Interfaith

We visited the Sikh Gurdwara last night out in the suburbs. It was a very interesting mix of familiar and unfamiliar, but i suspect there was more unfamiliar hiding underneath what appeared to be familiar. I think that is where I am with interfaith work right now: the closer we look at things the more different they really appear to be.

I think prayer is a good example. Christians commonly pray to the Creator in the name of the Son through the Holy Spirit, yet (in most traditions) none of those are really considered a mediator. Muslims and Jews seem to pray direct to God. Hindus seem to pray to a variety of Gods. I dont know that Buddhist prayer is properly called prayer at all as they dont believe there is anyone beyond the individual to pray to. And Sikhs seem to pray to a God that is absolutely one and in everything, I am not sure how that fits in. Sure we all pray but that does not mean that even when we use similar words we are thinking the same things are happening.

I guess I am seeing that in order to have a real interfaith connection we need to be plainly honest about our differences. I could not tell you how many times I have heard the statement that the Prophet and Christ and Buddha and Hinduism and Guru Nanek all taught the same things. Well sure there are similarities but they did not teach the same thing. Some ideas of how to get along with other people are going to be similar or the same but that does not sum up those teachers’ teachings. I think for anyone to say that is (probably) an oversimplification of their own traditions teaching. In order for interfaith dialog to work we need to have a strong enough sense of self to be able to talk about real differences without feeling threatened by their existance.

~ by ajdele on December 1, 2007.