I find myself thinking a lot about valuable life lessons I can continue to teach my kids. As a society, we are constantly surrounded by the various voices in the media, political analysts, political speeches, dramatic news events, and the ever-so-fascinating social media. In the process of trying to make sense of it all, I decided to focus on the topic of hope. 

We are all driven by hope. There is no life without hope. Recently, we had a tragic event in our school district. A high school student, who many described as the funniest person they knew, decided to take his own life. It is difficult to imagine the sense of hopelessness a person this young could have felt to take such a step. School, students, teachers, friends, family, church, social media, tv, music, movies, video games, sports- not one of these provided even a glimpse of hope to this child to continue to live his life. 

For the past couple of years, heartbreaking images of Syrian refugees have been displayed on our screens. Families with young children risked their lives to abandon a place of complete hopelessness and set out on a dangerous journey to the other side of the ocean. Risking death only for the tiniest glimpse of hope they see across the ocean. 

 Someone once told me, the common man is the same in every country. Regardless of race and religion the common man has the same wants and needs. We work hard everyday, in the hope of providing our children with a good education, hoping they will pick the right career and settle down. Then we hope to have time to enjoy our retirement years doing the things we have always wanted to do. This life cycle must be radically different for people in power. The question is will our leaders fill us with hope for a better future for our children or fulfill their own set of hopes and dreams?

We are heading towards the most important election in the world. The phrase I keep hearing is the “transparency of the two candidates” and how people have issues trusting both of these candidates. It will be interesting to see how it all plays out and time will tell if we as the greatest country in the world, picked the right candidate. Our greatest responsibility will be to choose “hope” but the tricky part is trying to figure out if there is a sense of false hope or if there is even the slightest chance of real hope.

Nostra Aetate: Beyond Interfaith Dialogue to Interfaith Collaboration

by James Buchanan, Executive Director

Xavier University, The Brueggeman Center for Dialogue

            In 2015 we celebrated the 50th anniversary of Nostra Aetate. This is not only one of the foundational documents of the post Vatican II Catholic Church but of all interfaith relations. In fact, it is considered by many as the most significant interfaith document ever written. Nostra Aetate was a paradigm shift for the Catholic Church which has become a paradigm shift for all of the religions because it paved the way for 50 years of interfaith dialogue. The document itself is disarmingly simple. It consists of five short sections which together total only 1054 words. But it is 1054 words that would slowly but surely begin to change the course of the Church, of the interfaith world, and of our local communities. It opens with the following statement:  “In our time, when day by day mankind is being drawn closer together, and the ties between different peoples are becoming stronger, the Church examines more closely her relationship to non-Christian religions. In her task of promoting unity and love among men, indeed among nations, she considers above all in this declaration what men have in common and what draws them to fellowship.” What we have in common religiously are the deep questions about life: “What is man? What is the meaning, the aim of our life? What is moral good, what is sin? Whence suffering and what purpose does it serve? Which is the road to true happiness? What are death, judgment and retribution after death? What, finally, is that ultimate inexpressible mystery which encompasses our existence: whence do we come, and where are we going?”

            Theologically within a generation a multitude of interfaith dialogues had emerged around the world. Christian-Jewish, Christian-Buddhist, Christian-Muslim, Christian-Hindu, and Christian-Confucian dialogues became the one of the new directions for theological reflection. A new generation of scholars such as Mircea Eliade, Huston Smith, Willian Cantwell Smith and others became influential as History of Religions and the study of Comparative Religions emerged as serious disciplines in our universities. Writers such as Paul Knitter, Raimon Pannikar, David Tracy and others began to incorporate interfaith dialogue into their theological work. Institutions such as the Center for the Study of the World’s Religions and the Pluralism Project emerged with a new emphasis upon interfaith dialogue and understanding. National and global organizations such as the Council on Christian Jewish Relations, the International Council on Christians and Jews, The Parliament of the World’s Religions and many others now bring together thousands of leaders from the world’s religions to foster dialogue and understanding. Important documents such as Dabru Emet and A Common Word are calling the other Abrahamic traditions to dialogue in new ways. Interfaith dialogue and understanding is now an integral part of much of the theological education worldwide and is present in a variety of ways and forms in many of our communities. All of these and more trace back directly or indirectly to Nostra Aetate. 

