The Institute of Interfaith Dialog

Luncheon Forum with Dr.Charles Kimball

Oklahoma City

DSC_0073On January 25, 2012, The Institute of Interfaith Dialog, Oklahoma City hosted Dr. Kimball at the Raindrop Turkish House, as keynote speaker at a luncheon forum featuring the intersection of religion and politics.

Charles Kimball is Presidential Professor and Director of Religious Studies at the University of Oklahoma in Norman, OK. Between 1996 and 2008, he served as Chair of the Department of Religion and the Divinity School at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, NC.

The Luncheon Forum was attended by about eighty people most of who were academicians, business people, and members
of local clergy. The Executive Director of the Institute of Interfaith Dialog,Orhan Kucukosman greeted the guests and informed them about the upcoming events. Orhan Kucukosman said that the goal of the Institute was to bring people from different walks of life together, regardless of their ethnic, religious or racial differences. The event started with the lunch which was prepared and served by the volunteers of the Turkish Cultural center. While tasting various home-style Turkish foods, the guests had a chance to network and get to know each other. Dr. Bruce Prescott, Executive Director of the Mainstream Baptists, introduced Dr. Kimball. The keynote speech of the luncheon forum was mainly about the intersection of religion and politics, and its positive and negative effects on our lives and our attitudes towards people whom we consider as “others.” Dr. Kimball started his speech by telling the audience that he was Christian and he had a Jewish grandfather who he loved so much. He added that there was nothing wrong about being Jewish, Muslim or Buddhist since the birth place is not a person's choice. The writer said that he had always been interested in the question of intersection of the religion and politics although his parents advised him not to talk about
politics and religion when he was very young. He added that he had visited the Middle East more than forty times and he had a chance to see various dynamics related with the intersection of the religion and the politics. He stressed that it was not very
easy to totally separate the religion and politics in practice, and there are particular models, and the US model of it which is the affirmation of religious diversity is good. He also talked about how media sometimes cause people to have and grow prejudices about the members of different faith groups which result in segregation. At the end of the event, Dr. Kimball signed his books “When Religion Becomes Lethal” and “When Religion Becomes Evil.”

 

 

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