In 1893, Presbyterian minister John Henry Barrows organized the World's Parliament of Religions in Chicago, believing it would demonstrate Christianity's superiority through friendly dialogue. He spent two years sending ten thousand invitations worldwide, overcoming fierce opposition from his own church and religious leaders who feared granting other faiths equal platform. But when speakers from Hindu, Buddhist, Jain, Muslim, and other traditions addressed thousands of Americans not as primitives seeking wisdom but as teachers offering it, something unprecedented happened. The Parliament didn't confirm Barrows' assumptions---it shattered them, creating the social permission structure that allows religious diversity to flourish in America today. Barrows wanted to prove a point. He accidentally changed a culture.

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