The Interfaith Amigos - Faith United Methodist Church - Sammamish, WA - October 22nd, 2012

     It's been a while since I've done a faith visit. Partially due to job searching (which has now been resolved) and partially from ambivalence and wondering where to go next...while not wanting to do a repeat visit to a faith community. Well today I would learn a little bit about this sect of Methodism as well as see some old mentors of mine and become re-acquainted with Interfaith. A part of myself which I don't think will ever go away.

     The Interfaith event that brought me to my first Methodist Church was the Interfaith Amigos. They are a rabbi (Ted Falcon), pastor (Don Mackenzie) and sheikh (Jamal Rahman) who became friends after 9/11 and sought to use their mystic perspectives within their faiths to try and bridge the divide between different religions, but specifically the major 3 that came from Abraham. Rabbi Ted and Sheikh Jamal have been mentors to me in regards to Interfaith and their first book, "Getting to the Heart of Interfaith" was one of the major books I used for my Senior Thesis on how to promote successful interfaith between the 3 major religions from Abraham.

http://thereligiousoutsider.blogspot.com/2011/04/children-of-abraham-interfaith-workshop.html

   Before the event started I talked to Jamal and Ted for a while before running into someone who I will talk later about (future post later).

    The event was built around their second book they put out, "Religion Gone Astray," I brought the first book that I already owned and used for my Thesis for the book signing afterword. It started out with the three talking about 9/11 brought them together and what they believe is the core of each faith. For Judaism "Oneness" for Christianity "Unconditional Love" and for Islam "Compassion." They talked about this and also tackled the problems within their faiths such as the history of their faiths in regards to the rights of women, gays and the Arab-Israeli conflict. The big thing on homosexuality and the Arab-Israeli conflict that were mentioned is how those who hate do not know people of other religions or the group they are hating and how in their personal and experiences they've had together have seen on the grassroots level those divides going away with getting to know "the other," with the end goal of helping others to get rid of the exclusivity within faiths to having the Truth, since so much conflict comes from that.
    They demonstrated this with quoting the most exclusive passages from their scriptures and then interpreted them to give them new meaning or what they believe the original meaning was.

  Example, "I am the way the truth and the light, no one can come to the father except through me." To mean God is the way the truth and the light, no one can come to God except through God. Since "I am" is the name of God in the Old testament.

      From my experience I do have some issue with this but that's mostly due to the fact that there is no way to know if this or the traditional Trinitarian interpretation is correct. Which is why I am so agnostic when it comes to religion.

     Seeing them being upfront about the human rights issues within each of their faiths, as well as ways to bring out the best in each of their faiths reminded me of why I'd been drawn to interfaith in the first place. They stated early on where the major problems at interfaith events were when people talked about their similarities and only that, or people talked about their differences...in both cases it missed the personal reasons for why a person is a member of any faith in the first place and moves it away from the interaction at hand to the abstract...which tends to kill connection in religious dialogue. The personal is where the connection happens and where there is the possibility for change.

http://www.google.com/imgres?num=10&hl=en&biw=1366&bih=653&tbm=isch&tbnid=eWaYoTxTaKC0NM:&imgrefurl=http://www.stamfordadvocate.com/news/article/Interfaith-Amigos-visit-Stamford-680339.php&docid=rwlBZIBi4JePmM&imgurl=http://ww4.hdnux.com/photos/01/24/66/347571/3/628x471.jpg&w=628&h=372&ei=a36NUPedC8TJiwKbmIDIAQ&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=330&vpy=166&dur=782&hovh=173&hovw=292&tx=242&ty=87&sig=107060927398958671216&page=2&tbnh=146&tbnw=217&start=17&ndsp=31&ved=1t:429,r:10,s:20,i:167

   After they sang there theme song, "It's all one and I am as I am." In Arabic, Hebrew and English their dialogue ended and it was opened up to questions. Most of the questions were understandably for Jamal since right now Islam does have the most problems related to the issues that were discussed. He did a good job answering the questions, as they all did. For all it was showing how they saw the core teaching relating to the context and history of the passages or how their religion has gone astray on human rights and their personal experiences with it.

  It ended with coffee, treats and a book signing and I had the pleasure of talking to a retired Methodist pastor and the pastor of the Church, before and after the event...which will be a story for another a day.

 

Islamic Center of Olympia - Olympia, WA - March 4th, 2011

        Many of you may be wondering why it has taken me this long to write a post on Islam. The reason for this was the difficulty of me reaching an Islamic Center in the times I've been in Olympia and around University of Washington. In both instances I got lost trying to find the Islamic Centers of both areas. Well, I'm happy to say that I've finally been able to do the visit after years of not visiting an Islamic community.

       After two times of attempting to meet up with the Interfaith Coordinator of the Islamic Center of Olympia for a ride, I finally was able to meet up and get a ride there.

       What are my thoughts on Islam? I think some of the evil that attributed to Islam is in some cases valid (homosexuality is viewed as a sin and in the Quran, like the Old Testament...punishment is death), women cannot lead prayers where both sexes are present, separation of the sexes (this is a huge issue with me in regards to Orthodox Judaism, and other conservative religions as well). But on issues of groups like Al Qaeda and people who do honor killings. The honor killings are a tribal custom that needs to be changed, and groups like Al Qaeda are like the NRA, using religion as an excuse to commit nonreligious acts (Though my issues with Kings and the Bible still apply to the Quran, God ordering the killing of sacred life (or punishing it to Hell). I don't see how that can be good in any instance. 

