Sacred Journey,
Many Paths
Two Wabash men from different vocations worked together on an effort “to talk about religion without telling people what they should believe or even that they should believe.”
A Wabash teacher/scholar and his former student brought very different perspectives to their work on National Geographic’s Sacred Journeys Exhibit at the Children’s Museum of Indianapolis last year.
Professor Emeritus of Religion Raymond Williams H’68 has traveled around the world to study Swaminarayan Hinduism. He’s been honored to observe its most sacred rites. He’s also quick to point out that he does not worship then, but is an observer coming to a deeper understanding of another’s faith.
Williams’ former student Ken Ogorek ’87 laughs about eating his way across Indiana when he became director of religious instruction for the Catholic Archdiocese of Indianapolis and interviewed prospective leaders of local catechism programs in the state’s small towns. But beneath that good humor he’s very serious about his vocation—he looks for teachers whose life-giving faith appeal to the next generation.
The Wabash men’s combination of scholarly objectivity and passion for faith in people’s lives proved complementary for a project that endeavored “to talk about religion without telling people what they should believe or even that they should believe.
“We wanted children to not only understand what they learn in Sunday school, but also know why the girl down the block dresses the way she does, why that boy in school was off for the holiday he was off for,” Children’s Museum Director Chris Carron told the PBS program Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly. “What people believe and how they practice what they believe influences what people do all over the world, and it influences people in your neighborhood.”
The museum couldn’t have found a wiser chair for its advisory board than Williams, a Christian who is also the leading Western scholar in Swaminarayan Hinduism, a sect he describes with great respect and affection.
Williams believes the exhibit, which continued on to Baylor University to the end of 2016 after its run in Indianapolis, could not come at a more important time. He notes that because of immigration during the past 50 years, the U.S. has become the most religiously diverse country in history. Although this has led to a vibrant mixing of cultures, the rapid changes have also created fear and anxiety.
“You cannot build a democracy on fear and hatred,” Williams told PBS. “It has to be built on knowledge and hope.”
And he believes efforts like Sacred Journeys—with its advisory board comprising scholars from each of the faiths it presents—provides that.
The exhibit features five young pilgrims from different faiths setting off on a journey of discovery.
“One of the things that struck me when I first saw these five young people who serve as guides was how they talked about this journey being important to others,” Ogorek says. “Perhaps they hadn’t made a firm decision about their own beliefs, but they were going on a journey of discovery and openness. That’s something a teenager, or any person, really, could make a connection with—this notion of not being sure how you feel about some of this, but you want to learn.
“I thought that was brilliant,” says Ogorek, who made suggestions for how his Catholic faith would be represented in the exhibit. “As a catechist, I found that very interesting to think about in terms of the different faiths.”
The exhibit includes loaned artifacts, such as fabric from the Kaaba in Mecca, a throne built for the Dalai Lama, pieces from a Gutenberg Bible and the Dead Sea Scrolls, a stone from the Western Wall in Jerusalem, a replica of the Shroud of Turin, and the Hindu deity Ganesh.
Williams points out that the board made its suggestions and provided guidance, but “the Children’s Museum staff are specialists in creating these kinds of teaching and learning experiences.
“Anyone could come to this exhibit, regardless of their religion or whether or not they have any religion at all—they could come with their families and have a teaching moment.
Read more about the exhibit and Williams and Ogorek’s work at WM Online.
Stand-alone quote:
“There are so many myths and misperceptions about religions. Even though every day countless women and men do countless good deeds inspired by religion, it is the occasional horrible deed that gets the attention.
“Through this exhibit the Children’s Museum gives religion a fair hearing.”
Ken Ogorek ’87
Sidebar:
I worry that current rants in the media about Muslims and Islam, often by people who know few American Muslims and little about Islam, cause us to fear unnecessarily and to stereotype people unfairly…
…I urge my fellow citizens to remain faithful to the best of American ideals of freedom and justice, to share them with our Muslim neighbors, and to work together to create a more perfect union and peace. If there is to be any competition between peoples, let it be, as the Scripture urges, “in good works.”
Professor Raymond Williams, from a letter to the Crawfordsville Journal Review