            The challenge that Nostra Aetate presents in our time is that we build on the fifty years of dialogue with a shift to yet another new paradigm. It is critical that we, not only as faith communities, but as interfaith communities begin to work together to systemically change the fragmented, dis-integrating fabric of the communities we share. It is critical that the faith communities work together to provide a new interconnective tissue that binds us together and begin to shape a common good that challenges the forces of individualism, hyper-consumption, environmental degradation and social and economic inequity that plague our communities. The new paradigm is one that builds on dialogue but moves to actual, fully engaged interfaith collaboration. Interfaith collaboration can become a new and powerful form of social capital that works to transform our communities in ways that working as individual faith communities we would never be able to achieve. We need to provide a new foundation that can become the “guiding hand” that renews our communities. The challenge of the next 50 years is that we move beyond interfaith dialogue to interfaith collaboration. 

            Dialogue is and always will be the foundation upon which we must build community. Religiously, the hard truth is that no matter how long we continue engaging in interfaith dialogue we will never settle issues of covenant and new covenant, succession of prophets, trinity, soteriology, monotheism and polytheism, birth and rebirth and so on. Does that mean we should not continue to engage in dialogue? Of course not. We need to not only continue but to deepen our understanding and acceptance of the other.

There are so many issues in our communities about which we agree and which need our combined effort to address. There is strength in numbers and there is strength in people of faith who can overcome their theological differences to work for a common good. All of our faith communities are touched by issues such as the struggles of the refugee and asylee population among us. We are all touched by the bigotry of Islamophobia highlighted in a previous issue of the InterfaithCincy newsletter. We are all touched by the social and economic inequity that continues to spread among our marginalized communities like an epidemic. We are all touched by the environmental challenges which, while impacting our lives, will have dramatically more dire impacts on the lives of our children.

We have more issues in common and more values in common than those things that divide and separate us. Our hope for this website and the projects that it might help to spawn is that it will enable us to build on the existing dialogue and collaboration such that the interfaith community might become a foundational part of the social capital that shapes our future. Regional organizations such as the Metropolitan Area Religious Coalition of Cincinnati and the AMOS project have led the way but the challenges that face our region far exceed their ability to address. Cincinnati is uniquely positioned to become a model city in terms of interfaith collaboration. We have vibrant faith communities and we have faith-based universities and colleges all of whom are poised to work together toward a greater common good.   

Dialogue in itself is not sufficient. Celebration as a form of acceptance of the other is not sufficient. Civility and tolerance in-themselves are not sufficient.  We can only truly test the strength of dialogue and build upon it through the hard work of interfaith collaboration

Islamophobia:   Signs, Implications and Choices

by Dr Ferhan Asghar 

“It is quite an eye-opening experience to read letters to the editor in response to any article or news stories about Islam and Muslims lately.  Whether in a left or right-leaning outlet, and whether an article paints Muslims in a positive or negative light, the pieces almost universally demonize an entire group of human beings as less than such.  “Look at their history.” one person wrote.  “They have always been killing and fighting since the days of Muhammad!” Factually ignoring hundred of years Muslim have lived together peacefully with almost every faith.  Our ability to isolate a group as “THEY” allows tribal instincts to justify behavior ranging from simple isolationism to exclusion and discrimination to downright violence against what is labeled “other.” Human history is peppered with dangerous precedents.   It is important for us to recognize destructive patterns of thought and call people out for verbalizing them. This includes:

1. “THEY are violent against Christians in Muslim countries, so they’ve got it coming when THEY live in a Christian country.”

2. “I don’t know any Muslims and I don’t want to get to know THEM.”

3. “Leftists are attempting to dilute OUR Judeo-Christian heritage by allowing acceptance of Muslims who inherently hate US.”

4. “If we allow Muslims into the country, THEY’LL implement Sharia law here.”

