Written by: United Theological Seminary July 13, 2018

Religious Plurality: Interacting With and Supporting Others With Differing Religious Convictions

This week’s blog post is based on a sermon given by student Dennis Peters as a part of United’s summer worship series.

What exactly is “religious plurality”? We’re talking about the relationships between religions. Is it tolerance? For instance, your neighbor is a different religion from you. Say she is a Reform Jew, and you’re a Methodist… or a Congregationalist… or a Presbyterian. Even though you know your religion is far superior to hers, you act nice with her, have friendly conversations, loan her your lawn mower, borrow her mixer. Okay, wait. So far, all you’ve done is condescend to talk with her. Knowing your religion is superior to hers.

Yeah, that’s not what it’s about. Religious plurality goes several steps further. Religious plurality means operating on the assumption that each of us has our own spiritual path – our own valid spiritual path. If I believe that being born again in Christ is the only way, then that means it is the only way – for ME. My neighbor’s path will be different, quite possibly entirely different.

I am Unitarian Universalist. We at the UU club follow seven Principles – not a creed, not a statement of beliefs. They are our operating principles, our guidelines.

Principle Number 3 calls us to affirm and promote “acceptance of one another and encouragement to spiritual growth in our congregations.” Principle Number 4 calls for “a free and responsible search for truth and meaning.” Other Principles speak of respect and inherent worth. Basically, we’re saying that even if you don’t have the same beliefs and practices as I, your path is just as viable for you as mine is for me. No conversion necessary. No coercion required. We UUers pretty much have to have principles like that; a number of different beliefs are represented within our church.

Okay, so “religious pluralism” is about acceptance and support of each other, just as we are. At United there are a number of different views represented – both between and within different denominations or world views.

That’s within this group. Now let’s go back to that neighbor we were talking about. Yes, we are open and accepting within United. What about the other next-door neighbor who is Wisconsin Synod Lutheran and believes that the Bible is the literal Word of God? That the earth was built in six days (with the seventh day for rest and for watching football)? That gays are sick people and can be saved by psychological treatment? And that if you’re not Wisconsin Synod, you’re going to hell? Are we open and accepting of that neighbor? And how exactly do we demonstrate that acceptance, when their conviction is that we’re actually going to hell?

We here are part of a liberal religious community, for the most part. How many others who self-define as Christians feel welcome in our community? Southern Baptists? Wisconsin Synod Lutherans? Catholics? Do we help them feel welcome? If they do not feel welcome, is it because of our attitudes toward them, or simply the distance from each other of our beliefs or practices?

How do we welcome those with beliefs that are not just different, but antagonistic to our own? Obviously they are not going to want to become members of this community. Even more to the point, they are going to be antagonistic to us. Do we respond with an equal measure of antagonism?

On social issues, is the LGBTQ community welcome and a part of who we are? Do we represent all colors of the rainbow? And on the topic of race and ethnicity, what about white privilege and the support of those who have suffered under it? As a pasty-white, northern European type, I have benefited from white privilege. Yet studies show that people of color continue to be discriminated against in job applications, loans and mortgages, housing… throughout society.

One school of thought says that all religions have a common basis. We’re all talking about the same God, essentially. Even Buddhism, with its lack of a Supreme Being, is talking about the same thing. Well, there’s a problem with that. Atheists, for example, would tend to disagree with it. The approach there is “humanism.” And if we try to solve the problem through theology and mysticism, the conversation can quickly become something that no one understands. For instance, Raimon Panikkar, a leading voice in “interreligious dialogue,” states:

Man and God are neither two nor one…. There are not two realities: God and man/world; but neither is there one: God or man/world…. God and man are, so to speak in close constitutive collaboration for the building up of reality, the unfolding of history, and the continuation of creation…. Cosmotheandrism is in a paradoxical fashion…. The infinity of man/world… and the finiteness of God.1

A different approach for dialogue, for interrelating, with those of other faiths, is to base it on a common problem for all religions: suffering. With this approach, it’s not so important what our belief, our theology, is; it’s far more important that we all be focused on the victims of this world and the victimization of this world. We have a common need for advocacy, for lifting up of the less fortunate. In other words: what we do is far more important than what we think. Or believe.

Who are the less fortunate? It is considered that one in nine of the population of this planet goes to bed hungry at night. If they have a bed. That’s close to 800 million people. UNICEF says that 29,000 children die from the effects of poverty. Every. Day. Half the world – more than 3 billion people – live on less than $2.50 a day. And more than 1.3 billion live in extreme poverty – on $1.25 per day.

