An excerpt from CHAPTER FOUR

HOW TO CHOOSE AN INTERFAITH PROJECT

 

THE TASK’S THE THING

So then, why are you meeting? Why have you formed a multifaith group? How do you measure success? Some may consider the very act of getting diverse faiths together in one place as an indicator of success. I don’t agree. My experience with numerous multifaith organizations tells me that if you do not state specific, measurable and attainable goals, the group will either degenerate into a debating society or will eventually cease meeting altogether. Don’t get me wrong: there’s nothing wrong with civilized academic discussion. However, by virtue of its exclusive language and approach, the academic loop is a closed one. Interfaith groups that are run by Intellectual types rarely extend themselves outward to the public and are not usually regarded as influential by the rank and file in most faith communities. They have little impact outside their own group.

Interfaith dialogue, I believe, needs to be about fostering greater understanding and mutual acceptance among the many adherents of religion -- not just a handful of leaders or acolytes. If the meetings are simply about discourse, you will not achieve so lofty an objective. I’m saying that interfaith dialogue – if it is to succeed in creating understanding between the religions – cannot begin and end in words and the discussion of abstruse intellectual points. Most of all, it needs to avoid becoming a self-congratulatory ‘feel-good’ group.

If you have agreed that your dialogue is about much more than simply a closed circle of people speaking to each other and stroking each other’s egos, then you need objectives and tasks. To spur into action faith communities and their representatives, you need to show what benefits will accrue from participation. Lest you think that showing a benefit is too self-serving or materialist and commercial, remember that to sustain human activity you need motivation, incentives and goals. If you approach the entire concept with the idea that you are doing something virtuous and that virtue is its own reward; you will be undermining the longevity of the group. Gradually your group will grind to a halt.

  • The most successful voluntary and not-for-profit groups all have one thing in common: they are focused on the communities they serve more than they are focused on the service they are performing. In other words, their focus is generally directed outward to the external world and not inward to their membership and its needs.
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    Just look at the interfaith organizations that have the greatest longevity and most far-reaching impact on their respective communities. The long-standing Chicago Sunday Evening Club, Toronto’s Horizon, the United Kingdom’s International Interfaith Committee, and Ottawa’s VOICES all have things in common.

     

    HOW TO CHOOSE A SUITABLE PROJECT

    The challenge then becomes one of finding what type of project will mesh with the goals the various faith communities hope to gain from involvement with an interfaith dialogue. What are the benefits or triggers that will motivate them? Once you listen for or discover these invisible levers, you will have a handle on what are suitable projects.

  • For example, my work affords me many opportunities to speak to Jews and Muslims about why they need to be represented on television in North America. It’s critical that I understand the hopes and fears of each group. It would be very easy to say to these faith communities:

    "Look, you’ll have your own show. Won’t that make you proud." In my experience, that type of pitch has never produced a single TV program. An appeal to simple pride just doesn’t work. But when I speak to the genuine hopes and fears of these communities, people begin to sit up and take notice. So then, I remind them that television can be an excellent method for educating the young about their heritage and engendering in them a sense of self-esteem. Television can reach the isolated adherents living in far-flung regions of the nation, cut off from the centres of influence and without local houses of worship. I point out that television can act as an anti-defamation tool, showing the rest of the world that the faith community is not alien or strange while familiarizing the mainstream with the faith’s basic tenets. And one can make a case that all of the above will help prevent the assimilation of a faith culture into the dominant Western cultural mainstream. These are real benefits for these communities; benefits that address the real issues the respective communities are facing. Those who would start and run any interfaith dialogue group should take heed and take the time to explore the needs of participant faith communities.

    • Why your group doesn’t "rank". You must be constantly aware that your interfaith dialogue group is not the centre of all creation. Every faith community has numerous pressing responsibilities and undertakings – overseas missions, consolidation of their memberships, propagation of their respective faiths, maintenance of houses of worship and corporate responsibilities, media relations, publishing, youth programs, and much more. Realistically, interfaith dialogue does not rank high on any faith community’s list of priorities. That’s because on the face of it there appears to be no percentage in dialogue. It doesn’t help recruit more believers. It doesn’t help with the consolidation of any given faith community’s membership. And it doesn’t increase revenues.

    That’s why it isn’t good enough to put your interfaith dialogue group in the shop window and believe that the world will beat a path to your door. To paraphrase the late American poet Allen Ginsberg, ‘you can’t buy your groceries with your good looks.’

