drewan | Religion Thesis Project

It's now time for me to work on my thesis project for the Religion 100 class. This is a small group project, so I'm working with two other classmates (who are husband and wife) on a thesis presentation due June 18th, and the thesis paper due two weeks later.

Our thesis statement is something along the lines of "The competition between religious extremists is not only dangerous to the followers of opposing religions, but can also damage the local religious and secular communities." Our thesis presentation start with an examination of why competition between Christianity, Islam, and Judaism exist, then point to examples of extreme religious competition and the harm caused by this competition. I then want to proceed the conclusion with an example of interfaith cooperation and how that example was beneficial to both the religious and secular communities.

We're not having much difficulty finding examples of harmful Christian and Islamic competition and religious intolerance, however we are struggling a bit with Judaism. I think our example will probably be something around the issue of Israel and Palestine, but right at this moment I'd prefer to use a somewhat less political example. There are SO many issues, both religious and secular involved in that conflict, and I would prefer to us an example for a situation here in the US.

Part of my Christian example is going to be Pastor Dennis Campbell's recent ad in the St. Cloud Times. It's timely and local.

I would welcome suggestions for other examples, including examples of interfaith cooperation.