And regarding refugees, the UNHCR (the UN Refugee Agency) says: “An unprecedented 65.6 million people around the world have been forced from home. Among them are nearly 22.5 million refugees, over half of whom are under the age of 18, who have been forced to flee their countries. There are also 10 million stateless people who have been denied a nationality and access to basic rights such as education, healthcare, employment and freedom of movement.”

We don’t currently have a “world” war. But we have “brush fires” happening all over the world. In the case of the Anuak people, genocide in South Sudan and Ethiopia. Darfur in Western Sudan. Yemen. Syria. Ukraine. North Korea. Myanmar and the genocide of the Rohingya Muslims. Mexican drug wars. Civil unrest in Honduras. Peru, and the ongoing struggle with the Shining Path guerilla group. The Middle East. Iran. Iraq. Afghanistan. There is a long list of places in this world having a variety of problems. And the problems always put a civilian population in the firing line, victims. In Syria, for instance, the current estimate is that half a million civilians have been killed in this war, with the largest percentage killed by their own government.

Where I started going with all this is to say: the commonality between religions can easily be found in ethics and practical action.

But there’s a problem here. The problem is that not all religions see these issues as a problem. Some religions are causing some of the problems. An example, of course, is the Buddhist majority population of Myanmar, which is, as I just mentioned, working to exterminate its minority Muslim population.

Don’t get me wrong. Islam and Buddhism are as a whole very caring and uplifting religions. But most religions have their radical factions, groups which believe that theirs is the only valid set of beliefs, and killing unbelievers can be a righteous act. Christianity also has these factions.

Most of us on the liberal end of the religious spectrum easily agree that these are the main issues. But there are those who strongly disagree. The more fundamentalist a religion, the harder we have to work at finding fewer and fewer points of common interest. There are churches which believe poverty and starvation are punishment for sins. These claim to be Christian churches. There are radical fundamentalists out there who are killing people in the name of their deities. We basically do not have a point of commonality with them.

So we have to step back, and rethink this whole plurality question. Do we only talk with those who agree with us in the first place? How much agreement? Since we are out there on the more liberal end of the religious spectrum, there will be a lot of issues with more differences than agreement.

But maybe that’s okay. One important lesson that Christian history can teach us is that it is not our job to persuade others to our beliefs and views. It should be our role to:

Live authentically. Present ourselves to the world as who we are, with honesty. Our actions demonstrate our caring and concern for the welfare of others.
Respect others. Each has a right to his or her point of view.
Accept and celebrate others. Going beyond respect, we accept their beliefs as meaningful for them. There is no basis for feelings of superiority, or condescension. And
Maintain a positive approach to others, even in the face of opposition or active antagonism.

But along with these points, we also need to be prepared to speak up when those “others” are taking actions that are harming people. At our ethical base, we share a rule that, in my opinion, and many others, should be the guiding principle for all of humanity: do unto others as you would like them to do to you. The “golden rule” is shared by most of the world’s religions.

Luckily for us, those points I just listed are ones that are really familiar to us. It’s something we’ve been practicing for a long time. Or at least preaching. The idea here is that it is time for more of that practicing.

So back to the original challenge, and the title of this little monologue. How do we interact with, support, work with others who have different convictions from ours? What is our presence in the world, and how is it supporting others?

A foundation piece for us needs to be the continuing enactment of, as Sheryl Kujawa-Holbrook says, practicing hospitality. She says, “Hospitality need not be lavish or expensive, but it must come from open hearts.” Or as Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama, once said, ‘My religion is kindness.’”2

Amen.

1 Paul F. Knitter, Introducing Theologies of Religions (Maryknoll, N.Y: Orbis Books, 2002), 128.

2 Sheryl A. Kujawa-Holbrook, God Beyond Borders: Interreligious Learning Among Faith Communities (Eugene, Oregon: Cascade Books, 2014), 151.

