Religion & CoHousing
From: Blaise J. Tobia (tobiabjdunx1.ocs.drexel.edu)
Date: Thu, 26 Oct 1995 11:35:49 -0500
re: religion and cohousing
 
This has been a long thread, and is, admittedly, becoming tiring, but I 
feel compelled to add my thoughts because of some recent posts that have 
essentially argued against mixing religion and cohousing on the basis of 
religion's unworthiness. I think that these are unwarranted, and are at 
least as problematic in a cohousing context (from an anti-religion 
standing) as may have been the infamous closing experience of the 
national conference (from a pro-religion, even if unintended, standing).
 
I am a practicing member of an organized religion (although its hierarchy 
might dispute my understandings of this religion) and many of my 
Philadelphia-area cohousing-interested colleagues are religious and/or 
openly spiritual as well. Yet religion has never been an issue for us, 
either pro or con. I think we appreciate each other's traditions, and 
assume that our community will be "neutral ground" in terms of religions. 
By this I don't mean that there won't be any visible presence of 
religious or spiritual practice; just that these will not be central, and 
will not be unavoidable by those who aren't interested. Certainly one's 
choice (or avoidance) of religious/spiritual practice will have nothing 
to do with eligibility for any of our intended projects.
 
I tend to think that the tenets of cohousing put forward in our "bible" 
(as it is often called -- are some people upset with other religions 
because they have made cohousing their religion of choice?) should be 
given a chance to work. I think they offer the greatest possibility for 
widespread acceptance and growth of the cohousing movement. Therefore, 
ideologies and religions should be secondary to the broadly accepted 
(among the movement) "universal" goals of cohousing. If an ideology or 
religion (or psycho-therapeutic group practice) is put forward as a 
requirement for a certain project, I believe that it shouldn't be called 
"cohousing." (period.) There can certainly be Mennonite communities that 
use cohousing as a model, or eco-farming communities that use it as such, 
but these should be referred to (at least by those of us who think the 
distinction is important) as the "X Mennonite Community, based on a 
cohousing model."
 
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Blaise Tobia     Philadelphia, PA    215-387-9706    tobiabj [at] 
post.drexel.edu
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- artist/photographer/teacher (at Drexel University's College of Design Arts)
- interested in CoHousing personally, politically and artistically
- serving as contact person for the Delaware Valley CoHousing Association, 
   an umbrella group encompassing several potential site-development projects:
   one, urban-retrofit (Germantown/Mt. Airy)
   three, new-construction ( Lambertville, still in early stage; Shawmont and
   Ambler, still just good ideas)
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