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Dan Buttry envisions a world of interfaith dialogue and respect once described by Dr. Martin Luther King as the “beloved community.” A Baptist preacher from Michigan, and featured speaker at a Sept. 6 forum at Community College of Aurora, Buttry serves as a global consultant for peace and justice, working tirelessly on conflicts involving numerous religious traditions with an overriding goal of promoting understanding of different faiths.
But with consistent clashes between the mainstream and the so-called ‘fringes’ of society, the Utopian view often gets buried by those “clueless of the experience of the margin,” which leads to misunderstanding, divisive language and, at times, oppressive legislation. Buttry asked during his lecture entitled “Post 9/11 Religion and Community: Interfaith Strategies for Peacemaking how, most often, this pushback is countered. “Many times,” he responded, “it has to happen from voices raised from the margins saying something is wrong here."