    Choose your benefit. So it’s critical that you discover and then demonstrate why and how participation will benefit each respective faith community. For example, many see dialogue as a method for contributing to world peace and understanding. Good for them. Others are looking for the respectability that comes from being cheek-by-jowl with the well established world religions. Some are looking to find new adherents, though they’ve come to the wrong place. Some are looking to carry forward a commitment to tolerance and understanding. Some merely want their stories told accurately to the other faiths, and the world.

    Simply put, projects work. I submit that the only way you will satisfy such a broad constituency is to make your organization project-driven. The historical record shows that the most successful interfaith collaborations have been centred around such landmark projects as:

    On the flip side you’ll find interfaith dialogue groups that drift along with no clear vision or task in front of them. They gather simply because it seems like a good thing to do. They can carry on for up to 25 years and often include the same participants as when they first started. I can think of about five groups where about three to ten people have been getting together each month for years to listen to lectures on various aspects of religion. They have had no impact on their respective communities and municipalities.

  • When Muslims in their communities were denied the right to swear on the Holy Qur’an in court testimony and when Sikhs demanded the right to wear kirpans (ceremonial daggers) to school, when the local synagogues were desecrated, and the high schools called out for presenters on World Religion, these interfaith groups remained strangely silent. Now, as laudable as their dialogues may be, there is little if any evidence that any one of these formations has had an impact beyond its own inner sanctum. Where were they during their respective communities’ hours of need? Why weren’t they in the forefront or on the barricades defending others? Quite frankly, it never even crossed their minds because their focuses were inward. They were too busy having afternoon tea and engaging in polite polemics. They change nothing. They stand for nothing. They do little. If a tree falls in the forest...
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    SUITABLE PROJECTS FOR INTERFAITH DIALOGUE GROUPS

    The first step in identifying a suitable project is to survey the membership. Acquaint yourselves with the strengths and talents of the other members. Next consult to see if you have ideas about a task you would like to undertake. Sometimes, it is best to approach them with ideas to get things going. A blank slate may be discouraging to many.

    When you choose a task, you may wish to consider how you can work together to reintroduce religion into public life. For example, they took prayer out of the schools because people complained that it imposed other’s values on "my child". What’s wrong with a rotating system of prayer and meditation? Why remove one religion and leave no one satisfied? With the inclusion of prayers that are not faith-specific or are drawn from all faith traditions, you can satisfy all parties and pay heed to the fact that over 90 percent of the population believe that a spiritual life is important.

    There are many projects you can undertake in the public service. You only need ask your local city council or school board to present you with some of these projects. Naturally, you will not want to choose projects that have an overt, political agenda as some faiths eschew any involvement in the political realm. We’ll take a look at faith and politics later.

    Why you need Vertical and Horizontal. I have found that the most successful interfaith collaborative projects have both horizontal and vertical components. In other words, they have an overall or horizontal objective that each faith community can affirm. At the same time, they allow each faith to express its specific point of view or scriptural context for the issue; that’s the vertical part. In Canada, this is called a Mosaic. Canadians say that while their neighbors to the south have a "melting pot" that acts as a crucible in which all values and cultures are melded into an evolving homogeneous whole, Canada has a Mosaic. Unity is built on allowing each piece or culture in the Mosaic to retain and reinforce its own identity, which creates a heterogeneous whole. In that, Canada’s orientation tends to be quite vertical. However, even in a melting point, you will find individual groups, faiths, and cultures are desirous of holding onto some sense of identity matters.

    So, the ideal projects to undertake will satisfy the horizontal objectives of society at large and your interfaith dialogue working group as well as the vertical objectives and need for expression of each faith community participating in your group. In the next few paragraphs we’ll look at projects that work for all.

    Have Faith Passport. . .Will Travel

    It has been remarked in many quarters that if we could but see others at worship, we would feel much less strange about their faiths. Perhaps we can even learn what we have in common. With this in mind, I had once proposed to an interfaith TV service that it consider producing a TV series called "The Visitor". In such a series, a baptized Sikh would visit a baptism at a Baptist church or a young Jewish woman would attend the rites of passage of a young Zoroastrian woman. In each case, the program would include the first-person musings and comments of the visitor to show us how one perceives the other. That’s why a faith passport project could be useful.

