These days, most of us are lucky enough to live in religiously diverse communities. Kids are more likely now than ever before to know other kids who don’t share their same beliefs. Communities of faith have a great opportunity to help them learn about different faiths so they can get along with friends and classmates. Not only that, when they have the space to explore and learn about other religious traditions, it fosters their own wonder at the cosmos and encourages them to learn and collaborate with others as they grow into adults. If there are non-Christian communities of faith in your area, or if you are part of an interfaith or religious council, planning summer or other activities together to talk about different aspects of faith and to spend time having fun together helps all of the youth in the community get to know each other in new ways, including learning about some special practices or holy days.
If you don’t already know other faith leaders in your town, talking to them to see if you could visit or perhaps do a joint service project creates possibilities for new relationships while also giving kids the opportunity to ask questions, learn, and experience other faith traditions from someone firsthand. This is important to do with care. Developing relationships with leaders of other faith traditions takes time, and doing age-appropriate education before kids visit is important. For a broad-strokes understanding, Honoring Your Neighbor’s Faith gives quality, if a bit dated, summaries and brief comparisons with Lutheran theology, which can help you teach kids the basics.
Another great resource is My Neighbor Is Muslim: A Small Group Study Exploring the Muslim Faith. Its information is helpful for leaders, and the format is a great guide for teaching kids enough for them to explore respectfully. The guide provides an article about a particular tenet of faith in Islam and an article about the same concept, or a similar one, in Christianity. This helps those who are learning get a sense of the diversity of beliefs for all faith traditions, including within Christianity, while also providing a base understanding for kids to engage more deeply and personally. Helping kids learn what is unique about other faith traditions is important, and so is teaching them what is similar.
Respect in this is vital. So, while it can be tempting to recreate a Passover Seder on your own, outside of a Jewish context, it is cultural appropriation and can perpetuate supersessionism (the antisemitic idea that Christianity came to replace Judaism and Christians have replaced the Jewish people as God’s chosen people). Engaging other faiths on their terms and with hopeful curiosity is essential to this work.
