THE THREE Interfaith AMIGOS
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A Report from the Turner Lectureship
at Yakima Washington
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9/11 didn’t help interfaith understanding. In fact it branded the Muslim religion
as dangerously fanatical. Anyone who would die in the name of faith must
be an extremist. We are so sure of their danger that we recruit young men
to fight and die in the name of Christ to stamp out such people.
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Early on, when emotions were running hot, three men representing the three
major Abrahamic faiths began talking together, then talking together within
and between their congregations. Don is a Christian pastor, Jamal is a Muslim
Sheik, and Ted a Jewish Rabbi. They offer a moderating view of their respective
religions. They do not represent the fundamentalist wings of their faith.
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They did three lectures. Everyone loved them, of course, especially when they
wrapped arms around one another’s shoulders and sang a prayer chant. In Hebrew,
I think. We’re all in favor of peace and cooperation and brotherhood, aren’t
we?
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All seemed well until the final session when they divided us into small groups
to discuss what we might do to advance the interfaith cause in our own communities.
Our group had two or three active pastors and a couple of geezer types who
had nothing at stake.
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One of the pastors got our little group off course – or was it on a truer
course? He came right out and said that he wasn’t ready to talk about inter-faith.
He didn’t even have commonality within his own congregation.
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Bingo! Truth trumps everything. The group woke up and stories began to pour
forth about faith divisions within faith congregations that claimed unity
in Christ (a line used in churches that suggests that everyone who is a Christian
is of one spirit). In his case the problem was the president of his congregation,
an active lady who also taught the adult Sunday school class and led two week-day
Bible classes. She had a great following. The problem was that she was a
hard core fundamentalist, totally dedicated to being sure that her understanding
of the Bible was upheld by the church, especially the minister. He felt trapped.
He wanted to know how he could achieve the unity within his one congregation
that these Amigos achieved between three major religions.
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I remembered some remote line in the Sermon on the Mount when Jesus told a
man to go make peace with his brother before bringing his offering. Try that
in church some Sunday! Then I remembered a beach neighbor down the
road that I have been trying to get to answer my “hello” so that we might
make up a difference several years old. I thought of neighbors next door with
whom we speak, but who do not trust us or our daughter or our grandchildren
because we are not “true” Christians.
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It sort of dawned on me that it’s probably easier to have a worship service
shared by a Muslim, a Christian and a Jew (as occurred one evening at the
lectures) than it is to overcome common differences we all have in our personal
lives. We wonder why Jews and Palestinians can’t just get over it and get
along with each other. We wonder why Taliban types in every religion or in
people with no religion can’t put down their weapons and stop blowing the
arms and legs – and heads – off of innocent people.
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I’m probably not going to visit our local mosque or synagogue to check my
welcome. My guess is that I might find more to agree with than in some of
the Christian groups in our town. I think that I’m probably unbending in my
own open religious style. It has been a long time (if ever) that I could accept
the literalism in Christian, nor in the texts of the Hebrew Bible or the
Quran. I’ve pretty much figured out that fundamentalism is deadly – literally!
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The Three Amigos reminded us of the core truths found in most religions that
have power to bring people together. The Golden Rule has expression in sacred
texts from long before Jesus. Love of others, neighbors, enemies, spouse –
as ourselves – will get us there.
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We hit the road for home, stopping for a picnic lunch, when a traveling transient
type (in my eyes) approached us. My apprehension was overcome when he offered
us two cans of cold pop to go with our lunch. I don’t have any idea what his
religion was, if any. His act of humanity reached out and touched me. He
was an amigo too.
─ Art Morgan, October 13, 2009
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