12/09/2006

Special to the Record-Eagle/Ben Ramsberger
Ryan Rozycki, from left, Mitch Park, Kari Kilway, Rev. Corey Sanderson and Arabic Professor David Van Hammen on the road to Dearborn.

Road Trip For Religion

NMC class heads to closest thing to Holy Land — Dearborn

By Gretchen Murray
Local columnist

Jim Valovick has taught Humanities at Northwestern Michigan College for 19 years, but he's discovered that book learning only goes so far when it comes to discussing the great religions of Judaism, Islam and Christianity.

So, when a trip to the Holy Land seemed out of the question, he decided to pack up some students from his Western Religion class for the next best thing. They took a road trip downstate and a firsthand look at the people, food and faiths of Dearborn, an area that has become a Mecca for Middle Eastern cultures in the United States.

"I thought it would be fun to take the students to where the action is,” Valovick said.

This fall's trip was filled with students from both Valovick's and Rev. Corey Sanderson's Western Religion classes as well as David VanHammen's Arabic class. They went south from Oct. 13 to Oct. 16 during both the Muslim period of Ramadan and the Jewish observance of Simcat Torah.

In all, 25 students participated with the help of a grant from the college's Student Government Association that funded the cost of lodging and transportation.

It was a particularly enlightening weekend for Mitch Park. A graduate of Traverse City West High School, Park, 20, is an Arabic language major at NMC who will transfer to the University of Michigan Ann Arbor in January.

Special to the Record-Eagle/Ben Ramsberger
NMC Beginning Arabic Professor David Van Hammen at the doors of the Mother of God Chaldean Church in Southfield, which was one of the stops on a tour students in a Western Religion class took downstate to study Middle Eastern culture.

"We were immersing ourselves in the culture,” he said. "With Traverse City 99.9 percent white, it was interesting to see that all the signs there were in Arabic and to take in the different customs, restaurants and stores.”

Valovick started planning the trip in July when he contacted people he knew from the Traverse City group MidEast Just Peace. They put him in touch with the Arab Community Center for Economic and Social Services, a support organization for people emigrating from Arabic nations.

The trip included a tour of the Arab American Heritage Museum as well the Islamic Center for America, a mosque that also serves as a social hall and parochial school.

"We did Friday prayers, the Muslim version of Sunday church,” Valovick said. "The Imam, who was from Iraq, offered a sermon in Arabic in a similar way a pastor of a Christian church does.”

"The mosque was amazing,” said Kari Kilway of Traverse City.

An evangelical Christian with a growing interest in world religions, Kilway lived in the Detroit area for a while, but only recently became interested in attending various types of religious services.

"The women in the group had to have our hair completely covered and everyone had to remove their shoes to go inside the mosque,” she said. "We found the Muslim community tolerant and accepting. No one tried to convert us and they accepted us as we were.”

That evening the group was invited to a banquet as part of an interfaith Ramadan fast-breaking and sharing experience sponsored by the Young Muslims Association of the University of Michigan in Dearborn.

"I think the students appreciated seeing something new,” Valovick said. "They found the Muslim community to be not at all clannish and closed, and they didn't find the stereotypes they thought they'd see.”

The group expanded its cultural weekend with a visit to the Shaarey Zedek Synagogue, a Conservative Jewish congregation in metro Detroit.

They also attended a service at St. Mary's Antiochian Orthodox Church, where the congregation is primarily comprised of Turks, Syrians, Palestinians and Lebanese.

On Saturday evening, they went to Mother of God Chaldean Catholic Church in Southfield. Valovick said the congregation represents a small branch of the Catholic Church that has existed in Iraq for centuries.

"So much is experienced — smelling the incense, hearing the chanting, seeing the rites, listening to the Arabic language, tasting the food. It's hard to duplicate it,” Valovick said. "It was a cosmopolitan experience.”

But more than that, Park felt it was an un-westernized version of religion.

"It made me more interested in the culture and gave me more ambition to learn the language, but there's also a big interest with the Mideast constantly in the news,” Park said. "People want information and to understand the people in those countries.”

Valovick agrees that the news and political rhetoric have aroused curiosity, but said he sees a growing interest in world religions in general.

The college currently offers classes in Eastern and Western Religions, the Old and New Testaments and a class titled, "The World of Jesus” which covers the time period from 300 BC to 100 AD. All of the classes are filled through next summer.

Corey Sanderson, who teaches along with Valovick, said he sees a hunger in college-age students for more information.

"I have found that a lot of the students didn't have any religious background prior to taking the classes, or they didn't have a consistent background,” Sanderson said. "College is the right forum to ask questions and explore. It's a good opportunity.

"I see that 9/11 and the war in Iraq are at the front of their attention and have awakened their interest in religion.”

The college offers studies in comparative religion — the whole smorgasbord. Classes teach tolerance, pluralism, appreciation and understanding, all in a positive light, Valovick said, adding, "We offer a fair assessment of each religion.”