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October 9, 2026

Alums Homecoming News Releases

Rev. Dr. A. Leon (Lee) Tredwell (’06) Honored As a 2026 Distinguished Alum

United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities is excited to announce that Rev. A. Leon (Lee) Tredwell, PhD—who earned his MA in Theology and Biblical Interpretation from United in 2006—has been selected as a 2026 Distinguished Alum. An accomplished preacher, teacher, and published author, Dr. Tredwell has championed biblical narratives that affirm the divinity of all people, regardless of their race, creed, color, class, gender, or sexuality. Adopted at age four, Lee was raised in the Baptist faith and felt called to ministry as a child. Even so, after earning a degree in Political Science and Sociology at Concordia College in Moorhead, Minnesota, he spent the first ten years of his professional life as a grain trader for Cargill. After connecting with Drs. Ralph and Alika Galloway, Lee found United, and his call was reignited. He remembers Rev. Dr. Carolyn Pressler (Professor Emerita of Biblical Interpretation, 1990–2020) and Dean Richard Weis* with great affection. Both teachers, he observes, “taught us to wrestle with the biblical text until it opened up and spoke.” They also introduced Lee to Black and post-colonial hermeneutics, and Rev. Dr. Weis led him to passages in Jeremiah 38 (Hebrew Bible) that sparked his interest in learning more about a Black character named Ebed-Melech. Lee also cites the influence of Rev. Dr. Christine Smith’s (Professor Emerita of Preaching 1992–2013) preaching courses on his life. In Colorado, at the University of Denver and Iliff School of Theology, Lee completed a joint PhD program with a concentration in Religion and Social Change in 2017. Ronald Smith, a former United student who nominated Lee for this award, notes, “Dr. Tredwell has demonstrated that he is an innovator and compassionate leader who has served both inside the academy as a professor of African American Preaching at Iliff School of Theology, University of Colorado, Boulder, and in the larger community; he has served as [a] pastor, civil rights and human rights activist, and [a] chief executive officer in Colorado, Florida, Maryland, Minnesota, and Texas.” Lee’s new book—Black, Queer and Blessed: My Story and the Biblical Story Churches Don’t Teach—was published in June 2025. As the description reads, “For all who believe God-Yahweh is angry, mad, disgusted, and against LGBTQIA+ folx, regrettably, you been had, misled, took, hood-winked and bamboozled! Black, Queer and Blessed, through lived experience and the excavation of the subjugated biblical narrative of Ebed-Melech, demolishes society’s antiquated mores.” The book is part memoir and part theological reflection on the Ebed-Melech revelation. In addition to his roles as teacher, preacher, and author, Lee has specifically worked to promote adoption of Black children from foster care and create affordable housing. These days, he serves as the pastor of Theology and Community Engagement at Allendale United Methodist Church in St. Petersburg, Florida. As Ronald Smith asserts, “Dr. Tredwell is the embodiment and an exemplar of United Theological Seminary’s mission, vision, and values.” * of blessed memory About United Founded by the United Church of Christ (UCC) as a welcoming, ecumenical school that embraces all denominations and faith traditions, United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities has been on the creative edge of progressive theological thought and leadership since it was established in 1962. Today, United continues to educate leaders who, through the eyes of faith, engage in the dismantling of systems of oppression, explore multi-faith spirituality, and push the boundaries of knowledge.

Lena K. Gardner (’15) Honored As a 2026 Distinguished Alum

[caption id="attachment_11955" align="alignnone" width="1920"] photo by Bethany Birnie[/caption] United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities is thrilled to announce that Lena K. Gardner—who graduated with an MA in Justice and Peace Studies in 2015—has been selected as one of our three 2026 Distinguished Alums. A highly respected social justice activist and community leader, Lena is the co-founder and executive director of Black Lives of Unitarian Universalism (BLUU), a nonprofit founded in 2015 that creates life-giving and life-saving opportunities for spiritual community and Black-centered organizing. According to Rev. Dr. Rebecca Voelkel (’13), Lena has “been a force in the Twin Cities’ religiously rooted justice ecosystem for the last 15 years.” Dr. Voelkel, Lena’s nominator, traces Lena’s justice-organizing acumen back to 2011, when she served on the Faith Organizing Roundtable—a body that coordinated religious communities’ opposition to the anti-marriage amendment. Lena went on to champion marriage equality in the 2012–2013 legislative session. After a white police officer in Ferguson, Missouri, shot and killed Michael Brown, Jr., an unarmed 18-year-old Black teen, in 2014, Lena played a key role in transforming the Faith Organizing Roundtable into the Multifaith Anti-Racism, Change & Healing or MARCH. “In that same period,” Voelkel notes, “Lena was a core team organizer of Black Lives Matter Minneapolis and served on its steering committee.” Lena was deeply involved, quoted in many national and local articles, and interviewed on Minnesota Public Radio after former police officer Derek Chauvin killed George Floyd in 2020. In April 2021, after a Brooklyn Center police officer killed Daunte Wright during a traffic stop, Lena co-wrote an article in the Sahan Journal demanding that Attorney General Keith Ellison prosecute the case, and that the Hennepin County attorney be removed. More recently, Lena embarked on another ambitious project. In May 2024, through the BLUU Cooperative Housing Initiative, she co-hosted a groundbreaking ceremony for an affordable housing complex for single parents in North Minneapolis. In a MinnPost article about the groundbreaking, Lena explained, “It’s really about trying to give back to one of the communities that made me…. We really see providing stable housing in a cooperative framework as one of the many paths to collective liberation and Black liberation. Ultimately, it’s about self-determination.” When Operation Metro Surge arrived in the Twin Cities in late 2025, Lena took action again. As Voelkel observes, she “returned to the MARCH steering committee…. When MARCH organized a clergy call (in five days) to which 700 clergy came, the ability to create and host such an amazing event owes part of its success to Lena’s relationships with communications specialists, graphic designers, and organizers.” Lena was also a driving force behind Neighbors Helping Neighbors (NHN), a mutual aid group she and Anna Stamborski founded in late 2025 to connect vulnerable ICE-targeted families with congregational networks whose members could provide shopping and transportation services. Through all of Lena’s indefatigable contributions to working for justice, Voelkel asserts, she “has focused on Black excellence, Black power, Black spiritual wholeness, Black beauty, and how non-Black folks can act in solidarity and followership of Black folks, particularly Black queer women. She has done so skillfully through building relationships across differences in ways that facilitate and deepen genuine relationships.”

