An Interfaith Trialogue Celebrating Mutual Respect and Kindness

I am always happy to hear about interfaith dialogue. Last month there was an event at Prince of Peace Catholic Church in Hoover, Alabama Leaders held a "trialogue" in which Christian, Jewish, and Muslim leaders discussed their common heritage. As reported in the Roman Catholic diocese newspaper, One Voice:

"Three local faith leaders - Catholic, Jewish, and Muslim - discussed their common heritage as children of Abraham at a recent public forum held at Prince of Peace Church in Hoover. A standing-room-only crowd of over 550 from throughout the Birmingham area filled the church’s Deasy Hall to hear Father Ray Dunmyer (St. Thomas Church), Rabbi Jonathan Miller (Temple Emanu-El) and Dr. Sameh Asal (Birmingham Islamic Society) present “An Interfaith Trialogue Celebrating Mutual Respect and Kindness” on Jan. 26. All three of the panelists, as well as forum moderator Sister Mary McGehee, are active in interfaith outreach." Read more here, and see the event for yourself on the video. It is a little over an hour in length.

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Taking Advantage of Interfaith Opportunities

The following post is one from January 5, 2010. I re-post it here as part of my appeal during the holy month of Ramadan for us to reach out to our Muslim neighbors and learn more about their lives and their faith. The Birmingham Islamic Society, as it does each year, is inviting the community to share an iftar meal. There is information at their website. There may a few days left to participate. Here is an excerpt from their invitation letter (also found on their website):

"We would very much appreciate the opportunity to host you, your family and friends, or your
organization or group on a weekday or a weekend evening between the dates of June 7 and July
4, 2015. We warmly welcome you to observe our evening prayer at sunset. Dinner will follow
with a brief presentation on Islam and a question/answer session. The program usually runs
about 2 hours in total, depending on the visiting group and their questions."


Interfaith Opportunities

This past Sunday afternoon there was an excellent documentary, Different Books, Common Word, which aired on our local ABC station that probably went unnoticed by many. I was alerted by a friend that it would be airing at 3:00 pm. The newspaper TV log had it listed as “Paid Program,” so I think it is unfortunate that it didn’t get better publicity. I learned from an online review that the documentary was produced by EthicsDaily.com in Nashville.

The documentary heralds the positive interactions and cooperation between Baptists and Muslims in such places as Oklahoma City, Memphis, Lake Charles, LA, Columbia, TN, and Orange, TX. We learn through some of the dialogue in the film that certain Baptist leaders were motivated to speak out and reach out to counter the inflammatory, derogatory remarks about Islam made by some other prominent Baptist leaders. They wanted people to know that Jerry Falwell and his ilk did not represent all Baptists.

Different Books, Common Word is an important documentary for two reasons. One, it shows individual Baptists and Muslims coming to know and appreciate one another, finding a common humanity while acknowledging differences. Two, it is a lesson and an image that many of us in the United States, especially in the South, need to hear. We need to cool down the dogmatic, inflammatory rhetoric and get to know our Muslim neighbors.

Local Opportunities

There are opportunities for all of us to do some bridge building between faiths. Our local Islamic Center for several years has extended an offering for dialogue with the community during the sacred month of Ramadan. Each year during Ramadan, which is a time of fasting from sunup to sundown, the Islamic community has invited non-Muslims to come join them for prayers and a meal. It is a time when they can explain their faith to their neighbors who may have limited knowledge (or misinformation) about Islam.

Last year I took them up on the invitation and joined them at the local mosque one night during Ramadan. I believe that we must find ways of living together, because none of us – Christians, Muslims, Jews, or anyone else for that matter – none of us is going to go away. We are all here on the planet, and we owe it to ourselves and our future to learn to live in harmony.

When I arrived at the mosque in the Rosedale community of Homewood, Ala., it was not dark yet, so things had not gotten underway. There were children running around – some tossing a ball. Men were talking on the steps while women in the kitchen busily preparing the evening meal. It reminded me of sights I had seen years before while working and travelling in Southeast Asia, but it also looked a lot like what I had experienced growing up as a Baptist in the rural South.