     In my visit though I overwhelmingly experienced the good, and got to talk about some of the bad afterword...which I will get to farther into the blog. We arrived when the afternoon call to prayer was taking place and hurried. Shoes were left outside and we entered into the room where all the other men were. The Iman was up front leading the call to prayer and then began preaching about Time. He preached about how God created time and how it is a gift and precious to us and that we must make the most of it by living with righteousness and virtue. This made sense to me and is one of the parts of the Quran (like Jesus's Golden Rule, actions to the poor, and many psalms) that transcend the era it was written and can apply to any time.

    I joined in the end of the prayer and felt the connection that I'd forgotten that always came with the full body bowing. This act of submission and vulnerability is such a powerful act. It would be the ultimate act of one person honoring another if they both bowed this way, or an act of veneration simply in the way the body speaks. This is one thing I have always found beautiful and good about Islam. The goal of Islam is to live that prayer in everything (with Quran as guide), just as the goal for a Christian is to live like Jesus with the New Testament as a guide.

     After prayer I talked to the people. There was a man whose family lives in a small town in Libya. It was wonderful to know they were safe, and one of the leaders of the Mosque is living in Tripoli now and has snipers on his roof as Gadaffi is preparing for war...I talked to one of the Board Members, the Interfaith Coordinator and another man named after Solomon. The Interfaith coordinator is hoping it can be resolved peacefully, but Solomon had given up hope due to Gaddafi's paranoia and evil actions.

     After I got a tour of the building that is under construction that will be the new place of worship. The shell is complete but due to funding it still has ways to go till it's finishing internally. I found out the Lacey and Olympia community has been very accepting of the Islamic Center and this made me glad after the Oarnge County crap, the protesting of the Islamic Community Center in New York City, the areas in the central United States that have come out against the building of Islamic Center's of worship in their state...(which is sad considering their Christianity is very similar in values to what they seem to be so afraid of). I am grateful Olympia and Lacey have generally not acted this way.

      Then we went out to Coffee (the Board member, Interfaith Coordinator and I). I brought up the things I see as evil based on how I have seen them practiced abroad (the execution of gays in Muslim nations, not having ever seen a women lead worship or preach (I found out their are women scholars of Islam though...so who knows, maybe their will be female Imam's leading worship someday, right now the issue is a scale the least and horny of people not having a distraction so they can submit to God, and the belief in men and women together would be a distraction to both sexes), in the conversation I had with the Interfaith Coordinator in the car he mentioned Muslims have not done as much as they could to abolish the negative stereotypes, and also people needing to come without preconceived notions and wishing to learn as well (both of which I agree with based off experience).

    We then talked about Satan...as in all cases that a figure such as this is brought up. I think the possibility of malevolent and benevolent spirits exist...I just don't see it as likely. I see human's doing so much more good and evil without any outside forces being attributed to actions. The reason I was given for why he exists is to test us. The pattern with Christianity over free will in regards to Satan in God seems to be, as I understand it now.

   God is the ultimate good, making people who are just good is not good, therefore choice must exist in order to choose the good, so it is truly the good. Evil is chosen just as good is chosen. This still doesn't quite make sense to me if all God wants is submission or worship (and all creation in submission and worship), so I still don't buy this explanation completely. I've seen fear of Satan lead to more evil acts (persecution of gays, fear of sexuality, avoidance of responsibility) to have trouble seeing it as being Satan or some spirit being responsible. Though the same applies to the good as well...I consider myself a Thiest but when it comes to peoples actions, it depends on the people. I've seen virtious believers and non-believers of all faiths, and evil committed by believers and non-believers in the name of (Enter Idea Here). So the exploration continues.

     The conversations and the act of prayer were the most rewarding part of the visit and I believe in the awareness that comes from these two acts that real change can be brought about in the world. A prayer can be anything from reflecting to good action or prayer to good action, the key is the good action. This is one thing I myself shall continue to grow and seek to better myself in, for I can always do better in living the good, as can we all.

9/11 Reflection - The importance of Interfaith - September 11th 2010

         I remember the day so vividly. The day the Towers fell. My, how much has changed...

         I remember the questioning and unknowing I felt, as well as the sorrow for the victims who died that day. I remember seeing Afghanistan as a just war, and protesting the Iraq War. I remember telling friends where I was the day the Towers fell.

          I was in my 7th Grade art class. The teacher had the news on; the first tower had already collapsed. Around me was dead silence, interrupted only by the question, "Why?" We eventually learned that it was perpetrated by Al Qaeda, a terrorist organization with the goals of spreading Sharia, destroying Israel, and removing the US from the Middle East.Whenever I remember that day, my mind turns to the victims and their families. To remember, to mourn, and to turn it into action.

       Al Qaeda's greatest tool against the West is the lie that Western countries are at war with Islam, justified through citing the Crusades of old and prejudices against Muslim immigrants and islamophobia in Western nations.

       After 9/11 many United States citizens gave into their base fear and turned on Muslims in their community. Many stood above that fear though, and sought to build bridges between those with different beliefs and cultures.The Interfaith movements are still going on, even though those preaching fear are the people getting publicity, such as the reverend who threatened to burn Qurans and those protesting the creation of mosques.

       It's by both sides who are in conflict defeating their fear and "other"ing of an individual in which true change occurs. It's this that will solve the problems in the end, as the eye for an eye continues on the world scale. Getting there, to that place where there is no longer an "other" between people of different faith or non-faith traditions.

       True change only occurs when both sides remove their fear and stop "other"ing each other. Only through this will the problems end as an eye for an eye leaves the world blind. Getting there, to that place where there is no longer an "other" between people of different beliefs, is the challenge at hand.