5. “We need to carpet bomb THEM.”  This asinine statement from none other than a presidential candidate is nothing less than shocking and down right frightening as a human race because of the way it resonated with millions of supporters!

The list could go on. As a social exercise, readers are encouraged to think of examples they have seen in action and to note instances they come across in the future. We have unfortunately reached a point where not only are hate crimes being committed against Muslims, but those who speak out against it are being reprimanded. 

What choices do we make; ignore the hate, join the hate or take constructive action to minimize the hate? Each one has serious implications for not only whom the hate is directed towards but all of our children and our collective future.

Dr Ferhan Asghar an orthopedic surgeon at the University of Cincinnati and a speaker for the Islamic Center of Greater Cincinnati. 

Hi, I’m Leslee, and I’m a cisgender, queer, white, twenty-something, Jewish, American woman.

I use these labels to identify who I am in the space of our society. I belong to each of these communities – I find solidarity with other Americans, speak the cultural language of my religion with other Jews. I recognize the privilege being one of the majority as a white person in this country; I stand with my fellow LGBTQ folk as members of a vibrant minority. I flow in and among these communities every day.

Until recently I never thought about the fact that I’m a part of another community – that of women. I was assigned female at birth, and have identified as female all my life, so I took this status, this community, as a given. I’ve only realized in coming of age as an adult that my identity as a woman is hugely important to who I am, and I embrace this.

That said, I’m still figuring out what it means to me to be one of the community of women. My identity as a woman was largely formed through interactions along the lines of society’s gender binary – meaning, I’ve been a woman because I’m not a man. My gender identity was crafted through seeing what I’m not, or what I’m not supposed to do or say or act like. If man is the ‘self’, I have been the ‘other’. I was someone who used to say, “I’m not like most girls,” and “being friends with guys is so much better,” because I didn’t want to be ‘other.’

My journey toward the rabbinate (I’m studying to be a Jewish clergy person) has led me to reflect deeply upon the many layers of my identity and upon the many communities of which I am a part. I want to learn more about what it means for me to part of the community of women, just as I continue to explore what it means to me to an American, a Reform Jew, a queer person, and more.

Recently I attended the International Women’s Day Dinner at Xavier. This is the second women-focused event (the first was Why We Stay – check out the article that my colleague Judie Kuhlman and I wrote here) I’ve had the privilege of attending through my job at the Brueggeman Center for Interfaith Dialogue. I got to learn so much about crafting a community of women, as a woman, from the amazing panelists who spoke.

Quanita Roberson specializes in trauma healing, leadership development, equity education, and African American Spirit Coaching in her work around the globe. She spoke of women’s power as coming from a place of softness, which runs contrary to our usual associations of power with hardness. Softness, I learned from hearing Roberson speak of her experiences, is powerful because its vehicle is compassion. Compassion drives us to accomplish and to connect, and this is how we foster community.

Ligia Gomez is a full time faculty member in the Romance Languages and Literature Department at the University of Cincinnati, and works in the Cincinnati community in roles that include chair of Apoyo Latino:  Greater Cincinnati Latino Coalition, and founding member of the Latino Health Collaborative. Gomez spoke about her experiences as one of many local Latina women who crafted their own community, built through individual connections and collaborations, wherein these women find friendship and support. I learned from her that strong communities may be formed organically, and that small acts of reaching out can have a major impact. Gomez told the crowd the story of when she wanted to create a new program within the University to meet the growing need she saw, but was met with resistance. By crafting a demand for the program through passing word around, Gomez inspired me to see creative ways of working within a system to accomplish goals.

Sylvia Jepchirir Chemweno is a student at Xavier with plans for medical school, and also serves as a board member of Community Action Day, Student Government Association Senator, Interlink peer mentor, member of interfaith cabinet leadership, African Students Association Secretary, and the Women’s Retreat Team Leader. She spoke about her experiences growing up in Elgeyo-Marakwet County in Kenya and the systemic inequality present for women in education. I saw from Chemweno a thorough integration of her faith, her feminism, and her goals. She portrayed herself in an absolutely authentic way that we may all aspire to reach.