A couple of gentlemen came up to welcome me. They told me that Abdullah would be there shortly. Abdullah was the one in charge of talking to visitors about the faith. While we were there waiting for things to begin, an older man from India was explaining to me that Islam is the only religion that tells you everything you need to know in life “It even tells you how to go to the bathroom and how to have sex with your wife – what other religion does that?” Then the old man led me to a room where water, soup, and dates were offered as the first breaking of the fast before evening prayers.

Abdullah arrived shortly before the first prayers began. He was a young man of dark complexion, but not as dark as the Indian man I had spoken with. He spoke perfect English and looked like he probably had some African heritage. Abdullah lead me into the mosque where a man stood at a microphone and began leading prayers. After a period of time, he made a few announcements that had to do with general housekeeping procedures (so, they have those announcements during worship too, I thought to myself). Then the man announced some certificate awards to people who had successfully memorized and recited books of the Qur’an. He took delight in pointing out that the one who was best at recitation was a woman.

Finding Common Ground

After the first evening prayers, we all went to partake of the feast that had been prepared. It was then that I had opportunity to talk with Abdullah. He escorted me to the dining area. We sat down to eat and he began to explain to me some of the customs of Islam. At one point in our conversation he asked me about my faith.

“I’m Catholic,” I told him, “but I wasn’t always Catholic. I grew up Baptist.”

“Well,” Abdullah replied, “I grew up Baptist as well.” Abdullah was a hometown boy! And a former Baptist at that!

We laughed a bit about the fact that we both grew up Baptist and converted to another religious expression. You just naturally celebrate whatever commonality you find, and Baptist just happened to be one of our commonalities.

I haven’t seen Abdullah since then, but I’m hoping to continue dialogue with our Muslim neighbors in the city. Just last month, a local imam came to do a presentation on Islam at the hospital where I work. It was an in-service for us health professionals to learn how to better provide for our Muslim patients. I got his name and contact information. Perhaps that will be another opportunity for dialogue and cooperation.

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Interfaith Dialogue

I am always glad when I see interfaith dialogue taking place in the city. The way I see it, all of the world's major religions are here to stay, they are not going away (despite the claims of some strident voices). All religions serve an important purpose in providing a sense of community, personal grounding, a way to make sense of the world and a place to belong. It is unfortunate when we allow our own personal faith, or another individual's faith, to become a wall of separation. 

Sometimes it is a discussion group, sometimes it is a particular charitable function that brings people of different faiths together. We should rejoice whenever that happens, because the world is getting smaller and we all need one another. It was with great joy that I saw the following video of Pope Francis urging us toward interfaith dialogue in our work for peace and justice, proclaiming that "we are all children of God." 

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Sitting Shiva

“Their grief was that I left familiar territory.  

                          My grief – that there was territory.”

“I really think that we should have more fluid boundaries,” I said to my colleague at work. We had been talking about her alma mater, Sewanee: The University of the South, a beautiful Episcopal school in Tennessee. She shared how she had been raised Episcopalian but converted to Judaism. She was glad to be where she was, but sad that not all of her friends and family understood. I found her journey to be quite interesting and told her of a man I met who had left the Southern Baptists for Judaism. I had to also share how I had grown up Southern Baptist and became Episcopalian for many years before moving to the Catholic Church. And then there was the young man I spoke with during Ramadan one year who grew up Baptist and converted to Islam.

I have spent much of my life being fascinated by the faith practices of others, which perhaps allowed me to be more open to other faiths. When we see Jews gravitating to Buddhism, mainline Protestants joining charismatic fellowships, and evangelicals finding interest in historic liturgical faiths, we can either lament such things or celebrate the fact that we live in such a spiritually vibrant atmosphere. Recently, when the Dalai Lama came to my hometown, he compared the varieties religions and spiritual practices to a supermarket. Just as a supermarket can satisfy more people with its wide variety of foods, so it is with religion. More people can find spiritual fulfillment when there is a greater variety of spiritual practices.  I would celebrate a world of fluid boundaries where people can allow their friends and family members the freedom to explore other paths.

