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Interfaith group examines
common faults, abuses

They came together on Labor Day holiday to talk with one another about religion.

The atmosphere fairly crackled. More than half of the 150 attending stayed for the full nine hours despite the seductions of a beautiful holiday intended for leisure. All but a handful were lay folk concerned about the religiously justified conflicts that shred our world.

For more than two years now, All Believers Network has been engaged in interfaith dialogue. The tone has been respectful and educational about one another's heritages. However, as we explored the ideas, perceptions and experiences that we hold in common, the nagging question kept coming up: With all that we hold in common, what elements in our teachings have made it possible for our traditions to be hijacked at one time or another as a rationalization for violence? And what, with a change of focus and emphasis, might make that hijacking more difficult?

One of those elements has to do with who is included and who is excluded. Too often, those whom it is acceptable to exclude also end up being victimized. We decided to invite as large a constituency as possible and candidly explore together our respective faith traditions' teaching and practice on exclusion and inclusion.

Practitioners from 12 faiths looked candidly at their own respective traditions: Bahai, Buddhism, Christianity, Hawaiian spirituality, Hinduism, Islam, Jainism, Judaism, Sikhism, Subud, Sufism, Unitarian universalism and Zoroastrianism. Each of them has inclusive and exclusive elements. Each, subtly or openly, says, "We are right and they are wrong, maybe even dangerous." And yet, the teachings and commitments of our respective traditions are wonderfully overlapping, for all the differences in style and story, language and image.

We came together to ask hard questions; not to appease, but to grow.

What are the issues, and how can we move from exclusion to inclusion? Twelve practitioners wrestled with the issues, wrote papers, summarized what they had learned and led discussions.

What are the strengths, weaknesses and limitations of our sacred literature? Each sacred book was born in a specific temporal and cultural context. What can still speak with power to the conflicts we face today?

Who is acceptable as a convert? Must one become a clone of antiquity to realize and apply the wisdom and insights of our heritages?

How do we treat those who leave the faith, for another or for secularism?

What is the status of women? It's a recurring and almost universally embarrassing theme.

How open are we to those of differing ethnicity, social class or cultural background? This is especially problematic as ancient boundaries fall and mobility rises. Globalization is not merely an economic, but a demographic phenomenon.

How do we take the insights of our faith into a world quite different from that experienced and envisioned by the founders of our traditions?

We did not answer all the questions or end with an affirmation of our wonderfulness. Each of our faiths comes into the 21st century with baggage from the past that limits our ability to minister together to the hurts, injustices and alienation of a struggling world. But we found, in the very exercise of confronting our limits, the seeds and roots of wisdom for transcending those limits.

At the end of our day together, Saleem Ahmed said, "We have been conditioned to believe our prophet is God's only true prophet and that our religion offers the only path to eternal bliss. The resulting us-vs.-them attitude has caused many wars; indeed, some of the worst cruelty by humans on other humans has been in the name of religion.

"A longer-term ... solution lies in our clearing cobwebs in our minds, formed with centuries of myopic viewing. Let us make our beautiful state renowned as the interfaith harmony capital of the world. Let us not get bogged down by (what) divides us, but embrace the underlying principles which unite us. We cannot undo past injustices in the name of religion, but we can help prevent new injustices."

The All Believers Network meetings, at 7 p.m. on the last Tuesday of each month at Harris United Methodist Church, 20 S. Vineyard Blvd., are open to the public. For information, visit www.allbelievers.net.

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