World Religion Day Focuses on Faith Education

Sarah Reilly Pancoast

It was not Danielle Rushing's intent to change faiths Sunday. She just wanted to gain a better understanding of other people's beliefs.
"I just think a lot of religions have very good ideas and you should not just dismiss them just because you are not of that religion," the Centenary College senior said.
Rushing, a Methodist, had a variety from which to choose. Nearly 20 different religions were represented at the sixth annual World Religion Day held at the Highland Center.
The international event is sponsored by the Bahai Faith and Shreveport's religious community has made it an independent nonprofit of its own.
Many of the groups set up information booths in the gymnasium with, the specific intent to teach, not convert. There were also performances and presentations throughout the afternoon.
Talila Johnson was one of the performers. A Bahai Faith representative, Johnson sang a song she co-wrote, titled "Let All Associate," which praises the togetherness of humanity.
"I think that there's probably a lot of people here that are learning about things for the very first time and it takes sacrificing your ego to kind of step out of your comfort zone and to ask questions about someone else's faith," she said.
Tibetan Buddhist Tenzin Wangden Andrugtsang did a lot of explaining.
'"I have a lot of people coming around at the desk. Many of them didn't know what Buddhism was, especially Tibetan Buddhism. They have heard a lot about other Buddhisms, like Shintoism, Zen, but they didn't really know about how Tibetan Buddhism' came about, he said.
World Religion Day committee member SuZanne Wright said the goal was "to bring all of us together with the greatest common thread there is, which is our religion."
Judaism representative David Saphier, president of the congregation of Agudath Achim, noticed the similarities between his chosen religion and the others represented. "There's a tremendous amount of tie-in between the different religions."