Pluralism: Moving from Tolerance to Celebration
By Ian Lawton
A statue of a Hindu God near Kathmandu has been sweating. I mean literally! Hundreds of people have been flocking to see this moist miracle, a dripping demiurge, and they fear the worst. Many believe it perspires as a sign of impending peril, like it did before an earthquake in the 1930s and before the royal massacre in 2001. So why does the ancient stone stigmata have high fever right now?
Maybe it’s dripping with the blood, sweat and tears of centuries of world-wide religious rivalry. Nepal remains a wonderful example of religious pluralism. Its majority population of Hindu and Buddhist, and minority population of Christian and Muslim, are all living in relative peace. We should look to Nepal for inspiration, and maybe we should look to the sweating Hindu God as a warning.
The onus is on each person and community to devise a way to draw the best from their tradition, without asserting their truth to be the only truth. To make that same point positively, the core truths of each tradition celebrate life and diversity. As I drove to a recent day of dialogue between Hindus and Christians, the happy song came on the radio, “Why can’t we be friends?” That really sums it up.
But we don’t find it easy. How can we find a deep motivation to be friends across religious tradition?
The movie, Gandhi, offers a wonderful pluralism parable. The scene in India at the time the move is set is volatile. It was 1947, just after independence from Great Britain. Civil war was in full flight! Muslims were moving to Pakistan in droves, while Hindus and Sikhs were migrating to India in large numbers. Hindus and Muslims were slaughtering each other. The newly formed governments were completely unequipped to deal with the massive migration and violence that occurred on both sides of the border.
In the middle of this chaos, the Hindu leader Gandhi was fasting in the hope of jolting people out of their prejudice and violence.
He was near death from starvation when a crazed man, a Hindu, arrived with food that he insisted Gandhi must eat. This is their conversation.
The Hindu man demands, "Here! Eat! Eat! I'm going to hell - but not with your death on my soul!"
Gandhi replies, "Only God decides who goes to hell."
"I killed a child!" the man confesses. "I smashed his head against a wall!"
Gandhi asks, "Why?"
"Because they killed our son... my boy! The Muslims killed my son!"
Gandhi gently tells him, "I know a way out of hell. Find a child, a child whose mother and father have been killed - a little boy - and raise him as your own. Only be sure that he is a Muslim..."
That seems like the punch line, a perfect solution. After all, what better way to make up for poor choices than to offer hope to a poor Muslim orphan. That would surely restore equilibrium; one life lost, one life regained.
However, what Gandhi demands of the Hindu man takes the motivation to a deeper level. This is not a zero sum game. What is demanded is that he respond to the situation in such a way that the world is left a better place; not just left as you arrived in it, but better.
Gandhi says, "And you must raise him as a Muslim."
The Hindu man dropped to his knees and sobbed. He now had to search for profound levels of forgiveness within himself.
Nothing less than this level of celebration of diversity is required of you and I in this hurting world of fear. Tolerating religious diversity is an inadequate response. Live and let live is too passive in the light of horrendous religious rivalry and violence. Nothing less than a willingness to let go of the need to be right and celebrate the other person’s perspective will suffice.
Most interfaith dialogue that I have experienced is at best a zero sum game. Respect each other, and don’t rock the boat. What is needed in our world is a new golden rule. Do unto others far more than you have ever had done to you, be more humane than you have ever imagined possible.
Maybe an example would be reverse evangelism. Just picture it; Christians going into the Middle East as reverse evangelists, not to teach Christianity, but to encourage people to be more deeply Muslim. What the world needs is more humanity across the religions, less attachment to religious particularity, greater compassion and genuine inter religious harmony.
There is a beautiful example of this new golden rule out of Afghanistan. In May of 2001, the Taliban destroyed two of the world's oldest Buddha statues. For more than 1500 years, the Buddha's towering figures had stood on the cliffs of the Bamiyan Valley on the ancient Silk Route that linked Europe and Central Asia.
A year later, when the Taliban had been defeated, Hamid Karzai, Afghanistan's new leader, announced that the people of Afghanistan would rebuild the larger of the two Buddha statues that had been destroyed. When you consider that Islam is deeply opposed to religious idols, this is staggering that a Muslim nation would rebuild a Buddhist statue. Karzai understood that an action equal to and opposite from the action that destroyed the statues was necessary. The rubble of the smaller statue was left untouched as a reminder of the devastation of religious bigotry.
This Sunday has been declared Pluralism Sunday by the Centre for Progressive Christianity. We are joining communities around the world in celebrating all traditions this Sunday. Pluralism Sunday will be meaningful if it moves beyond the zero sum game of politically correct talk fest that usually passes as interfaith dialogue, and becomes a genuine embrace of diversity. This is about the inner journey from separate self to interdependence. It is about the move from tolerance regardless of difference to celebration in the light of difference.
The gods are sweating on the choices we make. Gandhi and Karzai are models for a form of pluralism that practices the new golden rule; the other perspective, the other religion has even more to offer than my own. Without the new perspective I am less human. I am willing to be changed by new perspectives. I am open. I drop to my knees and sob. I search for profound levels of forgiveness within myself.
Will you join me in crafting new religious perspectives that let go of the need to be right and true? Can we build one humanity based on a celebration of diversity, united by the common virtues of peace and compassion that are shared at the heart of all traditions?
