October 4, 2006

Common Texts OWU Explores Faith's Common Grounds

Common Texts OWU has met for nearly two decades as a group of Jewish, Christian, and Muslim students at Ohio Wesleyan which is deeply committed to exploring how the Jewish Tanakh, The Islamic Qu’ran, and the Christian Gospels and Epistles express the unfolding of the common covenant with the God of Abraham. Topics for study and conversation are chosen by the group at the close of each gathering.

Led by Chaplain Jon Powers, Common Texts OWU meets weekly on the stage of Stuy Smoker to explore the amazing overlap among people’s faiths. The group continues to expand its appreciation and understanding of three of the world’s most powerful sacred texts.

Given recent major conflicts and conversation between the Roman Catholic Pope Benedict XVI and the entire Islamic world population regarding the Pope’s rhetorical reference to the Prophet Mohammed’s role in the development of human civilization, Common Texts OWU has had two sessions on the topic: “The Pope and The Prophet: A Crucial Conversation, especially for Catholic and Muslim Students at Ohio Wesleyan University.”  The final discussion on this topic will be Monday, October 9, at 9 p.m. in Stuy Smoker.

Says freshman Jessica Black, “Common Texts is a great way to have insight into another person’s views of the world, both religious and culturally. The group allows me to ask questions for better understanding in a comfortable situation without fear of seeming biased. The group also allows for any preconceptions that people have, to be talked about in a rational and logical manner allowing for better understanding for everyone involved.”

“I started attending the Common Texts meetings last year when Chaplain Powers had decided to talk about Ramadan,” says sophomore Adiyah Shah. “I was the only Muslim to attend, which did disappoint me. Common Texts is basically a group in which we talk about Judaism, Christianity, and Islam due to their same lineage as all three of them are Abrahamic religions; hence, the name Common Texts. Every talk is enlightening as every week I get to know something new about all three religions. This group gives me the chance to talk about the similarity between these three religions and how we can remove the misconceptions that have risen between them in today's world. We talk about religious scriptures, old events, and current events relating to these 3 religions.

Shah continues, “I feel that Common Texts is a very important group for this university as people need to be educated about the issues concerning these three major religions. And the best place to start from is the youth in order to remove the misconceptions. People need to be made aware so that they don't go on blaming other religions. Common Texts is an effort for such awareness, and I just hope that we can all succeed in this attempt to make everyone understand that we need to stop the blaming game. The Christians and Jews need to stop attacking the Muslims and calling them terrorists as 1.1 billion Muslims seriously can't be terrorists. The same goes for Muslims. They need to understand that the world is not against them, and they need to cooperate and act civilized. Only that way we might be able to attain some degree of peace in this world. And Common Texts helps us do that as we remove each other's misconceptions.”

Chaplain Powers invites everyone to attend Common Texts discussions on Monday evenings. He says, “The third and final session on this topic will be a review of responding parties, including various political and militant aspects of Islam, the Christian Orthodox communities in the current territory referenced by Pope Benedict, as well as secular factions.”

Common Texts' motto is “A candle loses nothing by lighting another candle.”

— Lynne McBee