  • Imagine if you will, that your organization made passports available to each member of the community and that each participating house of worship would stamp the passport of a guest. Those who attended a different house of worship at least once every two weeks over a four-month period, would get all the imprints and could be eligible for some form of formal recognition. The visits wouldn’t necessarily have to be for worship and liturgy. In each house of worship, the visitors could attend a lecture. You might even approach a community college to have this included in a world religions course or to issue certificates to those completing the ‘course’.
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    You can see how this meets the broad objective of creating interfaith understanding. At the same time, it allows each constituent faith community an opportunity to shine and tell its own story. And remember, even though we work together on committees, we often do not know very much about the basic tenets and history of the faiths of our colleagues.

     

    Ethics and Morality in the Workplace and Beyond

    Destined to become the biggest public issue of the ageing baby boom generation, the matter of ethics in the workplace has really not been addressed in any detail by the faith communities. Let’s face it, clerics are not often the most knowledgeable people on the subject matter of situational ethics in a work setting.

    If the faiths in your community bond together to present a discussion of ethics in the workplace, you will find there are many secondary spinoff benefits.

     

    Multifaith Literacy Is Job #1

    If you talk to the schools and teachers in your community you will find that they do not know how to teach world religions. While curricula are now in development, there are few textbooks that provide an unbiased and realistic exploration of the world’s religions. This is where your group can provide your city or jurisdiction with an invaluable service.

  • A multifaith literacy project was undertaken in Toronto during 1998. The organizers invited many high school teachers and authorities to attend. Workshops and displays explained the essence of each religion. Teachers were shown that world religion can be taught without bias. Those in society who hold orthodox single-faith viewpoints and atheists alike were made to understand that teaching world religions is as important as teaching geography. After all, when you choose a profession or live in a community you cannot avoid coming in contact with people of different faiths.

    • What better way to get along and contribute to social stability than to have a working knowledge of the beliefs of others? If young people are allowed to grow up in a cloistered environment where they learn nothing of the faiths and cultures of others, it can be argued that we have limited their opportunities to live amongst and work with diverse people in diverse settings later in life.

     

    Youth Projects

    Far too often, our multifaith groups consist of the aged sentinels of society, the senior representatives of established faith communities. However, the greatest challenges and opportunities for interfaith dialogue to do its best work exist among the younger members of society. Here, in youth, is where the long-term patterns of tolerance or bigotry, understanding or hatred are established.

    That’s why I encourage all interfaith dialogue groups to incorporate youth members in their caucuses. I say "incorporate" because it is insulting to youths if you ask them to participate and then relegate them to their own "youth caucus". Bring the youths out of the young person’s ghetto. Confide in them. Listen to them. And have them lead your group to undertake projects that address the faith concerns of young people. Ask them to help you develop projects that appeal to the young and will help them to identify the pernicious influence of hatred and bigotry. Ask them to come forth and become leaders in the community, exemplars of interfaith understanding.

    This serves your group in a variety of ways.

     

    Faith Fair

    The ‘faith fair’ is usually one of the first projects undertaken by an interfaith group. To promote acceptance and understanding, each faith is given an opportunity to put up a display or booth at the fair. Sounds simple enough. . .but sometimes problems ensue regarding the theme of the event and who can participate.

    The Sikhs and Kashmiri Muslims used the Parliament to vent some of their frustrations with India. The Hindu groups did not take this well. This is what happens when politics becomes the focal point. The Greek Orthodox Church walked out of the Parliament when it objected to the participation of numerous quasi-religious and fringe groups. These are very serious issues that we will address in the next chapter. For now, be aware that who can participate may prove to be problematic.

    The Anti-Defamation Network

    A Muslim woman is sent home from her job or school because she is wearing hejjab, a traditional modest head covering. This has happened thousands of times in the West. But what would happen if your interfaith working group had prepared itself for just such an eventuality? Suppose the very next day your group calls a news conference with a real difference. Instead of having a Muslim step up to the podium to defend a Muslim, you ask a Roman Catholic nun with head covered to act as your spokesperson. Can you appreciate the instantaneous impact of such a gesture?

    What if the next time a Jewish cemetery was defaced in your community, it was a Muslim or a Christian that came forward to denounce the act? What kind of a message would this send to those who would divide us all? Is there any one in a better position to coordinate this type of response than your interfaith group? No. Think of the impact your group’s leadership in such areas can have on the entire community.