Crossing Boundaries

These thoughts bring me to a poem I wrote last year, “Sitting Shiva.” I was actually working on this one for several years before I knew it would be a poem. The background is that I had recalled a conversation that some of my friends and I had back during college days. We were all caught up in the enthusiasm of our evangelical faith and someone said they heard that if a Jew converted to Christianity, their family would "hold a funeral" because they considered their family member to be dead. We all thought that was a terrible thing. Fast forward many years when I ended up crossing some boundaries myself. I soon realized that many in my evangelical/Southern Baptist "family" seemed not to know how to interact with me when I left the Baptists for more liberal and different paths. Though I was interested in maintaining friendships, it seemed difficult for some of my former colleagues. There seemed to be some kind of death there.

Alice Walker PBS Photo

Fast forward a few more years to one day last year. I was watching a television documentary on PBS about the writer Alice Walker (Alice Walker: Beauty in Truth).  She mentioned that when she married her Jewish husband years ago when interracial marriages were still a new and shocking thing (and still illegal in some states), his mother had such a hard time with it that "she literally sat shiva" because to her,  her son was dead. (“Sitting shiva” is the week-long Jewish custom of mourning following the death of a family member. Shiva in Hebrew literally means “seven.”) Sitting shiva is the custom my college friends and I were referring to, though we did not know the name for it at the time. 

Those words from Alice Walker brought everything back home to me. I stopped right then and wrote the poem while the documentary was still rolling on the TV. That is much more information than I usually give when I share a poem, but that was what was percolating when the poem came to light. Perhaps there has to be some sense of death when we move on in life, but to the one moving, death is what is being left behind, life is what lies ahead.

Sitting Shiva

I had friends who sat shiva

When I found the open road.

Their grief was that I left familiar territory.

My grief – that there was territory.

William Butler Yeats foresaw my own death –

“Those I fight, I do not hate” –

When I lay down my armor.

I stepped into a broad place

And found new life

While mourners sat by the casket

Of days gone by.

Funny thing about shiva –

You’re never quite the same thereafter.

Those who mourned

Are never sure what to say

When you show up with provisions

For the open road.

                                                                ~ CK

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Illustration above: "Clouds, Straight Road, and Prayer" (acrylic on canvas) 
                               by artist Robert Gregory Phillips

The image of the painting featured is copyrighted and used with the artist's permission

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Celebrating our Commonalities; Respecting our Differences

[As the Muslim holy month of Ramadan comes to a close, I am offering one more essay on the value of interfaith dialogue. - CK]

In his inaugural lecture at Cambridge University, C.S. Lewis stated that “Christians and Pagans had much more in common with each other than either has with a post-Christian. The gap between those who worship different gods is not so wide as that between those who worship and those who do not.” He was talking about how Europeans had for so long seen their history as divided into two eras, pre-Christian and Christian, but that today we must acknowledge a third, the post-Christian era.  Lewis was speaking in 1954 in England, and his view was understandably quite Eurocentric. 

Today, we live in a world that is far more diverse and less Eurocentric.  Moreover, we of European descent find ourselves in a world that is not only post-Christian in terms of culture, but also multicultural in its diversity. In fact, both Christian and post-Christian cultures are, depending upon your point of view, either in decline or awakening to find themselves as one among many viable communities.

From my perspective as one who tries to champion interfaith dialogue, C.S. Lewis’s observation that Christians and Pagans had more in common than either has with the modern world is an excellent starting point for dialogue. As one who regularly participates in Christian worship and tries to be a practitioner of faith, when I see Muslims gather at the mosque, Jewish friends meeting on the Sabbath, or Hindus meeting for worship, I see fellow travelers and pilgrims who, like me, are attempting to connect with the divine realm in order to bring meaning to their lives.

