Sarah Maddox
News Editor
Dr.Reza Aslan has discovered a unity between religions that is unique and proposes respect and peace between all religious groups. “Religion is all about symbols and metaphors,” Aslan said. He sees very few differences between religions and realizes that every denomination is searching for the same connection with God. “It is a language to describe faith,” he said.
Aslan recognizes that not every language is able to understand each other,but he urges people to understand that this doesn’t mean one is at fault. “It’s not about what’s right or what’s wrong,” he said. “It’s about what’s more comfortable for you.” For Aslan, it took years to discover that the stories and interpretations of God’s love in the Islamic religion is what works for him.
The religious scholar and author of Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth sees a wide gap between generations in religious practices. “Young people are not interested in being told what to do,” Aslan said. “They are far more open to new ideas of spirituality.” Aslan sees that this openness could create huge progress in religious acceptance in our world.
Before the event, Model UN member Katie Means was curious about Aslan’s perspective and how it would affect the people of New Canaan. After listening to the controversial speaker, Aslan questioned her perspective. “I think that he definitely gave people the opportunity to reevaluate their own opinions and consider a new perspective, rather than just keeping with the same ideas,” she said.
Model UN member Andrew Penchuk said that the event was a success, and benefited those students who attended. “I thought the event was intellectually challenging, but that’s what made it so interesting for me”, he said.
To the Model UN club as a whole, Andrew thought that the event was very beneficial. “Model UN is all about understanding different perspectives on world issues. What Americans view as truth Iranians may not.”
Model UN leader Paul Phillips had a very interesting view on the recent lecture that Reza Aslan gave at St. Lukes School. Unlike many opinions on Aslan’s “Zealot”, he thought that the comments that Reza Aslan made, “were not offensive because he was framing it in a way where people could say ‘okay, a historian’s going to look at it this way and a person of faith is going to look at it this way’.” Mr. Phillips believes that it was very important for his students to listen to this specific speaker because it solidifies the main goal of MUN: to step into someone’s shoes. He wanted his MUN students to get an alternate perspective on a different culture. “He’s able to discuss [religion]in a way that’s productive rather than destructive,” he says. “It was a very helpful discussion rather than polarized.”
Aslan’s unique view on Christianity and religion as a whole could have been very uncomfortable for people to listen to, especially in a society like New Canaan where most people practice Christianity or Judaism. Instead, Mr. Phillips thought Aslan’s approach made the subject positive. “Because he was able to dig deep into context, that enlightened me, and also took the emotion out of the whole discussion,” he said. Reza Aslan has not only given these lectures to New Canaan, but other small towns. Mr. Phillips thought that the topic of religion opened up a great discussion, which was important to him as well as his Model UN students. “He could actually be a very valuable translator between people who can’t understand each other,” he said. “I think that’s amazing.”
