In 2022, when I was in grade 11, a speaker came to my school to talk about CCRL’s Civic Literacy Youth Network (CLYN), inviting students to join that year’s cohort. I had already seen a poster about CLYN that piqued my interest, but his presentation reminded me to sign up. At the time, I was not familiar with the term “religious literacy,” but I understood that CLYN essentially promoted understanding and respecting diversity in society, and that stood out to me.

Over time, however, I have come to better understand the role of religion in society, and the relationship of religion to social identities. Likewise, I have better understood the principles of religious literacy and learned the value of taking part in dialogue.

My experience

From the first meeting, CLYN’s facilitators provided a safe, welcoming space to share our thoughts and experiences meaningfully, which was fundamental. For example, in the first session, during a circle sharing activity, facilitators talked about times when they had held prejudice against something in society, relating it to their relationship with religious literacy or diversity in society.

Therein, I understood that we were all coming to this space as products of our experiences, backgrounds and from where we were in our learning journeys. 

Since then I have come to appreciate this as a key consideration when engaging in discussions and in religious literacy. In addition, the activity reassured me that as humans we can change our minds as we continue to learn and that even people with PhDs (like the CLYN facilitators) once misunderstood or misjudged a situation, and that there were reasons for that.

Religious literacy changed me

In CLYN, I have learned the principles of religious literacy to the point where it seems like common sense, and therefore, something that everybody should have access to learn. 

It changed my thinking

For instance, one of my favourite principles that I learned is that internal diversity exists in religions. Internal diversity in religions is recognizing that the beliefs and practices of members of the same religion differ. Similarly, internal diversity acknowledges that an individual’s relationship to their religion is deeply personal.

For instance, it is illogical, harmful, and unfair to label all members of a religion in a specific way just because of their religious membership. I have also learned the important distinction between culture and religion, which people often mistake for the same thing, leading to false, stereotypical narratives about a group.

It changed my attitude about myself and others

Furthermore, through participating in CLYN’s discussions, I have gained more confidence in sharing my ideas and engaging in dialogue about complex topics with others. At first, I used to feel intimidated by being in a discussion with facilitators with PhDs who had so much more knowledge and experience on the subject at hand. However, over time, through talking with facilitators and participants, I have become more comfortable and confident in humbly saying what I think about a topic despite knowing that I do not know it all.

It changed my approach to others

This experience has also taught me to value engaging individuals who are at a different point in their learning journey, so that we may enrich each other’s learning from the unique perspectives we speak from.

Through participating in discussions at CLYN, I have become more open, considerate and understanding of listening to people that may not know what I know or understand my perspective. Now I seek to patiently understand where another person’s viewpoint is coming from, keeping in mind that there are reasons behind it.

We need to move beyond our bubbles

After this experience, I see that the CCRL’s CLYN program is important for young Canadians and Canadian society because it provides an opportunity to engage with people of different backgrounds in terms of knowledge and experience. This opportunity exposes us and helps us understand the perspectives and realities of people across Canada.

Even though Canada is such a religiously and culturally diverse society, it is easy to stay within our bubbles and not engage with people of different religious/spiritual, and cultural backgrounds; even people from a different province or territory. As a result, it is no surprise that we see the perpetuation of hate crimes, hate speech and stereotypes based on religion in our society; this is connected to religious illiteracy.

As Canadians, we would benefit from having opportunities to engage with people outside of our immediate circles, and most importantly learn from and about people that are different from us.  

To me, the work of CLYN is an effort to learn about and understand the experiences and perspectives of people different from us, which are worth taking time to understand.

CLYN’s work is powerful not only through the impact it has on the knowledge of participants, but through the potential for participants to use the skills and knowledge they learn and spread religious literacy and cultural awareness in their lives.

Karol Gabriela Bernal Saenz is a second-year student of sociology at the University of Regina. She was a mentor-junior facilitator in CLYN’s 2023-2024 cohort, helping to facilitate dialogue around religious literacy.