I enjoy summits. Perhaps because I was born and raised in the thick woods of Deep South Georgia, where I never saw the horizon. Now living in the western U.S., I enjoy hiking up mountains and gazing across the far distance.
One definition of the word “summit” captures the range of the word: “the highest point of attainment or aspiration.” Whether arriving atop a pinnacle of earthly terrain or a high point of personal or collaborative achievement, summitting is a rewarding moment in time.
From a summit one might gaze upon a broken expanse of nature as far as the eye can see. Or a summit might refer to a high-level conference, such as the annual Summit for Religious Freedom (SRF) convened by AU and taking place April 25-27 in Alexandria, Va., Washington, D.C., and virtually.
At its heart, SRF is a diverse gathering of advocates, organizers, experts, faith and secular leaders, and everyday people unified on the need to protect constitutional religious freedom without favor and equality without exception for everyone. It is a view of what our nation could be if the First Amendment’s promise of church-state separation were fully realized.
SRF is a summit as far removed from the experience of my early years as were the mountains of Yellowstone National Park that I now frequent in the summer months. The fundamentalist religious community of my upbringing did not talk about church-state separation and actual religious freedom. Rather, a false view of America’s establishment as a Christian nation pervaded. But in time as an adult, I came to have doubts: Year after year my questions grew all the more before I finally realized that those who denied church-state separation — including my earlier teenage self — had an obscured view of the world, a view deprived of religious freedom.
Perhaps you or someone you know had a similar upbringing. Many raised in fundamentalism eventually come around to asking questions and thinking for themselves in a search for clarity. Rejecting harmful, shortsighted, exclusive ideologies, they journey upward in search of a summit that offers a clearer view of what freedom really is, both individually and in community.
The Summit for Religious Freedom is that summit.
There really is power in the coming together of people of all religions and none — across age, race, gender, ability, geography, orientation, and politics — in a clear-eyed view of religious freedom. And in our white Christian Nationalism-drenched world today, clarity is more important than ever.
Some years ago something unusual happened that helped me understand the importance of clarity. Having been significantly nearsighted my entire life — requiring the use of glasses or contacts to see clearly in a classroom, much less into the distance — I began noticing that I was seeing better than ever without the assistance of optical aids. In time and to my shock, the fuzziness receded altogether and very distant objects became tack sharp. Now, my natural vision is better than 20-20. Glasses and contacts are no more.
Now, each day I still remain amazed at — and grateful for — the richness and depth of perspective that accompanies clarity of eyesight. When standing atop a mountain and gazing clearly across vast natural surroundings, I feel fully alive, refreshingly free, and connected with a world much bigger and more permanent than a solitary human life. On a mountain summit I often find myself overcome with a sense of belonging that transcends the artificial barriers that obscure, constrain, or deny our common humanity.
I feel the same way at the annual Summit for Religious Freedom.
At last year’s SRF, moving ever upward to greater perspective, clarity, and community was a common theme. I asked some first-time attendees to summarize their Summit experience. “Getting a broader perspective on religious freedom,” one Kentuckian responded. “I’m going to listen more than talk and be an active listener,” a Seattle resident concluded, reflective of a desire to take the time to understand others better.
Some SRF speakers shared their own stories of how, in a search for self-clarity, they overcame the gravitational pull of structural barriers and entrenched prejudices arrayed against the liberating reality of religious freedom for all that our nation’s Constitution promises.
I asked David Morris, AU’s venerable outreach manager, about his thoughts. His response tied everything together: “SRF is where people meet, know, come to appreciate one another, and build community. It’s a sense of feeling energized.”
I hope to see you at this year’s Summit for Religious Freedom. And hear your story.