On Teaching More Than Two Religions By Teaching One Religion: Avoiding "mile wide, inch deep" religious education
Photographs by Chris Nolen taken of Baha'i children's class in the Pierce Pennisula WA
...what’s wrong with “multifaith?” Nothing, except that to my ear, “multifaith” strongly connotes more than two religions. The word does reflect the reality of a small but growing cohort of interfaith kids (those with, say, one Jewish grandparent, two Christian grandparents, and one Hindu grandparent). On the other hand, it seems to invite the all-too-frequent criticisms of “mile wide, inch deep” religious education. Teaching more than two religions with depth and meaning is a daunting task, though one that is admirably tackled by Unitarians, and Baha’i.
The Baha'i solution to teaching about more than two religions is by pointing out that, really, there is only one religion, "the changeless Faith of God, eternal in the past, eternal in the future," revealed progressively, throughout time. -gw
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