FFRFMCC Lecture Series: World Religions

John Camardella

According to a recent PRRI (Public Religion Research Institute) study, the religious landscape in the U.S. continues to change dramatically.  White Christians are, for the first time its history, a minority (43%) in this country.  This is down from 80% just 40 years ago.  Non-Christian religions are growing, and those holding no religious identity whatsoever now represent one-quarter of our population.  Thanks to a more far-reaching information network, people (particularly millennials) have greater exposure to other religions, as well as secularism.  But there are now other means for young people to gain more in-depth understanding of how many different religions exist, other than the one in which they may have been raised.

Therefore, We are pleased to announce the Freedom From Religion Foundation Metropolitan Chicago Chapter will be hosting a two-week lecture series focusing on the various major world religions.

It is an honor to have Mr. John Camardella present these lectures.  John is in his 15th year of teaching in the Social Studies Department at Prospect High School. For the past eight years, he has taught two stand alone World Religion elective courses and has been instrumental in advancing the curriculum at the national level.  Last year, he was one of two high school teachers in the country named to the national writing team to develop a framework on how to teach religion in public schools. With the assistance of professors from Georgetown, Rice, Columbia, and Harvard, these guidelines were published back in June, marking the first time in American history that a national education body (The National Council for the Social Studies) endorsed and published a framework for Religious Studies. In addition, John teaches religion courses to the parents of his students and a graduate level course for teachers and administrators. In his free time, John travels to locations such as China, Thailand, Cambodia, Hong Kong and Japan to collaborate with both international scholars and practitioners of different traditions to improve his curriculum and understanding. Over the past few years, he has had the opportunity to study the Abrahamic faiths in Italy, Turkey, Greece, Austria, the Czech Republic and most recently in Israel and the West Bank.

John’s work was recently the subject of a Chicago Tribune article, which you can view by clicking here.

The objective of Mr. Camardella’s public high school curriculum in World Religions is to instruct students in an informative, comparative and constitutional manner to better understand the many different belief systems.  Within his class, John also includes a three-week unit on “Secular Humanism, Atheism and Agnosticism.”

The Supreme Court case of Abington vs. Schempp (1963) ruled that public officials dealing with private citizens may not elevate one religion over another, or show preference to belief over non-belief and vice versa.  By providing students with a strong knowledge on both religious and non-religious cultures and ideologies, John strives to create a more educated and understanding society.

For those who are non-theists, it is important as well to have a solid grasp of the various major religions, their origins, traditions, similarities and differences, in order to have more constructive and rational discussions with people of religious faith, whether they be Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, etc.  While many who identify as non-believers have familiarized themselves very well with the Christian bible, less may be known about the texts and traditions of the non-Christian religions.  These lectures are designed to provide a well-rounded education about the major religions and why they should be taught to students.

This lecture series will take place over two separate weeknights, and focus on the following:

Wednesday, October 4th – Hinduism, Buddhism & Sikhism

Wednesday, October 11th – Judaism, Christianity & Islam

The presentations will be followed by an extensive Q&A and discussion session.

Each lecture will begin at 7:00 PM and be held in the auditorium of the Ethical Humanist Society of Chicago, 7574 Lincoln Ave. in Skokie.  This is a free event and open to the public. But we ask that anyone who would like to attend please RSVP on our Doodle poll.  To reserve your spot, please click here.

This is a free event and open to the public