Those of us who seek peaceful dialogue with other faiths, however, too often focus only upon the things we hold in common. In actual fact, we cannot simply look at our similarities, have a kumbaya moment and go in peace. We must acknowledge that there are indeed differences that cannot be glossed over. There are a number of resources that I have found which can help those who wish to become more engaged in interfaith endeavors.

Resources I have found helpful

I. God Is Not One: The Eight Rival Religions That Run the World — and Why Their Differences Matter, by Stephen Prothero.  In Stephen  Prothero’s book he argues that we are not advancing toward a better world by claiming that all religions are essentially the same. He opts for realism over idealism and says we do more good by a healthy understanding of the differences found the world’s religions.

Prothero’s point is well taken, that we cannot just gloss over religious differences and think that all religions are the same. It is also true that what a person believes about God or ultimate reality will affect how that person engages with others in society. Prothero uses a sports analogy to drive home his point. You cannot say that baseball, football and basketball are the same, because they have different goals and rules. You cannot say that baseball is superior because it scores more runs, when the other sports do not even have scoring runs as a goal. I have a clergy friend who was telling me about an interfaith group she was a part of. There were Buddhists, Muslims, Jews and Christians in the group, and they did not try to say that they believed the same things. What they were trying to do was to find ways to live together and projects in which they could cooperate. So I can agree that all religions are not the same.

Prothero uses the sports analogy. I might use a different analogy, though. People throughout the world speak different languages. Even though these languages are not the same, and often concepts are lost or diminished by attempts at translation, each language has grammar and syntax, and each language has communication as its purpose. So in some sense, languages are the same even though the words, sounds and structures are completely different.

II. The Search for God at Harvard, by Ari L. Goldman. Goldman’s approach is different from Prothero’s. Goldman is a journalist and an observant Jew. The book is about his experience taking a year’s leave of absence to study at Harvard Divinity. He states that his preconceived notion was, “If you know one religion, you know them all.” Diana Eck, professor of World Religions at Harvard, gave him a wake-up call on the first day of class when she said, “If you know one religion, you don’t know any.” Goldman came to understand that “It is unfair and unwise to understand one religion by the yardstick of another.” The author came to appreciate other faiths in the course of his studies by seeing them from the inside.

On passage in particular illustrates Goldman’s intent in writing the book: “I am sitting in a black Baptist church and feel swept away by the incredible combination of pain, joy and music ricocheting through the building. I am sitting in a Russian Orthodox Church surrounded by statues and icons, and feel a sense of mystery and transcendence. I am sitting among Quakers at a Friends' meeting and feel a serenity I have never before known. In each case I leave as a Jew, rooted in the richness of my own faith but nourished by the faith of others.”

III. When Faiths Collide, by Martin Marty keeps the reader firmly planted in the real world and calls for active engagement, not simple tolerance in interfaith matters. Those who advocate tolerance usually hold matters of faith and religion lightly and think everyone should do the same so that we can all “live and let live.” In reality, however, there are many for whom religion is central to their identity and world view and they will not relegate it to a lesser role. For Marty, hospitality is what is called for in dealing with religious conflict. Marty goes to great pains to describe the culture that dev eloped in the United States as we moved toward a more pluralistic society. Using the terms “belongers” and “strangers” Marty illustrates how attitudes develop, misunderstandings arise, then suspicion and conflict ensues. 

In terms of interfaith opportunities Martin Marty prefers the term “conversation” rather than “dialogue,” adding that no one ever comes away saying “I won that conversation.” He advocates telling stories since stories are important to everyone and they are more open-ended than doctrinal statements. He also advises the reader to expect conflicts but to realize that conflict can lead to more creative interaction. 

Martin Marty makes no claims to having a solution to the problem of belongers vs. strangers, but hopes to “present readers with some understanding of the zones where the religious meanings and intentions of strangers have become confused and heated” so that we can begin to “explore understandings, options, and alternatives that we may have been overlooking before.” The key lies in overt acts of hospitality in which one can welcome the stranger without denying one’s own faith or attacking the faith of the other.

