IARF Webinars & Online Events

This IARF US Chapter memorial discussion remembers Rev. Dieter Gehrmann, IARF’s first full-time General Secretary, through the testimony of his family, colleagues and long-time collaborators. Dorle Gehrmann traces his formation in the post-war German Free Religious youth movement, his Unitarian theological education in the United States, and his appointment as General Secretary in 1972. Lucie Meijer recalls the growth of the Frankfurt Secretariat, the expansion of IARF membership and Gehrmann’s emphasis on encounter, dialogue, youth participation, social service and international cooperation.

The discussion becomes a valuable oral history of IARF itself. Participants remember pioneering conferences and study tours in Africa, Japan and India; humanitarian and educational projects through the Social Service Network; support for Unitarians in communist Eastern Europe and Transylvania; the 1984 Tokyo and 1987 Stanford Congresses; and Gehrmann’s role in building relationships among liberal religious communities around the world. Personal recollections also illuminate his energetic leadership style, strategic work under difficult political conditions, and lasting influence on later generations of IARF participants.

This IARF US Chapter webinar compares the rise of religious nationalism in India and the United States. Nikhil Mandalaparthy of Hindus for Human Rights explains the development of Hindutva, its distinction from the diversity of Hindu traditions, and its contemporary political expression through the BJP and Narendra Modi. He discusses anti-Muslim violence and rhetoric, lynchings, discrimination against minorities, Kashmir, diaspora polarization, disinformation and efforts by progressive Hindus to oppose religious nationalism from within their own tradition.

Rev. Will McGarvey examines white Christian nationalism in the United States, its links with white supremacy, Christian identity politics, revisionist accounts of American history, church-state conflict and the political religious right. The discussion compares how sacred symbols, historical myths and majoritarian identity are mobilized for political power, while also exploring resistance through interfaith solidarity, civil rights, constitutional religious freedom and religious arguments for pluralism. The Q&A addresses colonial legacies, education, religious texts, Kashmir, Christian Zionism and strategies for countering nationalist movements.