Religious
people know that god (by whatever name) is greater than the evil of which we as
a race are capable. They know that the love of god is such that our positive
welfare is sought more than arbitrary punishment for our misdeeds. The combination
of god’s perfect love and power with responsiveness from the faithful produce
a fascinating reality, a reality that benefits everyone, not just the faithful.
The reality I describe here is this: god’s love and power plus the positive
conditions created by the faithful (in all faiths) translate or repackage all
horror into pathways from which positive good can arise. This is always the
case, as it is now in current world affairs.
On September 11, 2001, violent and resentful people attacked the
United States of America, killing 3,000 non-combatants, including many Muslims.
Surat 5.032 in the Qu’ran compares the murder of one innocent soul to the
taking of all human life! These vile and violent assailants think of themselves
as champions of Islam, despite violating dozens of Qu’ranic injunctions. In
fact, their behavior violates Islam and all other legitimate religions as well.
All perpetrators came from the Islamic cultural sphere.
Attack on a sovereign nation is a political act that requires
political and, in virtually all cases, even a military response. Virtually all
wars (since they deal with ultimates, absolutes, and uncertainties) resort to a
“god is on our side” mentality. (This is a natural result of the fact the humans
are related to god, and tend to call on god, or some superstition surrogate,
when things are uncertain and scary). In this case, the tragedy of religious
error escalated, drawing the beautiful religion of Christianity unwillingly
into the hellish energy spawned by the 9/11 attacks. (It is too bad that the
famous, inhospitable, and intolerant people who are believed by many to be
Christian added bigoted opinion into the foolishsphere, adding to the (false)
impression that the hostilities are “religious.”)
As this degenerate, violent, and murderous spirit persists, one
is tempted to bemoan the fact that the original perpetrators chose to identify
their villainy with a world religion. Indeed, government and security policy
decided to accept the position of the 9/11 killers— something like, “eleven
suicidal, murderous guys called it Islam, so we’ll call it Islam.” As a result,
great injustice, bigotry and intolerance of a religious flavor has come to
influence the behavior and attitudes of secular people and institutions (as
well as those who live by a perverted and bellicose form of their respective
religions). This fact that secular activity (such as economics, security,
military activity, international relations etc.) have been drawn downward under
impulse of intolerance and religious bigotry, lead many in the world to
imagine that ours is a time in which interreligious relations are at an all
time low.
However, this is not the case. precisely because those carrying
out demonic and murderous agendas at present do so openly relating themselves
to perversions of this religion or that, behavior among genuinely religious
people is reaching new heights of enlightenment, humility, charity, openness,
and trans-tradition collaboration. Because genuinely religious people are being
badly misrepresented by murderous and demonic perpetrators, they are living
their religions to an ever more beautiful and exemplary degree. Also because
“combat-based” secular institutions (such as security and military) have become
vaguely and confusedly tied to “religion” in name, genuine religious believers
in a near excessive effort to demonstrate just the very opposite presently
show a breadth, embrace, and respect for other traditions that we have never
seen before. The great irony is that one could say that this is a good time for
religion. Its true adherents are showing all its best and most promising
elements and dimensions.
The unfortunate part of the tale is that it took such a terrible
breakdown in secular relations to evoke, regenerate, and spur to hitherto
unreached levels of interreligious, mutual embrace and collaboration. But this
rubber-band style of narrative unfortunately always has been the burden borne
by the divine. The best of our religiosity and spirituality is almost always
evoked only by breakdown and tragedy. Hopefully soon, we will rise to a point
at which flourishing spirituality energizes itself through its own healthy and
positive benefits, rather than laying dormant until fear, despair, and
emergency awaken us as a last resort.
Under ordinary circumstances, even good religious people have
tended to sit contentedly in their respective cocoons, not bothering to care
about how their neighbors pray, dream, raise their children, and seek to be
better people day by day. But in a world folding together as one family, even
this peaceful (but parochial) way of being religious cannot be seen as
acceptable. There is still too much separation in such a set up, and this
“uncaring” way cannot be seen as consistent with the guidance and preferences
from god (by whatever name).
Strangely
then, the 9/11 attacks have led to a flourishing of religious life and a level
of multi-religious collaboration the world has not seen in many an eon.
The flourishing interfaith world is reaching an ever more sophisticated
depth and healthy complexity, but we must recognize a much higher mission that
comes with this opportunity. This opportunity arose due to god’s perfectly
constant power to transform ill into blessing. The curse and the embarrassment
that all religions face as secular critics point to violence and intolerance is
our own fault. We should have been more vigilant to prevent such a thing. So
our chastisement is harsh, and our awakening is late. But the interfaith
community must not undersell this opportunity. Of course, religious leaders
must quench the flames of violence and murder that possess the secular arena.
And, yes, religious leaders must rescue the reputations of our respective
religions from the besmirching we have suffered from demonic perpetrators who
defile the names of our religions. But far more important than this repair work
is the mission of religious leaders in this time not to miss this opportunity
that has come at such great cost. This time, the world of religion must reach
an utterly unprecedented plateau. The persistence of discrete traditions is
permissible only as the best ways to speak to believers in our respective
cultural spheres. But no other lines of division or demarcation should persist.
The religions of the world, while not sacrificing their roots and identity
must become “religion-blind” when realizing and carrying out our shared responsibility
and scriptural obligations as centers of compassion, care, and sacrificial
service.
Dialogue and Alliance continues its mission to
inform and carry professional and scholarly reflection on the subtleties and
horizons natural to the interfaith effort. In this issue are seven major
contributions covering a broad range of interests, concerns, and subject matter.
Stephen Healey offers a terse but insightful and serious challenge to the
doctrine of Hell on the ground of two elements, the work and responsibility of
theologians, the nature of dialogue and as related to “god’s reality itself.”
grace Ji-sun Kim calls for world religions to dialogue on the question of
spirit, especially as it is rendered in Christian theology when taken in
isolation. Kim demonstrates that even traditions that imagine themselves
complete and solely true, only stand to benefit when core doctrines are
enhanced by the wisdom and practice in other world religions. Olujide presents
a fascinating revision of impact that occurred from earlier interreligious
contact. He argues that squeezing esu into Christian categories resulted in a
mis-grasp and mis-characterization of how the figure more accurately functions in
its original Yoruba “home.” sheikh Durkee walks us through the pain of the
contemporary Muslim experience in a “nervous” west and argues that more
profound devotion to religious practice surrounding the core ideals of devotion
and compassion are the way out for all on all sides.
The Ahmad paper departs from the emphasis on doctrine in this
issue, and shifts to religio-political content. This paper, elucidating the
Muslim landscape in America, is especially constructive and valuable to the
task of “lived dialogue” that presses so urgently on us all. Terasawa’s address
to the United Nations Vesak Day 2008 calls for a re-invigoration of the
ur-Buddhist moments and the tradition’s current resources for world peace.
Finally, Bharat Gupt has come up with an interesting venue for dialogue. Gupt
fictionalized a conversation among the Greek philosophical and mythological
pantheon as the players take up reflection on the contemporary affairs of
Indian society. A curious east–west product arises, showing us that the ideal
and cross-fertilization stemming from dialogue always helps.
As always, we at Dialogue
and Alliance are deeply grateful for your ongoing support, and personal and
institutional commitment to peace and ideal human relations. We pray that our
contribution will stay substantial and genuinely transformative. Please help us
improve and if you write on matters of religion and peace, send us your work
for consideration
Frank Kaufmann
Editor-in-Chief