I asked one of my boys to attend the session Tuesday night explaining why this idea of Interfaith is important. He was confused because in his mind he is certainly open to all races and religions and as far as he was concerned there was not a good reason to learn more about the topic. I loved that, because I think it explains how many feel. Not long ago most of our country could say that they embraced all others. As generations have become educated and society progresses we have indeed made great strides forward.
I have to admit that I also didn’t like this response at all, because I personally know that there is so much more. It wasn’t until just a few years ago (well into my 40s) that I attended a friend’s Passover Seder, which was an important step in understanding her faith. I still haven’t made the steps necessary to learn about my Muslim neighbors, and the list goes on. So, yes, we have made progress, but we have to do more to make the impact that is possible and necessary.
This summary below is just that, a high level overview… I’d love to hear your thoughts and also if you have questions, I’d be happy to moderate getting those to the Rabbi.
Why Interfaith? A lot of reasons, but in our current environment, understanding is the imperative to solving global issues that didn’t really exist prior to the current fast-paced communication and social media opportunities that ensure we have at our ready world-wide news and can react and respond right away.
A great example he gave: In our country we enjoy freedom of religion, which is why my son answered as he did – makes sense. Unfortunately other countries do not enjoy freedom of religion. It is important for us all to understand the implications of this on world peace.
4 keys ways we can inspire each other in interfaith:
- ENCOUNTER one another – Yep, invite your Muslim neighbor over, or if you are Muslim, invite your Christian neighbor over to begin a conversation of understanding.
- STUDY other countries, religions, beliefs – We must challenge ourselves to understand fully the traditions of others to truly understand them.
- PRAYER– The Rabbi included this and I thought it was great. This may seem like an easy list, but it isn’t. Even taking the first step seems some how beyond our ability to just jump out and make it a priority. We need to pray that God would give us a passion for understanding.
- SERVICE – Perfect that he ended with this. The idea being that once we come together we can translate that into ACTION that makes our communities and countries stronger. Let’s contemplate that today!
In case you didn’t read Tuesday’s blog, there are some great activities/events happening in KC this week as a part of SevenDays. Check out the website for the full details. And if you want to know more about Rabbig Goshen-Gottenstein’s interfaith work, check it out here.
Have a strong wrap to your week!