Elon University’s Spring Convocation, titled “Sacred Space: The Promise for Peace and Understanding in Our World — A Multi-Faith Conversation,” fostered a conversation about religious diversity and tolerance among six distinguished panelists from different faith traditions.

Lara Logan, a “60 Minutes” correspondent, moderated the forum. She first posed questions regarding the state of interfaith relations in the world today.

Progress has been made, according to Rev. Michael Curry, the bishop of North Carolina’s Episcopal Church.

“We’re here,” he said. “Would this forum have been held 50 years ago? I doubt it.”

But media may be inhibiting interfaith progress, according to Sharon Kugler, chaplain at Yale University. Stories about Terry Jones, the Florida pastor who burned copies of the Koran, are more attractive to audiences, Kugler said.

“The students who are working side by side — Sikh, Muslin, Christian, Hindu — to build a shelter, is just not a sexy story,” she said.

Eboo Patel, an American Muslim and founder of the Interfaith Youth Core, said as a child his mother made him bring two kosher hotdogs in a plastic bag to a friend’s birthday party, because she wanted to make sure Patel stayed Kosher.

“I look at these hot dogs and I look at my mom, and I’m like, 'First you name me Eboo,'” he said.

Patel found another boy, a Jew, in the corner clutching two identical hotdogs. The two became fast friends, remarkable enough in a world where Jews and Muslims have a “thousand reasons” to not get along, according to Patel.

Greg Epstein, the humanist chaplain at Harvard University, said Harvard could learn a lot from Elon.

“If you have a hall like the Numen Lumen center, and if you graduate from campus with people of all these different backgrounds and don’t become friends with them, then fail,” he said.

The conversation turned serious when Logan asked the panel what they disliked about other religions. Rabbi David Wolpe, named the most influential rabbi in America by Newsweek, criticized how other religions treat Judaism.

“I don’t like the fact that still all over the world children are taught that Jews killed Jesus, and you should hate them,” he said. “I don’t like the fact that all over this world today Islam is taught in a way that essentially makes Jews inhuman.”

There are differences within each religion, said Arjia Rinpoche, the only Tibetan high lama of Mongolian descent.

“Buddhists in the U.S. have an American way of Buddhism,” he said. “For instance, you go to a so-called Chinese restaurant, and the Chinese in the U.S. ask, ‘Is this a Chinese restaurant?’”

To conclude the forum, Logan said education and open dialogue are the keys to interfaith understanding.

“This is not a constructive discussion if we all hold hands and sing “Kumbaya” all the way through and no one walks out all the wiser,” she said.