View from the Pew
A look inside Hawaii's houses of worshipBy Mary Adamski
Saturday, December 8, 2001
The caller was irate that her letter to the editor hadn't run. She reprised her written theme with a verbal diatribe against Muslims. She applauded a national wire-service story seen here two weeks ago in which Billy Graham's son Franklin expressed a similar viewpoint. She said her pastor had just preached about this subject, equating today's terrorism to the end times predicted in the Book of Revelations. Listening can be a
spiritual experienceI think she believed that because I listened at length and didn't argue, I was agreeing with her.
It was one of several experiences recently that made me contemplate the skill of listening, which is what journalists need to hone, whether they cover crime, politics, entertainment or religion. I thought I had it pretty well mastered after all these years, but I've learned more about it recently.
Listening is the most loving gift a person can bring to the bedside of a dying friend or relative, Frank Ostaseski, founder of the Zen Hospice Project in San Francisco, told me in an interview.
The national expert on end-of-life care equated that willingness to let another person tell his story as a downright spiritual experience for speaker and listener. He compared it to Buddhist mediation, a "very deep listening" to self while remaining alert and present to whatever or whoever surrounds you.
His remarks recalled a workshop for hospital chaplains-in-training at which the Rev. John Moody of Pacific Island Ministries advised that each conversation they have should be on three levels. Besides what you're hearing on the surface, he said, listen for the unsaid things that are really concerning the person. And then, listen to yourself and how you may be filtering another's thought through your own experiences or prejudices.
Happily, those two sent me to dig out a 1996 interview with Martin Marty, former University of Chicago professor, a leading American religion scholar and writer, who underlined how important it is for people to hear each other's story.
"The real danger in American life is that people band together with extremely like-minded people," Marty told me. "They don't meet intimately anyone of the other persuasion."
When he compared Hawaii to the phenomenon of a black hole, an astronomers' theory about space, it seemed an insult on the surface. But no, "A black hole might be hypothesized to be so dense that a golf-ball-sized one weighs what the globe does. Hawaii is our dense, thick, rich place," he said, because although we identify ourselves by our differences, we are close enough to those different from us to actually hear each other out.
"I believe very much in the role of the story," Marty said. "Where people can't agree on dogma, ideology, philosophy, but you can get them into each other's lives through story." What a great theme song for a religion page. For a whole newspaper.
I think a lot of good people have instinctively set that song to music in the past three months, seeking to show solidarity with others who are suffering our shared distress, particularly in the interfaith gatherings where minorities such as Muslims, Jews, Bahais and Hindus have been added to the roster with Christian denominations.
It's ironic, isn't it, that the fear about listening occurs in the religion that predominates in our culture.
I was interested to hear a fundamental Christian minister's revelation on the subject recently.
His church was willing to join in a gathering of multiple Christian denominations but not about to go where the unbelievers were.
His reason is in that last apocalyptic book of the Bible, which seems to predict that the blurring of different religions is a signpost of the end times, which will eventually climax with Christ's triumph over Satan.
Well, I listened to him, too. True to the journalism training, I didn't get sassy or sarcastic and suggest what came to mind: If you believe that is the outcome predicted in God's holy book, why don't you relax and let it happen?
His view is not rare. Just last week, the national president of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod put out a media statement defending a pastor who had participated in a September interfaith memorial in Yankee Stadium. It did not violate the denomination's principles because he prayed in Christ's name, said president Gerald Kieschnick, but in general, "we refrain from engaging in common prayer with those who do not recognize or accept Jesus Christ as true God."
This is the season when several faiths have celebrations. In a time when the festive spirit is muted, the least we can do as neighbors is be glad they have a belief to lift their spirits. While the majority of local believers may be looking forward to retelling the Christmas story, others are marking Buddha's enlightenment today, the eight days of Hanukkah next week and the Eid el Fitr feast after a month of Ramadan fasting next Saturday.
Which brings me back to the cranky caller. I wish I could introduce her -- and Franklin Graham -- to the Hawaii Muslims I've met: decent people, workers and parents, striving for a true and close relationship with God. I think she'd find common ground in their stories.
If you are one of the folks who complained that we printed Graham's views, I've got to repeat that Martin Marty refrain: I believe in letting him tell his story, too. If you called to scold me for letting avowed atheist Mitch Kahle write about separation of church and state in our "On Faith" column, the answer is the same. And you, the writer who wants to read columns from free-thinkers, not just those guys who reflect their organized churches, why don't you write us an "On Faith" column? I'm looking forward to hearing your story.
RELIGION CALENDAR
Mary Adamski covers religion for the Star-Bulletin.
Email her at madamski@starbulletin.com.
