A Park City minister wants to tackle big issues in one civilized discussion at a time. One of the hot topics the Reverend Charles Robinson of St. Luke’s Episcopal Church has his eye on is the debate surrounding fossil fuels and green energy.
“This is my two cents and you can take it with a stick of gum, but I feel we’re struggling as a country as to whether or not we’re going to commit to green energy and make the kind of commitment that will shift us away from fossil fuels,” said Robinson, co-founder of the Park City Project of Deeper Understanding. “It seems to me that we’re horribly ambivalent about that, and there is a substantial amount of misinformation that has been put out in order to mix up the issue.”
In an attempt to shed light on the dilemma, Robinson will hold forums on Oct. 13 and Oct. 20.
The forums will feature David Hedderlly-Smith, a geologist and president and CEO of D.A. Smith & Associates, and Christopher Thomas, the executive director of Healthy Environment Alliance of Utah, or HEAL.
Hedderlly-Smith supports nuclear energy and will make the case to build more nuclear power plants in the country, while Thomas will make the green energy side of the argument, which is to find alternative and environmentally safe energy sources, Robinson said.
These discussions will be held two consecutive Thursday nights at St. Luke’s Episopal Church. The first will be Oct. 13, from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m., and the next will be held Oct. 20, from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m.
“The first day is the more formal session, because we have each of the presenters make a half-hour Power Point presentation and then folks will line up at the microphone to ask questions for an hour,” Robinson said. “The following week is an informal gathering. We all sit around in a circle and talk about the issues raised in the previous week.”
The forum is structured to encourage civil discourse, which is the goal of the Park City Project for Deeper Understanding, which was founded in 2005 by Robinson and Patty Wood, who was then the pastor of the Unity Spiritual Center.
“People were starting to demonize others who disagreed with them and it seemed like the capacity of civil discourse and respectful disagreement had been deteriorating for awhile,” Robinson said. “We decided we wanted to offer a different model and invite people who are on opposite sides of an issue to come together and share information and engage in respectful dialogue.”
Originally Robinson put together forums that involved large panels of five to seven people that crossed the ideological spectrum.
The first session was held in September 2006. The topic was immigration. Other topics included affordable housing, the Bible and homosexuality.
“We had a team of volunteers who helped put these on,” Robinson said. “Since it was a lot of work, we were only able to put on one or two a year, then we went back to the drawing board and came up with a new model.”
Instead of putting together a large panel, the discussions would feature two panelists pro and con which allowed Robinson to hold the sessions more frequently.
“The set up, now, is to have six events in the fall and six events in the spring, instead of one or two a year,” he said. “It’s working out well, so far. I’ve got a team of people and we’ve got a rhythm now.”
Last month’s topic was Islam and Christianity and November’s topic will be the Free Market vs. Government.
“Topics come out of discussions from the planning team where people put out ideas, but really all you have to do is watch the evening news and you get a pretty good sense of what’s polarizing the country,” Robinson said. “We pick the hot-button issues and hopefully get people together to have a conversation.”
Robinson said the Park City Project for Deeper Understanding is the ideal program where people can come to an understanding, even though they stand on opposite sides of an issue.
“I’ve disliked the aspect of any religious culture that is exclusive and seeks to tell people what they have to think in order to be OK,” he said. “I think the heart of religion is to foster compassion and understanding between people. As an ordained minister, it’s rewarding to be part of any event that fosters real dialogue where people really listen to each other. It’s a sacred event when people can learn from each other.”
The Park City Project for Deeper Understanding will hold free presentations about Energy Policy and Sensible Options for the Future, with David Hedderlly-Smith and Christopher Thomas on Thursday, Oct. 13, and Thursday, Oct. 20, at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, 4595 Silver Springs Dr., from 7 p.m. until 9 p.m.