From The Faith Divide blog, by Eboo Patel
Today’s guest blogger is Robert Chlala, a Campus Engagement Associate at Interfaith Youth Core. He has worked with youth community organizations from Los Angeles to Chicago for over ten years and is an active youth leader with the Soka Gakkai International Buddhist organization.
News had recently broke about the suicide of yet another LGBTQ youth in the U.S., the latest in a rash that has brought to light the exclusion and violence that continues to plague those marked “different.”
Speaking to a top conservative leader and member of the Young Republicans on her campus, Lily Connor calmly relayed her story of how she has worked to create a space for interfaith dialogue in the social justice campaigns she leads. She pauses for him to share his experiences, but he is unsure where he fits in. As she guides him he lights up as he realizes that he too has a story: that he is living interfaith cooperation in that very moment.
This could be your typical story of a growing interfaith student movement, one that we hear at Interfaith Youth Core almost daily. But I’m leaving out a few important details…
