A Hale Diversity of Faiths

The holiday season is a reminder of what a robust religious environment exists in Orange County. This month’s unusual confluence of Christmas, Hanukkah and Ramadan has given testimony to some of the diversity of faith communities that exist. At the same time, the county of late has shown how the pressures of its growth and development sometimes involve the aspirations of different faith communities, and how change affects our cities.

The county this fall has been a proving ground for how different faith-based points of view seek to locate institutions and express their values in a landscape of different cultures and points of view.

On the national stage, this quest is often referred to in the parlance of relations between churches and government as an “accommodation.” This phenomenon, or the search for it, is in full play in several communities. Finding a satisfactory way to address these concerns is a worthy test of any community’s ability to make diversity of viewpoints work.

There is no one-size-fits-all approach to resolving conflicts where they occur. What is clear is that Orange County will be a better place if it resolves these questions by starting from a fundamental assumption that our diversity is a resource, not a problem. For example, the difficulties that a Muslim school had locating in Rancho Santa Margarita several years ago were ostensibly about traffic, but it seems clear that a more generous spirit might have made it easier to resolve those conflicts. The school at last has found a more receptive surrounding community and supportive outlook from local government in Irvine.

One highly publicized encounter between a church community and a local city has taken place in Cypress. Much of the fall was taken up with a debate over an 18-acre parcel owned by the Cottonwood Christian Center. The city imposed a 10 1/2-month moratorium on doing anything with this land because it said it wanted time to study land uses in the downtown area. This came after the city advised church officials who bought the land that there might be municipal opposition to plans for a 4,700-seat sanctuary and other facilities at Katella Avenue and Walker Street.

The time-out period offers the city a chance to mend fences and assess the arguments of the church that its plans are good for local business in the way many commercial developments might be. The city ought to enforce any applicable standards on zoning and building scale, but it can’t make hoped-for tax revenue its highest value if the owner of the land plays by the rules. The place for communities to express their intentions for land is in their original master planning.

Elsewhere, the growth of membership rolls has led the Catholic Diocese of Orange to embark on an expansion campaign that could mean a new cathedral near South Coast Plaza, as well as a campaign of church renovations and new parishes. During Ramadan, the Islamic Society of Orange County has been raising money for a new $8-million grand mosque in Garden Grove.

Meanwhile, we have heard complaints this holiday season about lights at a school in Newport Beach. A seminar for Orange County educators held this fall in the Brea-Olinda school district focused on ways to anticipate and defuse such conflicts before they become divisive. Federal education officials, drawing on several sources, have issued helpful guidelines on what kinds of religious expression are permissible under law. Foundations like the Freedom Forum have done important work in this area, and have resources that can help educators deal confidently and fairly with different perspectives within school districts.

It is worth taking notice that the National Conference for Community and Justice has just released a 2001 schedule for its annual Communities of Faith Tour. This schedule includes an Interfaith Passover Seder, a visit to the Hsi Lai Buddhist Temple, a bus trip to a Native American powwow and a visit to the Second Baptist Church for an African American worship service, among other destinations. The continuation of this program is itself an indication of Orange County’s coming of age as a diverse place from the perspective of faith. That people are interested not only in following their own traditions but in learning about others is a good sign.