[Vision2020] The Three Amigos and Interfaith Harmony

[nickgier at roadrunner.com]

Hi there visionaries,

This is my radio commentary/column for the week.  The full version with an image of the Three Amigos is attached as a PDF file.  

I learned a lot from these guys, especially Sheikh Rahman.  Here is what I learned about the origins of human diversity in Judeo-Christianity vs. Islam.

In the biblical story of the Tower of Babel, Yahweh regretted that he had created a common humanity with a single language.  He was especially concerned that their unity enabled them to build a tower that could reach the gates of heaven. He then realizes that “nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them. Come, let us go down, and there confuse their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech” (Gen. 11:6-7).  For an explanation of the plural language suggesting polytheism, see my article “Hebrew Henotheism” at www.class.uidaho.edu/ngier/henotheism.htm.

Sheikh Rahman offers the Muslim alternative: “the Qur'an explains that God could easily have made all of humanity ‘one single people’ but instead, by divine design, chose to establish diversity so that you might ‘vie, then, with one another other in doing good works!’(5:48) and ‘get to know one another’” (49:13). 
 
I must admit that I prefer the Islamic view of the origins of human diversity.  Rather than a punishment for human striving and the implication that diversity is a sinful state, cultural and religious pluralism is a blessing that will, with sincere interfaith efforts, enrich all of humankind.

Here's to interfaith harmony,

Nick

THREE AMIGOS AND INTERFAITH HARMONY

A pastor, a rabbi, and a sheikh are sitting side-by-side reading from their scripture at the top of their voices. It looks like that worst example of religious interaction, but the “Interfaith Amigos,” as they call themselves, are simply demonstrating how Christianity, Judaism, and Islam have traditionally related to one another.

Rabbi Ted Falcon, Sheikh Jamal Rahman, and Pastor Don McKenzie have been working together since 9/11, and they have combined humor and deep engagement with their religious traditions, including the parts of which they have great personal struggles.  I had the great pleasure and privilege of experiencing them in person at a recent event at Washington State University.

They started by encouraging their congregations to share Easter, Passover, and Ramadan celebrations.  The most daring and successful event was McKenzie’s invitation to Falcon and Rahman to participate in communion at his Congregational church in Seattle.  His fear was that none of his parishioners would to go to Falcon and Rahman to receive the bread and wine, but more went to them than to him.

The Interfaith Amigos speak honestly and openly about the shortcomings of each of their religions. McKenzie is most ashamed of Christianity’s dark history with regard to its treatment of the Jews, and Falcon is most concerned about the violence and genocide during Israel’s conquest of Canaan and militant Jews who undermine peace between Israelis and Palestinians.  

Rahman is constantly challenged by one reference in the Qur’an about killing the unbeliever, but he explains that it is specific to the Arabian polytheists who tried to wipe out Mohammed and his small group during the first years of Islam.  As Rahman states: “The verse refers to defensive fighting and if the attacker inclines to peace, the Muslim must cease fighting.”

Rahman likes to tell the story about the interfaith mosque in Medina, where Mohammed invited Jews and Christians to discuss religion. He encouraged them to hold their services there because the place was consecrated to the one true God.  Not only did women help build this mosque, but, as Rahman elaborates, “they performed the call to prayer, prayed alongside men, and sometimes led the ritual prayer.” 

In her book "When Women Were Priests," Karen Torjesen demonstrates that early Christian services were held in rich women’s homes and that women led services and consecrated the bread and wine. Rahman’s liberal Sufi sect allows women to sit with men and lead the services.  Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, the leader of the effort to build an Islamic Cultural Center near Ground Zero, is also a Sufi.

Rahman believes that the key to interfaith harmony is to move from the mind to the heart—from knowledge of the tongue to knowledge of personal being.  Human behavior can be good or evil, but human nature is basically good.  He is just as comfortable with calling it the “Buddha nature” or “Christ in you” as he is affirming that it is “Allah in you.”

The Qur’an speaks of Jews and Christians as “People of the Book,” and Rahman believes that it is significant that the word “book” is singular and not plural.  For Rahman this means that the Qur’an should be seen as the third installment of the same divine revelation that began with Abraham.  

In the Amigos’ book "Getting to the Heart of Interfaith," Rabbi Falcon talks about how traumatic it was growing up as a Jew in a gentile world. On his first day at a Cleveland high school he was beaten up by the class bully because he answered “Yes” to the question “Are you a Jew?” 
Falcon learned to hide his religious identity after that incident.  Falcon can certainly indentify with American Muslims as they now come under attack because of ignorance and fear generated by the Religious Right.

Rahman proposes that in addition to the “major” we have in our own religion, we should also take a minor in at least one other religion.  Instead of respect and tolerance at a distance, we should enter into the other religion and let a process of “mutual transformation” take place.  

Gandhi and the Dalai Lama both encourage people to stay within their own faith traditions and focus on the good that is found in each. The Three Amigos would certainly agree and they would support the following injunction from Swami Vivekananda: “Christians are not to become Hindus or Buddhists, nor Hindus or Buddhists become Christians.  But they must assimilate the spirit of the others and yet preserve their individuality and grow according to their own law of growth.”

Nick Gier taught religion and philosophy at the University of Idaho for 31 years.
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