    This is not a new concept. The B’nai Brith has become a beacon of understanding and anti-defamation by stepping forward to defend the rights of all peoples. When people have challenged the right of a Sikh to wear a turban, the Jewish communities have been in the forefront of support for the Sikhs. Christians and Muslims have made common cause in requesting prayer facilities in public schools.

    This type of action can quickly bind together the many members of your group. You can quickly become defenders of religious understanding and tolerance throughout society. However, you must be keenly aware that the defence of religious liberties must extend to all. Those with a more activist approach to faith or even a ‘fundamentalist’ perspective or a liberal point of view must all be entitled to equal defence by your organization.

     

    Broadcasting . . .your loudspeaker in the modern marketplace

    If you want to reach the masses today with a message of hope and faith, you have to be in broadcasting. There’s nothing new about the idea of cooperative TV or radio broadcasting amongst faith communities. It’s been done for many years in the Chicago and Toronto areas and nationally in Canada. Cooperative TV broadcasting among various faith communities can be informative and beneficial if you arrange to have two types of programming – vertical and horizontal. In other words, programs about each faith community and programs where the different faith communities encounter each other face to face.

    Every faith wants to tell its own story and explain its own doctrine. So any undertaking to jointly broadcast must allow each member of the faith consortium with an opportunity to convey its own message unencumbered by other communities. However, if you come together as a group solely so that each of you can have your own solitude, your own broadcast space – then you have accomplished little and defeated the very purpose for interfaith cooperation and understanding. In my experience the best models allow time for each community to speak to its own adherents and to explain its position to the public at large as well as time for real interfaith debate and discussion of current or doctrinal issues.

    Many of us have been raised with the all-too-familiar notion of religious broadcasting as messages of fire-and-brimstone and the threat of eternal damnation. But religious broadcasting can be so much more than that. I look at the body of work produced by the members of the North American Broadcast Section of the World Association for Christian Communication and I am struck by the sheer range of drama, comedy and news features. No, it doesn’t have to be ‘pray TV’ or ‘preach TV’.

    TV and radio broadcast projects are ideally suited to multifaith groupings because they force all parties to work together. I firmly believe that the way we best learn about each other is through action and cooperation. You’ll learn more about others by working with them than you ever will through lengthy theological debates. I have produced numerous interfaith TV programs, and they were all learning experiences in which the parties each came away with a profound respect and new knowledge of the others involved. In one particular community where large Christian churches predominated, a wise and saintly Hindu pandit and a widowed, elderly Seventh-day Adventist woman emerged as the spiritual and task stars. Who knows who will surprise us and teach us new things!

    Admittedly, for some, the notion of a community broadcast project seems daunting. They worry: "We don’t know how to make a broadcast"; "Who will head it up?" or "Who would even want to carry our type of programming?" Good questions. Let’s address each one.

  • Where do we begin? In most communities you can get help in making a broadcast from three sources.
    • First, find out who there is in each faith community who has experience making TV or radio programs. Some faith communities have excellent resources and people that can be borrowed from their national offices. For example, the United Church in Canada and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons) have fantastic national broadcast resource materials that they make available to local communities.
    • Second, bear in mind that most public access TV (cable) and public radio services (campus) are required by their broadcast licences to respond to community groups that want to make programming. With sufficient pressure, station managers will often "loan" you expertise and make a timeslot available to you. Remind station managers that your group represents X% of the population and that you will promote the broadcasts through your own community networks.
    • Finally, you can speak to your area community colleges that offer a radio and TV arts program and ask for assistance from their students in making the programs.

    Who will head it up? In most projects suggested in this chapter you will need one person who is the coordinator of the project. This is especially true where broadcasting is concerned. The coordinator needs to have the wisdom of Solomon and the patience of Job. It also helps if the coordinator has the necessary sensitivity to all faiths and doesn’t call for a shoot on a Sunday morning or a Saturday or at noon on Friday (times for worship for Christians, Jews, and Muslims respectively).

  • It is the coordinator who makes sure that the pronunciations of difficult terms like masjid or Baha’u’llah aren’t mangled in narration. The coordinator makes sure that any scripts or the schedule of appearances by faith communities are equitable.
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    Who on earth is going to carry our programming? You’d be surprised. Most broadcasters must carry some local community programming. This is especially true of the community access channels of the local cable companies and campus radio stations. These are good places to cut your teeth. The local angle and local leverage will encourage the area broadcasters to put your programs on the air. Sometimes they will even offer you a grant toward the completion of your project.

