Andrew Kille, Henry Millstein, and Boo Riley
The Western Regional Meeting of the American Academy of Religion gathered at Santa Clara University March 20-22, 2015. At one of the sessions of the “Religion in America Unit,” Prof. Philip Boo Riley, Vice Chair of SiVIC, along with Board Chair Rev. D. Andrew Kille and Board Member Henry Millstein, presented some reflections on “Religion in Silicon Valley.” Dr. Riley outlined some issues and concerns in religious studies about the tendency to study and teach religions as if they were monolithic, static, and easily defined, and asked if it was possible to do interreligious work without falling into those traps.
- Can Interfaith organizations avoid essentializing religion?
- Can Interfaith organizations move beyond the Christian congregation religion prototype?
- Can Interfaith Organizations be inclusive of the varieties of religious experience?
Henry (Hank) and Andrew then described their work with ING and SiVIC, respectively. Hank spoke about the challenges of developing the ING Interfaith Speakers Bureau, and how they have come to focus on sharing the basic “vocabulary” and “grammar” that traditions use to shape their lives.
Andrew considered the issues that had faced the Steering Committee that gave shape to SiVIC– What are we doing? How do we organize? Whom do we represent? He went on to describe how the diversity of the valley has affected three key goals: to be a voice for the interfaith community, to educate ourselves and the wider community about diversity, and to document the interreligious life of Silicon Valley.
Dr. Henry Millstein describes work of ING