April 20, 1997
Dear Dr. Harding:
I am a graduate student at the University of Houston-Clear Lake in the Cross-Cultural Studies program. As partial fulfillment of my graduation requirements, I have begun a Master's project entitled Religious Diversity and its Effects on Culture in the Greater Houston Area. My purpose is to examine how religious organizations and their members contribute to the cultural diversity of Houston and what cultural characteristics distinguish them from their spiritual counterparts. I am interested in learning how members within their religious communities incorporate their spiritual beliefs into their identities and their cultural expression.
I believe that the best way to accomplish this is to begin a dialogue with these groups and individuals and to observe their everyday religious activities as well as sacred events. As a budding visual anthropologist, I am most interested in recording these events through the medium of photography because I believe that pictures, as a method of communication, can transcend even the most eloquently worded recountals as well as to overcome language and cultural barriers.
Today, almost everyone seems to be talking about cross-cultural communications, the religious marketplace, and the global village. What do these things really mean? Perhaps people all over the world are making a concerted effort to communicate with each other about the things that are important to them. They may use universally recognized symbols and shared human values to accomplish this. Enter religion, the most powerful social institution in the world. Indeed, it defines the moral structure of society, regardless of the environmental, economic, or political climate of the day. It unites almost everyone in a very important way: it helps us to understand the world in which we live no matter what our cultural background may be.
I contact you now because I feel that your participation in this project will not only further my research and enrich my personal knowledge, but also offer you and your religious community an opportunity to share your traditions and experiences with other communities. In addition, our cooperative efforts may be able to promote a spiritually-based environment that encourages a cross-cultural understanding of religion and its important role in our global society. The project will culminate in a photographic exhibition to be displayed on our campus. It is my hope that all of the participants will attend the opening reception and/or will see the exhibition during the time it is on display.
I am eager to include you in my project and hope that you will participate in it. I will contact you on the telephone in a few days in order to learn your degree of interest, but please feel free to contact me sooner if you so desire at telephone number (xxx) xxx-xxxx. Thank you for your kind attention.
Sincerely,
Leslie Carolyn Johnson