On Nov. 18, the St. Louis Hillel at Washington University hosted what was arguably the most successful example of religious pluralism in recent memory at Washington University, the first event of a new program at Wash. U.—Sacred Meals.

Leave it to public urination and a disbanded game of Wiffle ball to bring Wash. U. students and University City residents to loggerheads. University City’s “zero-tolerance policy” has become the flavor of the month in this area of St. Louis, and our ordinarily easy-going campus is abuzz with accusations of profiling and police abuses.

In Creve Coeur, Mo.—the suburb of St. Louis where I grew up—it is not uncommon to hear people admonish the legal provision of funding for stem cell research, nor is it out of the ordinary when a Catholic bishop sends you mail to tell you how to vote.