IV. Beyond Tolerance by Gustav Niebuhr is a very hopeful and helpful book, in my opinion. It is written by the grandson of Richard Niebuhr (and great nephew of Reinhold Niebuhr).  In his role as journalist, Gustav Niebuhr gives accounts from across the country of ordinary citizens engaging in meaningful communication and collaboration with people of other faiths.  This short and readable book offers a basis for a true regard for the faith practices of others and actual examples of interfaith dialogue.

V. The Jew in the Lotus, by Roger Kamenetz is a fascinating account of a delegation of rabbis who travel to Dharamsala, India for dialogue with the Dalai Lama. The Dalai Lama had invited them for a visit because he wanted to learn from them “the secret of Jewish spiritual survival in exile.” The book is a wonderful discovery of Tibetan Buddhism and Judaism. It offers an example of purposeful interfaith dialogue.  The effect upon Kamenetz was a rediscovery of his Jewish roots.

The Global Village

The global village is becoming more and more evident as we find ourselves living in close proximity with people from other cultures. This proximity is more common today than it has been in the past. We are seeing more bilingual communication on road signs, in community flyers, and on food labels in the supermarket.  For those of us accustomed to being the “belongers,” we can find ourselves becoming irritated that “strangers” have come into our midst. Those societal and cultural bearings that were our center may not feel as secure as they once did. Unfortunately,  the response of the dominant culture (the belongers) is often to redouble their efforts in keeping the past alive and to do all manner of things to make things more difficult for the immigrant, the newcomer, the Muslim, Buddhist, or Hindu (the strangers).

For those of us in our respective faith communities, we have an opportunity to practice hospitality in order to learn from our neighbors and to help in building a pluralistic society that benefits the common good. We can show by example how to welcome the stranger and how we can be true to our own faith and culture while listening to the stories of those from different faiths and cultures.  It requires listening with true regard for the other as well as a concern for the well-being of all of society – not an uncomplicated task or an easy one, but a task well worth taking up.

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Note: Some sections of this essay were taken from previous blog posts:

• Are All Religions the Same?
• When Faiths Collide

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Meeting Our Neighbors During Ramadan

Justin Whitaker writes a blog called American Buddhist Perspective. He has been writing about his encounter with the Muslim community during this holy month of Ramadan.  In  one of his posts last week he talked about participating in the fast which Muslims practice from dawn until dusk during Ramadan. He shares some of what he has learned and talks about why he is participating with the Muslim community. Here is an excerpt of his post:

“Why am I doing this? My first response is that as an educator I feel a certain responsibility to understand different cultures and religions as well as I can. In my studies of Buddhism I have reached out to and practiced with Buddhist groups around me when I could and spent time in predominantly Buddhist countries. Personal experience in the classroom is an invaluable tool. For over a year now I have been teaching World Religions and some of my students have made nearly literal 180° shifts in their perceptions of Islam through the course of a semester. We start every term talking about prejudices (or “preunderstandings”) around religion and the problem of America’s ignorance about religion in general. After chapters on Sikhism, Shinto, and Zoroastrianism, the students are usually pretty wide-eyed in their realization that they didn’t know as much as they had thought when they came into the class (I feel the same way every time I teach them). But these are students who have grown up in an age of the US being at war in Iraq and Afghanistan – many have served in the military and are now back trying to build a civilian life. Prejudices don’t disappear over night, but I know that whatever personal experience and fresh perspective I can bring – getting the students beyond the textbook and the daily news – will help.

