Not a Religion Mash-up
I have been very interested in interfaith work lately. I used to think of it as a mark of the end times, that one of the signs of the end was the mash-up of all religions into one practice that makes everyone happy. Thinking of that image now, something like that would make no one happy. Except for the people who see religion as only a dividing force. I would picture a priest like person dressed up with a little bit of the garb of religious leaders from all the major faiths. And he always had a fancy had. you know, I think the Left Behind books were primarily responsible for that image. But really, who among those for whom their faith really means something, would want to trade that for a an artificial mash-up religion.
Sufice it to say that I do not believe this is what interfaith work is about. I am realy starting to see it as one of our major hopes for peace. And I like peace. Religious/worldview conflict is purported to be the biggest cause of violence in the world. We are lead to believe that Christians, Jews, Muslims, Sikhs, Buddhists, and Hindus will simply not be able to be in genuine relationship. We are all fine and equal as long as we stay separate. That does not make sense to me. I fail to understand how people who believe in working toward love, treating people well and a lot of other good things that coincide with each other cannot be in relationship. I do not think that the core of all world religions is the same, or even the same message. To say so simplifies and downplays the significant and subtle differences of the different faiths. But they dont have to be the same. If each of our ideal worlds involve people getting along together, why cant we start getting along together?
I have been really interested in the Interfaith Your Core recently. We are reading two books directly related to the organization in my education class; Acts of Faith and Building the Interfaith Youth Movement. Very interesting so far, I will write more about all this soon.
ajdele
Hi ajdele! My name is Amber Hacker and I work here at the Interfaith Youth Core-that’s awesome you are reading those two books and I’d love to chat with you more about getting involved with the IFYC if you are interested! My e-mail is amber at ifyc dot org (I put it like that to avoid the spammers) and our website is http://www.ifyc.org. Great post and thanks for your thoughts!