In our dangerously conflicted and rapidly changing world, we urgently need to weave first-hand knowledge of different faith traditions into the fabric of our society. According to a 2007 survey from the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, for the first time in our history the United States is about to experience Protestantism (51%) becoming a faith practiced by less than half of our citizens as the number of immigrants who adhere to other faiths (Catholicism, Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism) grows. Increasingly, there will be a need for greater knowledge of different faith traditions as these lives all begin to intersect with those whom they perceive as The Other.
How well we are prepared to get along will determine whether we lapse into internal religious conflict, as some European countries have, or can be authentically welcoming of the many faiths that will come to live together in this country which has at its foundation the theme of religious tolerance and freedom.
In the days and months ahead we have two significant opportunities to engage in spiritually meaningful and mutually respectful interactions with people of other faith traditions.
The first is the Holy Month of Ramadan, the ninth month of the Islamic calendar, during which faithful, healthy adult Muslims fast from all food and water and conjugal relations with their spouse from dawn to dusk. This year Ramadan commences on August 11th and concludes with Id al-Fitr, the Breaking of the Fast, on September 10th.
The month offers us the opportunity to join with our Muslim brothers and sisters in the fast as a remembrance of our own Christian practices of fasting and as sign and symbol of our acknowledgement of them as people of faith. Many mosques invite members of various faith communities to join them in ending the day’s fast with an If’tar dinner. Please accept if offered this hospitality, as it will give you a rich experience of wonderful food and fellowship.
The second opportunity for us to join in a spiritually meaningful and mutually respectful event is the honoring of the birth date on October 2nd of Mahatma Gandhi, the pre-eminent Hindu political and spiritual leader of India during the Indian Independence Movement.
Gandhi’s philosophies of satyagraha (resistance to tyranny through civil disobedience) and of ahimsa (absolute non-violence) were a working model and a source of great strength to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in our own country’s struggle for civil rights and are as germane in today’s contentious and conflicted world as they were during Gandhi’s lifetime.
This occasion offers an opportunity to bring people of faith together to not only celebrate his birth date but to also reinforce his timeless message of non-violence.
The Reverend Dr. Gwynne Guibord
Consultant for Interfaith Relations
