The American students at Georgetown know about different religions but without a lived experience of an inner relationship with the Divine, "they just don't get it".
An Egyptian Muslim friend I met in Qatar helped me understand what that something was. Talking with Americans about faith and religion, he told me, is like having coffee with Forrest Gump: pleasant enough, but not of much substance. "They just don't have much to say because they just don't get it," he said.
The writer was a professor and priest in Qatar, now back home teaching future foreign service officers at Georgetown.
They just don't get it" is never something a teacher wants to hear. That's especially true when I think about our mission at Georgetown, where we educate many students who will become foreign service officers for the United States and other countries. One of the more important and pragmatic qualities I hope our students carry with them into those careers is a felt-in-the-bone understanding of what it is to live one's life committed to one's faith.
Most professors I know nod vigorously when I suggest to them that an understanding of faith and its claims on the imagination of faithful people is essential for future diplomats. "Of course, of course," they say. "If we don't know about Islam, we will never be able to help untangle the mess in the Middle East." I usually don't have the heart to tell them that they have missed my point entirely.
A Priest Walks into Qatar...
I have thought about that conversation for a long time. It has helped me understand what hobbles American higher education when it comes to educating people for careers in international affairs. It's not that we don't know about religion; it's that we don't understand faith and its life-shaping power.