Celebrate National Pluralism Sunday
The Center for Progressive Christianity is a non-profit organization seeking to provide guiding ideas, networking opportunities, and resources for progressive churches, organizations, individuals and others with connections to Christianity.
As a national network of 370 affiliated congregations of many demonimations, The Center for Progressive Christianity, will be celebrating the diversity of the world's religions on Pluralism Sunday, on May 27, 2007.
What is Pluralism?
Diana Eck, Harvard professor and founder of the Pluralism Project, writes this as to what it means to her to be a Christian Pluralist,
"Through the years I have found my own faith not threatened, but broadened and deepened by the study of Hindu, Buddhist, Muslim, and Sikh traditions of faith. And I have found that only as a Christian pluralist could I be faithful to the mystery and the presence of the one I call God. Being a Christian pluralist means daring to encounter people of very different faith traditions and defining my faith not by its borders, but by its roots."
For those of you not in western Michigan, The Center for Progressive Christianity offers ways to get involved in a Pluralism Celebration in your area.
We encourage all to check out The Center for Progressive Christianity's website by following the link below to learn more about pluralism.
Learn more about Pluralism Sunday here
Being United: A Celebration of Pluralism
Christ Community Church is honored to be a key congregation in The Center for Progressive Christianity’s national Pluralism Sunday on May 27, 2007.
For over a decade Christ Community Church has been a trail-blazing community. We not only respect and honor the world’s vast religious and spiritual traditions, but also glean sacred wisdom and inspiration from them.
Being United
In a time when so many face the horrors of war due to religious conflict, Christ Community Church will join with congregations around the world to honor the unifying spirit of pluralism. Bob Kleinheksel will be speaking at our 8:30 a.m. and 9:30 a.m. gatherings and music will be provided by the jazz ensemble Checkers Morton at 9:30 only. You will not want to miss this beautiful occasion to feel a deep connection with the people and cultures of the world.
Pluralism Fair
If you are wishing to learn more about world religions or the subject of pluralism, please visit the Pluralism Fair following the gathering on Sunday, May 27. Displays will be set up in the parlour featuring local interfaith and religious organizations. This is a wonderful opportunity to learn firsthand about other faiths from those neighbors of ours who practice them.
Fabulous Pluralism Liturgy
If you cannot be with us this Sunday, you may want to check out our bulletin for our Pluralism Celebration.
One of our morning's readings comes for integral theorist Ken Wilber, from his book One Taste.
"True pluralism on the other hand, is always universal pluralism, (or integral): you start with the commonalities and deep structures that unite human beings--we all suffer, and triumph, laugh and cry, feel pleasure and pain, wonder and remorse; we all have the capacity to form images, symbols, concepts, rules; we all have 208 bones, two kidneys, and one heart; we are all open to a Divine Ground, by whatever name. And then you add all the wonderful differences, surface structures, culturally constructed variants, and so on, that make various groups--and various individuals--all different, special, and unique. But if you start with the differences and the pluralism, and never make it to the universal, then you have only the aprespectival madness, ethnocentric revivals, regressive catastrophes."
All are welcome to be a part of this gathering to explore our common humanity.
download bulletin here
Join us for The Faith Club discussion on June 5
The Faith Club: A Muslim, A Christian, A Jew- Three Women Search for Understanding
From Publisher's Weekly
In the wake of 9/11, Idliby, an American Muslim of Palestinian descent, sought out fellow mothers of the Jewish and Christian faiths to write a children's book on the commonalities among their respective traditions. In their first meeting, however, the women realized they would have to address their differences first. Oliver, an Episcopalian who was raised Catholic, irked Warner, a Jewish woman and children's author, with her description of the Crucifixion story, which sounded too much like "Jews killed Jesus" for Warner's taste. Idliby's efforts to join in on the usual "Judeo-Christian" debate tap into a sense of alienation she already feels in the larger Muslim community, where she is unable to find a progressive mosque that reflects her non–veil-wearing, spiritual Islam. The ladies come to call their group a "faith club" and, over time, midwife each other into stronger belief in their own respective religions.
More Fight Club than book club, the coauthors pull no punches; their outstanding honesty makes for a page-turning read, rare for a religion nonfiction book. From Idliby's graphic defense of the Palestinian cause, Oliver's vacillations between faith and doubt, and Warner's struggles to acknowledge God's existence, almost every taboo topic is explored on this engaging spiritual ride.
C3/CCC Faith Club Discussion
Join us for discussion of The Faith Club at the cottage of Cindy and Don Anderson on Tuesday, June 5 at 7:00 p.m. Carpooling is necessary, as parking is very limited. We will meet at the church at 6:45 p.m. If you would like to attend, please sign up on Sunday or call Cindy at 616-846-7981. All are welcome for this fun summer book club!
Visit The Faith Club website
Dogma Snapping at the Karmic Wheels of Independence
Do you ever feel trapped in your current life situation or surroundings? Do you ever look at the world with all its challenges and oppressive systems and wonder what you can possibly do to make a difference?
If these are questions you wrestle with, you will not want to miss Ian's most recent sermon on independence and freedom. Ian looks to Nelson Mandala as the ultimate example of a fully integrated liberated human being, which will bring you encouragement for your own struggles. Ian explores the distinction between inner and outer freedom and the ways we can work towards liberation of both.
This sermon marks our full independence from the Reformed Church in America. It will empower you to live a life liberated from fear, and in turn your life will be the light to liberate others.
read sermon text here
<e-zines
^ top of page