Cori Berg (’98) Honored As a 2026 Distinguished Alum

United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities is elated to announce that Cori Berg (’98)—advocate, artist, and educator—is a 2026 Distinguished Alum. Cori earned her Master of Arts (MA) in Theology and the Arts in 1998, and for more than 27 years, she has integrated creativity, art, and spirituality into her field. Cori arrived at United in the 1990s, having majored in theater and minored in studio art during her undergraduate studies. “I knew I had an artistic voice,” she recalls, “but it didn’t make sense in any of the traditional contexts.” After seeing an advertisement for United’s Theology and the Arts program, Cori drove from Dallas to the Twin Cities to visit as a prospective student. A campus art exhibit by Merle Janis was all she needed to see—“this school had something I needed: strength, boldness, vulnerability.” For Cori, “life is liturgy.” She credits United with introducing her to “the freedom in a progressive faith.” At United, Cori learned to expand her creativity, which became a launching pad for a vibrant career. “United gave me a safe, nurturing space to explore, dream, and execute big things,” she writes. “I’ve continued that through the rest of my career as an artist, an educator, an administrator, and a speaker.” Art is central to Cori’s work and features prominently in her curriculum development for children. Her art was featured in the 2012 opening parade for the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge in Dallas, TX, a project that involved “seniors, children, and adults in all aspects” from a local Methodist community program. Ministry with Children and Spirituality, courses taught by Rev. Dr. Barbara Anne Keely (Professor Emerita, 1991–2015), were particularly formative for Cori’s future in education. “I remember she taught us to get on the floor and view the church nursery from a baby’s point of view,” Cori reflects. “I use this today over and over as I teach early childhood educators…. She introduced the idea of seeing oneself not as a separate body, mind, or spirit, but when one part of my being is suffering, to use the other parts to help lift that part.” More recently, Cori has been an active community member at Dallas Meditation Center, where she is known for her moving dharma talks that weave Buddhist themes into contemporary storytelling. In public schools and congregational settings, Cori has applied what she learned as a United student to the field of early childhood education, for which—nominator Rev. Jim Peck (’99) points out—she has become “one of the nation’s leading advocates.” When facing challenges in the throes of the COVID-19 pandemic, Cori leveraged her ingenuity and creative vision to support educators with online training resources. As a teacher and an administrator in spaces where lack of institutional funding and support are commonplace, Jim observes, “she uses her [United] education to work for justice and equity,” to “nurture relationships in the early childhood settings where she has served, with an expertise in working in settings in crisis to encourage recovery, healing, and new paths for serving the future.” In May 2026, Cori completed her MEd in Curriculum and Instruction at American College of Education, where she immediately enrolled to begin her EdD in Early Childhood Education. She serves as an executive director at the University of Kansas (KU) and anticipates returning to Dallas to live near her family at the end of the year while awaiting her next opportunity. We are delighted to celebrate Cori and her decades of faithful, innovative leadership in the field of early childhood education and art. About United Founded by the United Church of Christ (UCC) as a welcoming, ecumenical school that embraces all denominations and faith traditions, United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities has been on the creative edge of progressive theological thought and leadership since it was established in 1962. Today, United continues to educate leaders who, through the eyes of faith, engage in the dismantling of systems of oppression, explore multi-faith spirituality, and push the boundaries of knowledge.