There is also the issue of fresh waves of Buddhist-Muslim violence occurring in South and Southeast Asia that I have touched on and will certainly write more on later.”  (Read the entire essay here)

When I first began to attend iftar at a local mosque a few 
years ago, it was in part due to my interest in other faith practices but in large part it was with the understanding that our global community is such a reality in our daily lives these days.  People from different cultures live in much closer proximity now than in the past. Since our cultures and religions are part of the social fabric, we all need to have a better understanding of one another.  For years our local Muslim community has extended hospitality to the community at large by offering a time to visit and to learn more about their customs.  As stated in their letter of invitation:

As you are likely aware, there are many political hotspots in the Muslim world and Muslims are increasingly seen as adversaries of the West. It is not our intention to make you agree or disagree with our belief system, but simply to share with you the authentic teachings of Islam and to illustrate the true face of the more than one billion peace-loving Muslims in the world. With the events unfolding in the world each day, we believe it to be very important that the members of the Muslim community and the American public at large get to know each other better. It is only through visitation and sincere dialogue with Muslims that non-Muslims can gain a genuine understanding of the nature and specific teachings of the Islamic faith. What better way to learn about a group of people than to talk and mingle with them?

Many groups – ranging from high school and university students to churches to businesses to civic groups to government organizations – have come to our past years’ Ramadan iftar dinners. Through these visits, benefits have accrued both to us as well as to our visitors-turned-friends. Most, if not all, of our guests have left with a better understanding of our faith.

My hope is that those interested in peace and wholeness will take every opportunity to practice not just tolerance of the other, but rather a genuine appreciation of the faiths and cultural practices of others in the community. Ramadan, which this year is extending from July 9 to August 7, is one such opportunity to become better acquainted with our Muslim Neighbors.

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Muslim holy month of Ramadan begins

I'd like to encourage everyone to take advantage of this time to get to know your Muslim neighbors. This article is from The Birmingham News:

Muslim holy month of Ramadan begins tonight; Birmingham Islamic Society welcomes visitors

by Greg Garrison

For more than a billion Muslims worldwide and several thousand in Birmingham, tonight marks the start of Ramadan, a time of prayer, daytime fasting and charitable giving.

As Muslims begin the observance of their holy month tonight, with daytime fasting beginning Wednesday, the Birmingham Islamic Society will be welcoming non-Muslims to the Hoover Crescent Islamic Center to learn about Islamic teaching.

"Our outreach program goes throughout the year, but it’s accelerated during Ramadan," said Ashfaq Taufique, president of the Birmingham Islamic Society.

During Ramadan, the Birmingham Islamic Society does a nightly presentation on Islam at its Hoover Crescent Islamic Center on Hackberry Lane, inviting non-Muslim groups from churches, civic groups, schools and synagogues. For example, the Alabama Faith Council is scheduled to visit July 18.  (Read the full article here)

I have taken advantage of this opportunity during past Ramadan holy months and hope to again this year.  To read my past accounts go here and here.

Muslims gather for prayer at the Hoover Crescent Islamic Center.
(File photo by Mark Almond of The Birmingham News)

Interfaith Dialogue During Ramadan

Islamic Mosque in Singapore
photo by C. Kinnaird

We are in the Muslim holy month of Ramadan which this year began on Saturday, July 21. The Islamic Center in our city has for years been hosting dinners to welcome guests during the month of Ramadan in order to explain their customs and practices to their non-Muslim neighbors.  I think it is important for us to engage in interfaith dialogue. The major religions of the world are here to stay and the communities we live in are experiencing more diversity than ever. Nothing breeds conflict more quickly than ignorance and suspicion, so it is incumbent upon us to get to know our neighbors.

Jordan Denari  shared her account in America Magazine about the benefits she gained from interfaith friendships. In “Jesus Among Muslims,” she states,“Through my faith journey, I have concluded that engaging in interreligious dialogue is a crucial activity, not only for learning about others but, more important, for enriching one’s own faith.” You can read the entire article here.

For further reading, one of the most hopeful and helpful books that I have read is Beyond Tolerance by Gustav Niebuhr (great nephew of Reinhold Niebuhr, grandson of Richard Niebuhr), Viking Press. You can read a review of the book here.

To read my accounts of visits with our Muslim neighbors in past years, go to the following blog posts:

Feasting and Fasting During Ramadan

Interfaith Opportunities



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