I recently participated in a round table presentation to a group of Jordan District school teachers regarding religious tolerance. Members of the panel included leaders of the LDS, Catholicism, Islam, Judaism, Native Americans, and myself speaking for Humanist Unitarians. Each panelist was given ten-minutes to present the basic liturgy of their organization and how we would like our belief system to be presented to students in the school classroom.

It was impressive to hear the panelists summarize their doctrines and then express the hope that school students would have a better understanding of their own religion and a more tolerant attitude of their fellow students practicing a different religion.

The teachers in the audience asked a variety of serious questions of the panel participants and said they appreciated hearing the variety of religious expressions that differed from their own. They said they now felt better prepared to talk positively and tolerantly about religions to their students.

As the session drew to a close I thought about the responsibility we humanist parents have to set an example of religious tolerance in our own homes. If we want our children to be understood and accepted by their peers, then we owe it to them to present the idea of religion respectfully in our homes. Hopefully we can discuss the positive moral values of humanism to our children without disparaging other religious systems. Let us impress upon our kids that being "different" does not mean being "better or inferior." Let us emphasize to them that humanism hopes to attain the goals of the enlightenment, "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness," for everyone.

--Flo Wineriter