman Robert Bruttell introduced Bazzy as a “friend and a spiritual mentor.”
“The words healer and humanitarian just do not put enough emphasis on all that she does,” said Bruttell. “She has shown many just how to undertake intercultural and interfaith work. This is something she has performed all her life, starting when she was at her mother’s side. As a nurse, she has shown that working in the healing profession, one can transcend barriers and differences. This has been her life’s work.”
Najah gave her keynote in a quiet spot from a local hospital where she was tending to her brother who was recovering from surgery from the previous day. Giving her praise to all the front-line workers in the face of this pandemic, she said her stay with her brother in the hospital was just another reminder of how her fellow healthcare professionals push all inequities to the side and just do the work of their life-saving efforts.
“We have a long way to go in healthcare, in balancing out inequities and getting access to healthcare to all. But you can see the goodness in the efforts of our front line healthcare workers.”
Bazzy, who in 2004 founded the humanitarian organization Zaman International, based in Inkster, said all faith backgrounds have a starting point of love in acknowledging God, but the entrances may be different depending on one’s faith.
“If the starting point is the acknowledgment of this Lord, we all enter from different places. Perhaps for you, that entry point is a prayer, or your religious studies, or a significant event in your life. Whatever that point of entry is to become an agent of love, we must look back at that starting point and examine how we have evolved since then.”
Bazzy said the Detroit race riots of 1967, which she bore witness as a child of seven, greatly shaped her identity, her life goals, and her lifelong commitment to racial and social equity.
“I saw my cousins being clubbed for breaking curfew,” Bazzy said. “Seeing that violence as a child made me committed to the idea of racial inequity. But in that violence, I became bound to the great Originator, who makes no mistakes, who created all the nations and tribes of this earth to know one another.”

Bazzy’s keynote left IFLC board members and the interfaith community with two key questions, which we invite you to ponder and respond by leaving us a comment or dropping us a response to stacyiflc@gmail.com:

How is inequality and discrimination on the basis of color an interfaith and religious issue?

How does interfaith work support resilience in light of recent events?

We look forward to your responses as we continue to cope and find resilience in these historic times.

IFLC Will Continue to Create Deep, Meaningful Interfaith Relationships and Offer Hope. Here’s Your Opportunity to Help.

By Rev. Charles Packer

When I was in college, I studied the living traditions of eastern and western religions from a very broad perspective. When I entered the ministry, that interest in learning about other religions, and a desire to study them on an interpersonal level, never left me.

Rev. Charles Packer

As a native Iowan, when I moved to Oakland County in 2015, I greatly appreciated the variety of interfaith programming and educational and cultural opportunities that reflected our community’s diverse population.

It was not long before I began my involvement in the Detroit Interfaith Leadership Council. Within the organization, I began to form meaningful and rewarding friendships with both clergy and lay leaders who shared my interest in first-hand experiences as a means of learning about religion. I have cherished the friendships and conversations that IFLC events have sparked.

 Others who come to IFLC programs have also forged meaningful relationships and friendships, especially after attending one of IFLC’s signature events, such as Exploring Religious Landscapes or “Ask a” programs.

As a member of IFLC’s Community Building Committee, the “Ask a” events were designed to be as non-intimidating and inviting as possible. It involves one house of one faith inviting representatives from another tradition and honestly and graciously answering questions by attendees about how they practice and observe their religion. Over the years, the series has provided the sharing of personal insights and stories from our Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Hindu, Sikh, Pagan and Native American neighbors.

It may sound like a Christian thing to say, but by facilitating the “Ask a” series, I do believe I have found one of my callings in providing anyone in the community who is curious about learning about other faiths to take part and connect in these deeply powerful conversations.

IFLC has benefited me greatly as a pastor. After each program I attend, I bring back new insights and learning resources to my congregants. In turn, my congregation has become involved in interfaith work. This past year, volunteers at my faith community, the Pine Hill Congregational Church,  wholeheartedly dedicated themselves to interfaith work as  a host congregation for the first time to area seventh graders who learn about world religions as participants in IFLC’s flagship program, Religious Diversity Journeys.

For right now, we cannot physically gather at IFLC events. We know that can leave many with feelings of isolation. But the groundwork and the relationships that IFLC established in the years before the pandemic has allowed us to pivot and create online events. As we continue to develop virtual programming, we enable people to leave the close confinements of quarantine and shake off the isolation.

IFLC will continue to provide digital ways for us all to connect with the wider world through the exploration of different religions. In doing so, we recognize that people of different faiths and cultural backgrounds have all had to deal with some kind of loss, be it an economic one, the painful loss of loved ones, or, the spiritual loss of not being able to gather for religious services or cherished holidays.

But by keeping in touch by learning virtually together, IFLC helps us gain an understanding of how our faiths help us find resilience. This encourages me and gives me a measure of hope.

IFLC is ever thankful to our supporters. Without you, such past programming, and the friendships that result, would not be possible. With continued support, IFLC will continue to grow our outreach. It starts this fall with the launch of our new Faith and Works podcast, a new, video-enhanced lecture series that delves into how faith shapes artistic expression, and continued growth of our Religious Diversity Journeys program.

We seek to continue and expand these programs through support from people like you. Please consider a donation through www.detroitinterfaithcouncil.com , or by clicking on the Donate button below.

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Karin Dains Shares Thoughts on Faith, Resilience

Karin Dains

As a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints I continue to look to the future with optimism and faith.  Although the world now suffers great challenges, we all share certain needs:  the ability to worship (or not worship) freely; to maintain faith in the strength and love of families; the ability to obtain education for ourselves and our children; a fervent desire for peaceful interaction even if we do not agree with one another.  

In times of trial, rancor, and enmity, I believe that solutions can be found by turning to God.  As Russell M. Nelson, the President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, has said:  “We can turn to Him for healing of our hearts, for strength where we are weak, and for help to do things we simply cannot do on our own.”

I believe that we are all sons and daughters of God regardless of our birth circumstances.  During a speech at the NAACP Convention in Detroit in July of 2019, President Nelson said:  “We are all connected, and we have a God-given responsibility to make life better for those around us.  We don’t have to be alike or look alike to have love for each other.  We don’t even have to agree with each other to love each other.”  

I believe one of our key responsibilities is to learn about and to appreciate one another’s differences.  While I realize we cannot change past history, I do believe that we can create a present history that will bring joy and understanding to future generations.  As a wise Muslim sister told me when we were discussing the upheaval and animosity that was developing in some of our schools, “In school we give students an opportunity to express their thoughts and try to ease their anxiety.  However, we cannot control what they hear in their own homes.”  That is a powerful lesson to all of us.  Change begins with each individual and within each household.  I want to be part of that change.  I want my family to continue that change as we build a new and better future that holds no racial or religious boundaries.

IFLC Board Member Karin Dains is Public affairs director of the Bloomfield Hills Stake (11 congregations) of the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-day Saints

This is not an official statement of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Ways to Volunteer in Michigan During COVID-19

Ways to Volunteer in Michigan During COVID-19

The Time Is Now

Michigan Needs You. Your Fellow Americans Need You. Help Us Save Lives.

You Can Volunteer in the face of Coronavirus

The state of Michigan is calling on health care professionals who can volunteer their expertise.

You can make a difference to fight and slow the spread of COVID-19 … to deliver life-saving care to someone suffering and in pain … to deliver hope to the person who feels alone.

All Michiganders can volunteer their compassion and commitment to fighting this virus, and saving health and lives. Your time, talent and donations will have an impact now.

Visit michigan.gov often; additional opportunities will continue to be added as needs are identified.

Click Here