I was raised in a strict Roman Catholic grade school. the
nuns told me to walk on the other side of Protestant churches. Being a
smart-mouthed child, I asked them what to do when I crossed through the public
school, as a Presbyterian church and a Baptist church flanked them. They called
out the principal to beat me with a large, thick paddle. The nuns told us to
pray that JFK would be elected the first catholic president. Our next door
neighbors, with whom I played all the time, told me that I was going to hell,
since I was a Roman Catholic. Look at how far we have travelled in those years.
Senator Kerry caught more grief from his own Roman Catholic church than he did
Protestants.Gov. Romney’s Mormon faith raised little comment, although I fear
that he were a Democrat, things would not have been so easy.
Twice a year, I am invited to an Indianapolis conference, the reformed
roundtable to study and reflect. This year we read two books by the young
interfaith leader, Eboo Patel. He was raised in a moderate Muslim household,
and discovered a deeper faith in adulthood. Part of his journey has been his
abhorrence of religious violence and prejudice. In response, he has started
programs all over that emphasize two points, service projects by different
religious adherents and a forum where differences are heard , shared, and
respected. Using social science research, he discovered that religious prejudice
decreases when we actually know a person from another faith, understand their
beliefs and practices, and work together on a project of common interest with
them.
My experience in interfaith discussions has always been
disappointing. usually, folks will speak with force on their own views and even
try to speak for other views. My mainline Christian groups are usually achingly
polite, anxious to cause no offense. I get annoyed when we do not correct
misimpressions, but we do not dare to offer any counteract or criticism of
another faith tradition. It seems as if we come with the premise that only we
have religious sins of which to repent.
One of our speakers went further than Patel or my
experience. He said that we should, as a rule, seek to respect those who speak
from their religious tradition. Second, in discussion, he urged us to avoid
debate, but to seek to understand as well as we can, other views. Third, he
urge dus to be as clear as we can be about our own views and where we are weak
in understanding or living them out. In other words, we can make it clear that
we are not seeking to convert someone, but that we stand on solid ground and
are not interested in being converted.
Then, he moved to a new level. He asked us to seek to
appreciate not only the different aspects of faith and practice. he called on
us to appreciate the differences, to admire spiritual practice, sincerity, and
images of God that they may hold. Indeed, not only may we appreciate them, but
we can actively seek to appropriate certain ideas and practices into our own
faith systems. Instead of seeing religious faith and practice as sealed off
from each other, a secure potion allows us to grasp what we admire and
appreciate in other systems of thought. For example, he uses the images of
nature of the Dao to help deepen his creation spirituality within a Christian
context. Secure in our faith, we need not fear losing our anchor. Think of how Israel
fought syncretism, but at the same time, it appropriated prayers and wisdom
from other cultures and wove it into its own Scripture.
In that light, we move beyond tolerance as putting up
with error and lesser faiths. As an aspiration, we can learn to worship more
richly, live more fully, in a plural environment of religious diversity. T
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