    • Interesting TV. However, everyone has seen more than enough ‘talking heads’. Only rarely do panel discussions engage and excite viewers. It is most likely that local TV will be interested in a news clip or feature piece or half hour that documents how your faith communities came together and cleaned up a polluted park or sponsored a choirfest with singers from all different faiths or a festival of films with spiritual themes.
    • The news directors or directors of programming will want to see something that is new, unusual, colorful, musical and not run of the mill. Remember, this is a medium that thrives on bright images and sounds. You can do this easily if you put your minds to it. You could hold an international day of prayer for peace in a dramatic setting. For example, the TV program could document the planning and the challenges and then the day itself as one interfaith group did around its celebration of Earth Day. The ideas are endless!
    • Radio that sings. Where radio is concerned there will be interest in anything that has a musical element to it – like the choirfest – or the words of a highly articulate representative of your group and its work. AM Radio may also be interested in the proverbial round-table discussion as long as the issues are of interest. You will need a host who really makes things move and isn’t afraid to ask the tough questions. No one wants to hear two ministers, a priest, a rabbi and an imam discuss the meaning of life. And no one says that the clerics make for good radio or TV for that matter.

    • Get your feet wet first

    I’m willing to admit that not every group is ready for big primetime exposure or the pressure of having to produce a full half-hour program from a standing start. That’s why the public service announcement (PSA) can be a great leaping off point. You have seen the wonderful, heart touching PSAs that the Mormons have used so successfully for years. Why not consider doing a 30- and 60-second PSA for use on local radio and TV? These do not have to cost a lot of money to produce and you have the benefit of the local broadcasters running the spots for free.

    Here’s how I would approach such a project.

    You might be giants. . .do it for the Common Weal

    Under the rubric of social benefit and working for the greater good, there are many activities your group can undertake that will foster understanding and draw your membership closer together.

    The list goes on and on. Rest assured though, that because religion has not been a significant part of public life in the West for the last 30 years, those in authority may require some education about your intentions. Let us not forget that during those same years, the numbers of adherents of other world religions have blossomed in our midst. Now with an ageing populace actively seeking faith and a significant percentage of the population in the West not familiar with the traditional Judaeo-Christian doctrines and liturgies, you have a whole range of opportunities open.

    This is the one time in recent history that you can virtually rest assured that if your group makes the temporal authorities in government, health care, education and the law aware of your existence, they will indeed call on you. They need your knowledge and your counsel on the issues of the day. In fact, that’s what the UN sponsored Millennium Summit of religious leaders was about. Just look at the Bush White House Office of Community and Faith-Based Initiatives which was established in 2001 to solicit the assistance of faith communities. In 1997 the Premier of the Canadian Province of British Columbia called together all of the leaders of faith to consult with them on issues surrounding ethics and the future of faith. Other leaders have quietly been consulting religious leaders and multifaith groups.

    The time is nearly at hand when faith communities will again be consulted regarding matters on he public agenda. Know this and position your organization accordingly.

     

    BAD IDEAS, BAD PROJECTS YOU CAN AVOID

    Yes, it’s possible to choose a bad project for an interfaith dialogue group to undertake. By definition, a bad idea is one that either creates acrimony and disunity among the group members themselves or has little or no public impact, or even worse, a negative public impact.

    Take note of these blunders and you can spare your group the pitfalls that others have stumbled into:

    Images of God

    Organizing an event or publication around this theme is fraught with peril. Most Buddhists and Jains – who are largely not theistic – will walk if you choose this theme. Furthermore, many faith communities believe the representation and portrayal of the Almighty and His prophets and messengers is a sin or distasteful.

    Faith & Social Justice

    While this theme can work, do not wrong-headedly allow yourself to believe that every faith community buys into a secular humanist social agenda that is critical of the governments of the day. If you do, be prepared to lose everyone except liberal Protestant groups.

    Nor will most faith communities want to volunteer to be part of any activity that gives imprimatur of religious legitimacy to the practice of homosexuality.

    Current Events

    If you theme your event around something that is highly topical and current like world-wide monetary policies, the quality of political leadership, the Middle East situation, et al., you are looking for conflict. Politics generally spells trouble for interfaith dialogue.

    Copyright -- Richard M. Landau, 2001©

     

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