Berkley Center

America’s founders built this nation on the premise that everyone is created equal and deserving of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Its major and minor peccadilloes aside, since its inception America has represented the values of opportunity and hope; courage and perseverance; community, freedom and possibility. Belief in these shared values buttresses the idea of what it means to be American. At the same time, these values do not always share a common ideological origin. America’s founders included many Christians, but they also included Unitarians, Deists and people with no faith at all. From George Washington and Thomas Jefferson to Susan B. Anthony, Abraham Joshua Heschel and Martin Luther King, Jr., leaders from a variety of belief systems have shaped and cultivated the fabric of the American identity and proved that, while the values we share define us as a nation, the belief system from which those values emanates is between an individual and their conscience.

American history is proof that, while faith often serves as a source of personal and public values, it is not a prerequisite. I experienced this in a personal way shortly after college. As a committed Christian, I questioned the extent to which people who did not share my beliefs could embrace values I considered paramount. When I finished my undergraduate studies, I taught in a low-income school on the South Side of Chicago. Because of my deep belief in the Christian values of justice and opportunity for all, I worked strenuously to give my students the best education possible. At the same time I watched as a number of my colleagues, despite having no faith background, labored day and night to help their students learn and overcome the many obstacles posed by their income status. I came to see that, despite not sharing the same source from which we derived our values, many of our core values were the same.

Since teaching, I have not only learned that values come from a multitude of perspectives that are not necessarily tied to faith, but that organizations and initiatives are stronger when their members come together around shared values in spite of significant diversity in their beliefs. I believe that understanding this is critical for our communities, our cities and our country as we aim to tackle difficult local and national issues now and in the future.