bjbjLULU ?s)t JUDY WOODRUFF: Next a graduate university in California that brings Christians,
Jews and Muslims together in the same classrooms to educate leaders for churches, synagogues
and mosques.
Special correspondent Saul Gonzalez has the story.
A version of his report aired recently on the PBS program "Religion & Ethics Newsweekly."
SAUL GONZALEZ: With Korean-American drummers leading a line of professors, a new experiment
in American religious education began this fall.
This was the opening of Southern California's Claremont Lincoln University, which describes
itself as America's first inter-religious school of theology, one that will train pastors,
rabbis and eventually Muslim imams, all on one campus.
The school's philosophy was captured in the opening remarks of Muslim-American religious
scholar Najeeba Syeed-Miller, a professor at Claremont Lincoln.
NAJEEBA SYEED-MILLER, Claremont Lincoln University: The diversity of humankind is not a curse
from God.
It is a sign of God's creation, and the beauty of humanity is in our very differences.
SAUL GONZALEZ: What do you hope to accomplish here at Claremont Lincoln?
What's the grand vision?
PHILIP CLAYTON, Claremont Lincoln University: You have to get beyond the point of people
defining their religions by the traditional walls.
SAUL GONZALEZ: Philip Clayton is Claremont Lincoln's provost.
He sees this school as offering an alternative to traditional religious education.
PHILIP CLAYTON: When you train rabbis in one school, pastors in another, imams in another,
you put them out into communities, they create an us-vs.-them mentality.
What if we do something that's never been done before?
Let's train them in the same classroom.
Let's let them work out their differences in their day-to-day education.
When they go out into their communities, you won't find them doing the us-vs.-them, but,
we hope, the we.
What that would for the face of religion in America would be staggering.
SAUL GONZALEZ: Claremont Lincoln is actually the creation of a much older institution,
United Methodist-affiliated Claremont School of Theology, founded in 1885.
It partnered with Southern California's Academy of Jewish Religion and the Islamic Center
of Southern California to form this new school.
Students attending this school can get master's degrees in divinity, rabbinic studies and
Muslim counseling.
INSTRUCTOR: I'd like you to stand or to turn in the direction that you normally pray.
SAUL GONZALEZ: But all are required to take classes like this one that emphasize inter-religious
education and understanding.
Many of the students feel they couldn't get this kind of multi-faith education anywhere
else.
WALLY BURMAN, Claremont Lincoln University: Most of the reason I'm here is, I looked at
the other colleges and other programs, and it appeared that they were preparing students
to be leaders in the church of yesterday, where Claremont is training people to be leaders
in the church of tomorrow.
SAUL GONZALEZ: This school's ambition to train Muslim clerics is important to Valentina Khan,
a Muslim-American student of Iranian descent.
VALENTINA KHAN, Claremont Lincoln University: I definitely think that we need to have a
voice that's an American voice as Muslims.
I mean, having somebody in Saudi Arabia telling us how it should be here in America is absolutely
-- is, in my opinion, not the way I'd want to be told.
SAUL GONZALEZ: However, the creation of this school has also generated some criticism.
PHILIP CLAYTON: I'm actively involved in blogging and social networking, and I began to find
sites that would label what we were doing as the work of the devil, and people absolutely
guaranteeing the blogosphere that I was on my way to hell, so that it really drew a hostility.
People felt that we were undercutting the way they defined their entire religious tradition,
which is this oppositional and exclusionary approach.
SAUL GONZALEZ: However, many of the students and the faculty at Claremont Lincoln don't
want to ignore the tensions and theological differences between their faiths.
NAJEEBA SYEED-MILLER: I actually hope that there is conflict.
I often say when we get together in interfaith dialogue, we try to out-nice each other and
say, oh, you know, you're wonderful!
No, you are wonderful!
s -- if we are truly going to be conversation partners, we need to say, look, this is how
I view your tradition.
I think we really need to get into conversations about history, because so much of what we
carry in interfaith dialogue is about the negative histories that each of our communities
has had with one another, so if we are not willing to go there, then I don't think any
of us are going to be able to move forward.
SAUL GONZALEZ: Beyond America's changing religious landscape, there's another reason why Claremont
went multi-faith: survival.
Like other schools of theology and seminaries during these tough economic times, this campus
faced a declining enrollment and a tightening budget.
Allowing students from other faiths to train here is one way to keep the lights on and
the doors open.
PHILIP CLAYTON: This is an extremely hard time for American theological schools.
We could go on with a dwindling number of Methodists students, but we decided we wanted
to be ahead of the curve.
You probably know that...
SAUL GONZALEZ: Well, ahead of the curve because you had to be.
I mean, you had to open up this institution to other faiths to keep your head above water.
PHILIP CLAYTON: Sure, but we had a 45-year history of being edgy.
We were always sort of pushing the envelope, and so we decided we would push the envelope
on this one.
SAUL GONZALEZ: To help it go multi-faith, this school received a $50 million grant from
philanthropist David Lincoln and his wife, Joan.
In their honor, the school was named after them.
Clayton believes, to survive, more and more schools of theology and seminaries will have
to adopt Claremont's inter-religious approach.
PHILIP CLAYTON: We're starting to get visits from academic deans and presidents who say,
Oh, we've see where you're going.
Can we talk about this new movement?
SAUL GONZALEZ: But skepticism remains high.
DENNIS DIRKS, Talbot School of Theology: It's fine for Claremont.
It would not be good for us.
SAUL GONZALEZ: Dennis Dirks is the dean of the Talbot School of Theology in Southern
California, a Christian multidenominational evangelical institution.
He says religious clarity, not a mixing of faiths, is essential to a religious school,
arguing a multi-faith approach could weaken the curriculum and anger alumni and other
campus supporters.
DENNIS DIRKS: We're frequently asked, do you admit non-Christians here?
They want to know.
They want to hold us accountable for that, so that's something that we want to look at
very carefully.
SAUL GONZALEZ: And they want to make sure that the non-Christians are not here?
DENNIS DIRKS: Well, yes, not as enrolled students, because they are afraid of -- they're fearful
of diffusion of the curriculum.
SAUL GONZALEZ: But do you think it's easy for faiths to cohabitate like that in theological
instruction?
DENNIS DIRKS: No, I think it's very difficult.
I think there are great challenges.
SAUL GONZALEZ: However, at Claremont, they think the future is on their side in an increasingly
multi-faith America.
RABBI ZEV-HAYYIM FEYER: Some of us are looking in a Jewish direction.
Some of us are looking in a Muslim direction.
Some are looking in a Christian direction.
And yet we are all looking in a God direction.
SAUL GONZALEZ: Beyond Christians, Jews and Muslims, administrators here are already talking
about enrolling Jains, Buddhists and Hindus.
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place JUDY WOODRUFF: Next a graduate university in California that brings Christians, Jews
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