Social Justice Action Team Hosts Religious Discussion Panel

       Social Justice Action Team hosted a panel discussion on the topic of religion at Parkway North on Wednesday 12, 2013 during lab. The SJAT invited six guests to Parkway North, who represented different religions to discuss their religions and viewpoints on worldly situation through the lenses of their philosophy to bring an awareness and understanding to North students.

“The goal of this event is to help Parkway North students see and discuss different philosophical beliefs of their peers,” said SJAT sponsor Mike Hazelton.

The purpose of the panel discussion event created by the SJAT was to have an understanding community so that many will be able to understand that society is one as a whole, even though there are different philosophies on life.

“We’re going for an understanding community, and we have so many conflicts because people don’t understand other people’s point of views, so we’re having this event so people can understand,” said junior Evan Cohen.

During the panel discussion, Hinduism, Catholic, Muslim, Buddhism, Humanist, and Christianity were represented. The panel discussion began by having each representative of each religion educate North’s students on the concept of their religion, what makes them that religion, and why they chose or stuck to the religion that they are in.

“I liked how I was able to see new religions that I haven’t heard of speak. Something that I found interesting was that all of the religions were more similar than I thought,” said junior Myra Ekram

Although there were many important guest speakers that came out to speak about their philosophical views on their religion, there was one familiar face on the panel that many see around the school from time to time.  English teacher Allison Cundiff from Parkway North represented the philosophical religion of Buddhism.  She explained the certain steps things she had to do while practicing Buddhism

“In ordination when you take the vowels, what you do is shave. And what I did was have a fundraiser for kids with cancer, which a friend of mine had done at a place in O’Fallon. You say you’re going to shave your hair off to raise money for kids with cancer and so a bunch of teachers here did it. I wasn’t even the only woman because I didn’t want to draw attention to the fact that I was doing it for spiritual reasons,” said English teacher Ms. Cundiff.

While there were many different religious representatives on the panel, there wouldn’t be a discussion without the audience members.

“I thought it would be super interesting to learn about other cultures and have people talk about them so I can get to know and understand other people,” said junior Gabby Krikorian.

A society that’s understanding and has great knowledge was the mission for the SJAT as they put together this event. Mahatma Gandhi said you never know what results come from your action, but if you do nothing, there will be no result. The SJAT is starting to make changes in society.

By: Jamie Powell  Features Editor