What the World Needs

to Know about

Interfaith Dialogue…

Everything you need to know about

working in harmony with people of other faiths

by

Richard M. Landau, MA

Table of Contents

Foreword:

What the World Needs to Know about Interfaith Dialogue

I wrote this book because I encounter so many situations where people of different faiths have difficulty working together. I took my 25 years experience in creating successful interfaith dialogue groups and I distilled the key points into this book.

Like you, I know history is replete with stories of the encounters between the world's major religions. Sadly, virtually all such contacts have transpired in the crucible of war and persecution. We all know the litany: Christian Crusaders invading the Near East; Muslim incursions arriving at the gates of Toledo and Vienna; the Mogul occupation of Hindu India; Hindu-Muslim communal violence; the seemingly endless persecutions of the Jews; Protestants and Catholics slaying each other all across Europe, especially Northern Ireland; the Shi'ah Muslim persecution of Babis and Baha'is; and on and on.

A NEW IDEA . . . LET’S TALK TO EACH OTHER

While we are now growing accustomed to the entire notion that faiths can actually talk to each other, the idea of interfaith dialogue is actually fairly new. Admittedly there is some precedent in Islamic Spain, but the earliest glimmerings of any concerted effort to nurture sustained harmony between the faiths dawned at the first Parliament of the World’s Religions in Chicago in 1893. There, for the first time, the world's major religions met and listened to each other for the purpose of learning more about each other. Rather than being driven by narrow, sectarian and indoctrinational objectives, participants came to explore what they held in common.

In the shadow of the growing nationalism and emergence of new nations which has dominated the early and mid-twentieth century, and the subsequent rapid dissolution of national boundaries brought on by the increased speed and facility of international travel and communications, we find ourselves compelled to know more about each other both at home and abroad.

6 EXAMPLES OF THE BOOM IN INTERFAITH ACTIVITY

In the latter half of the twentieth century, interfaith activity in the developed nations and in non-governmental organizations has accelerated to a hitherto unknown pace.

1. United Religions Initiative. Originating in California, a nascent initiative known as the United Religions has set for itself the lofty goal of functioning in a manner that parallels the United Nations.
2. Millennium Summit. UN Secretary General addressed a gathering of the world’s religious leaders at the UN in 2000.
3. TV Multifaith. Canada now boasts the world's only multifaith TV services, and a TV service for Christians and Jews is available in the United States.
4. Web Explosion. A constantly growing number of websites and publications dedicated to dialogue between the faith traditions, reflect the burgeoning interest in the peaceful exploration of the points of convergence between many faiths.
5. Parliament of the World’s Religions 1993 & 1999. And, after a 100-year hiatus, the Parliament of the World's Religions convened its second congress in Chicago in 1993. This "Faith Woodstock" assembled the faiths of the world in a swirling panoply of color and diversity. Just 10 minutes in the lobby of the convention headquarters Chicago Palmer House Hotel would provide an observer with a passing parade of Buddhist bhikus and bhiksunis in Saffron and Tibetan Carmine, Hindu swamis in Sienna, brilliantly festooned Yorubas, brightly turbaned Sikhs, Orthodox priests in full black clerical attire, and barefoot new-age types bedecked in gilt-edged ancient Egyptian symbols. The group reconvened in Capetown in 1999.
6. International Interfaith Centre. Faith communities are cooperating to construct an international interfaith centre near Oxford University.

 

4 SOUND REASONS WHY INTERFAITH DIALOGUE IS GROWING

Why has interfaith dialogue become a 'growth industry'?

1. Our shrinking planet. The easiest answer is that the exponential growth in communications, transportation and technology has, to cite a truism, contracted the planet. The same intercontinental journey that 100 years ago took weeks by steamship can now be undertaken by jet airliner in a few hours. Following the dawn of telecommunications ushered in by Samuel Morse's first telegraphic message in 1844, we have reached the stage where we can read and digest news from another town on another continent before the local citizenry. And, there are also the planet-compressing aspects of the internet and the world wide web, but enough has already been written about this.
2. The emergence of world citizenship. We are witnessing the intermingling of peoples on a worldwide scale that has never occurred before. There is an emerging realization that we are indeed citizens of one planet. Perhaps, once it didn't matter whether a Christian resident of a major Western centre had any appreciation of Islam or the Hindu religion, et al. But when the colonial empires declined, the colonials discovered that they had been, in turn colonized. The 'colonies' came home: Africans, Caribbeans, South Asians, East Asians, and Arabs brought their cultures and religions to London and Paris and other centres of the West, where they flowered and hybridized. Those fleeing persecution or simply seeking opportunity continued to migrate to Europe and the Americas. Masjids and temples popped up along the highways and in the heartlands of the West. The 'infidels' are no longer a continent away; they live next door.
3. Expatriate communities. Driven by the pollenizing influences of war, colonialism, mercantilism and repression, large expatriate communities were washed to the shores of post-industrial nations where they collected and blended in ceaselessly moving tidepools, eventually taking root in places far from the cradles of their births. As many Jews live in North America as in Israel. Muslim communities burgeon in North America and Europe. Generations of Hindu and Sikh communities are firmly rooted in Fiji, Trinidad, Guyana, Canada, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand.
4. It makes good sense economically, too. Good neighborliness and altruism are not solely responsible for our budding interest in other faiths. The forces of capital, which have no national loyalty, have discovered that diversity and acceptance are also good for business. Upheaval and intolerance, no matter what extremist politicians may say, are bad for business. When the West (read "Christendom") awoke to find it had new neighbors possessing financial clout and petroleum natural resources, it became convinced of the necessity to gain an understanding of other religions and cultures. Even though this originates in 'enlightened self interest', it's hard to argue with the benefits that accrue from more knowledge of others.

