WE NEED TO BUILD

The story of how Interfaith America founder Patel expanded his activism to become a nonprofit founder focused on building civic institutions.

The author, a former faith adviser to President Barack Obama, remembers himself as a young person who was always ready with an unsparing political and cultural assessment of any given situation. In college, he writes, he ruined a question-and-answer period after a student play by launching into a mean-spirited critique of the production. He expected his independent-study adviser to praise his incisive analysis. Instead, she sent him an email expressing her disappointment at his unnecessarily harsh reaction to the work, encouraging him to try creating something instead of just tearing other people down. Years later, Patel followed this advice—guidance he also received from a Mayan activist who heard Patel’s brutal criticism at an existing interfaith institution—and founded Interfaith America, an organization the author hopes will “be among the vital civic institutions engaging the great challenge and opportunity that is American religious diversity and moving the needle toward more widespread interfaith cooperation.” Patel then describes “the nitty gritty challenges” involved in institution building, and in conclusion, he pens a letter to his sons urging them to eschew anger and to avoid limiting their lives to critiquing others. “Tell a story of America where we all belong; build civic spaces where we can all contribute and feel connected,” he writes. “You want people who are being their worst selves to be their better selves. And truthfully, you want to be better too. All of us need to be better.” Activists may glean some useful tactics from the book, but the narrative is often disjointed, and Patel’s arguments about diversity and inclusion are not as forceful or cohesive as they were in his 2012 book, Sacred Ground: Pluralism, Prejudice, and the Promise of America.

A centrist call to actively build—rather than passively critique—civic institutions.