That’s why, ironically, we had the wondrous spectre of U.S. President Bill Clinton telling his largely Christian nation that he has to begin bombing Baghdad this week instead of next to avoid such an action during the Islamic holy month of fasting, Ramadan.

WHAT HAPPENS WHERE THERE’S NO DIALOGUE?

What about the converse? In those places where no dialogue between the religions occurs, the

vacuum is filled by the predictable backbiting, gossip, mistrust, and bigotry.

1. Bigotry muscles in. There is no logical basis for bigotry. Bigotry can only be bolstered by fear and ignorance. For example, in some nations it's okay for nuns to cover their heads and wear habits from head to toe, but let a Muslim woman don hejjab in the same nation and watch the sparks fly.
2. Extremism grows. No dialogue, no logic also means you get the mad Holocaust deniers. You get enlightened bumper stickers that say things like "If English was good enough for Jesus, it's good enough for me". There is no logical basis for bigotry. A lack of factual information opens a dark hole through which fundamentalist purveyors of hatred can ooze. As before in history, these people exploit the differences and so-called apostasy of the other by playing on the ignorance of the masses. It still happens today. Look at the incendiary language of Ulster Unionist ordained cleric Ian Paisley -- or the so-called holy men of Iran who have bold-faced encouraged the incarceration, torture and murder of innocent Baha'is and Jews -- or the savage Sudanese leadership that cloaked itself in Islam when it was caught systematically exterminating Christian Nubians -- or the Christian West that stood idly by while Bosnian Muslims were raped and murdered by Catholic and Orthodox Christians -- or the extremist Jew who went out of control in Hebron gunning down scores of Muslims at prayer.

THE REWARDS ARE VAST

When interfaith cooperation works well, all of our lives are enriched. A leading international diplomat told me that while working for a devoutly Buddhist employer, he rediscovered his own faith in Christianity. A Christian monk who followed the Hindu/Eastern sunyasee tradition recounted how he felt enriched by his experience in India worshipping alongside pious Hindus. The knowledge of others enhances our lives, helps us to differentiate what is true from the chimerical and cultish. It substantiates our belief in that most common of all religious dicta, the "golden rule", directing us to live enlightened, spiritually centred lives unimpeded by the accumulated dross of generations past. The time is ripe.

IT WILL WORK FOR YOUR GROUP, TOO

My years of participating in and leading interfaith consultations have led me to arrive at certain conclusions that are laid out on the pages of this book. Let me give you a foretaste of what my experience has taught me.

• • More than good intentions. First, good intentions alone do not form a basis for interfaith dialogue and reconciliation. There are a number of prerequisites for success.
  • No trawling for converts. If you participate in any interfaith group for reasons of expanding your own faith’s membership or seeking out converts -- you are in the wrong meeting.
  • Leave your pride at home. If you bring with you a sense of pride in your learning or your particular faith, you will do more harm than good. Nor is the interfaith meeting a place for the discussion of abstruse intellectual marginalia.
  • Bliss doesn’t equal progress. Conversely, it is not a place to walk around with a smiling, blissed-out thousand-mile stare nodding your head at everyone and saying things like: "Wow. . . I can really feel the spirit in this place." This completely gullible, 'everybody-has-the-truth' attitude does not lend itself to fruitful consultations.
  • No "mea culpas". Too often, undisciplined interfaith dialogue in the West has been characterized by some well intentioned Christians repeatedly doing mea culpas for the Crusades, for the Concentration Camps, for the treatment of the First Nations of the Americas, for school prayer, for nativity scenes in public spaces, and just about everything else that's taken place for the past 2000 years. I don’t think that is productive dialogue.

FOLLOW THIS PLAN. . . LAUNCH AN INTERFAITH GROUP IN JUST WEEKS

The interfaith dialogue, when run successfully, is a place for learning, communicating and sharing of information that should alter the way in which you perceive. To clear the neural pathways and dark hallways of the cobwebs that prevent such clear perception, you need some basic rules of engagement.

In these pages, we'll explore the rules, look at some big successes, and learn from some magnificent failures. We'll see that -- through the 'willing suspension of belief' -- there are patterns and models for success that can move interfaith dialogue from its first, halting steps to new, bold and confident strides for progress and peace.

To paraphrase: the path to dialogue is paved with much more than simply good intentions. Just follow this plan and your group will be up and running in just a few short weeks. And if you’ve already got an interfaith group, this book will show you how to make it fun and interesting to participate.

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