Each of the tables in the audience had a pile of blocks on it. We were invited to build with the blocks as we were inspired to do so.  Each of the 7 women around my table contributed to the structure we ended the session with. We collaborated, without judgment or pretense or pressure, and built something together. At the end of the session we were invited to take a block with us. I treasure the blue bridge-shaped piece I chose. This block reminds me of the importance of my identity as a woman to who I am, and to engage with and connect to the communities of women around me. I am blessed with opportunities to grow and cultivate communities through my work, and I shall take what I have learned from this dinner with me as I move forward into the rabbinate.

Written by Leslee Estrada

First United Church of Christ hosted Rabbi Rami Shapiro on Monday February 22nd. Rabbi Rami Shapiro discussed inter-spirituality and how each religion addresses what it sees as “the essential problem facing humanity.”  Rabbi Rami looks at each religion promoting its own solution as THE Solution to common human problems.    For Hinduism, the approach is to understand and solve Ignorance; Judaism it is Exile/Alienation; for Buddhism it is Dissatisfaction/Suffering; Christianity; Brokenness/Sin and for Islam it is Willfulness/Pride.  Rabbi Rami suggests that we can recognize that each faith has a wisdom that we can benefit from.  There is common ground when each of us at some point in our lives must face ignorance, alienation, dissatisfaction, brokenness, and pride.  Rabbi Rami sees the new missionary in an inter-spiritual world not as someone who is ready to convert others to their religion and their solution, but one who can help others see the benefits of all the Others’ solutions.  Rabbi Rami views the diversity of other religions as “unique expressions of God.”  Once we can accept that there is diversity in religion, we can find love.

From Rabbi Rami’s experience he has found the most impactful dialogue happens in small trusted interfaith groups.  When these groups work properly, they can establish safe spaces so that each other can connect and share their deep religious and spiritual insights and not just the good side, but also the dark side.  They address difficult topics and issues so that as a group they can help each other find wholeness.  Exploring the areas of conflict and division is difficult and can be uncomfortable, but it can be done with great trust.  There are texts in our sacred traditions that are not pleasant, and we do not need to hide from them.   When we can openly discuss these areas, the walls that once existed can be taken down and we find ourselves in a very unique space with our neighbor.  This is a very holy space.  In this holiness, we can feel the deep connection we with one another that goes beyond space and time.  We need to be honest with ourselves and ask if  we can truly overcome our own feelings of fear and uncertainty in order to find this precious space.

There are unexpected moments that break through when your heart is open to receiving.   As we grow and expand our understanding of one another, those break through moments can go beyond one’s own religion giving us new insights to our own faith.  Rabbi Rami mentioned an experience that he had with the Perpetual Virgin, The Mother of all the Living, one night while he was on a retreat.  This experience made a profound impact on him.  The experience opened him up to see a new appreciation the many images of the divine feminine found in our faiths – Eve, Mary, Sophia, Wisdom, Shekhinah, Kali etc.  Speaking about an intimate moment is quite amazing because it is not easy to talk to someone of another faith about personal spiritual experiences.  You are not sure if the Other will be offended or whether they will trust what you are saying.  It is a risk, but it could be an amazing experience.  

Interfaith intimacy is just this.  It is sharing personal human conditions, feelings , experiences, uncertainties, and frustrations with one another in order to help each other grow deeper.  An inter-spiritual being sheds the fear and anxiety of intersecting with “Other” possibilities, and allows for an open heart to the great mystery of many religions, allowing the divine dwell in you to navigate you through the unknown.

               My family is religiously eclectic. I am in the midst of my studies to become a rabbi of the Reform Jewish movement. My wife is in the process of converting to Judaism. Her family is Mexican Roman Catholic in origin; my mother-in-law attends mass every day if she can. My mother, a Jew-by-Choice of 26 years, raised my siblings and I in the Reform Jewish denomination. My sister and brother recognize their cultural ties to Judaism, but are largely areligious. My mother’s family is German Baptist; my godparents are Baha’i.

And when we get together during the holidays or other important family events, our meals, our conversation, our protests, and our laughter, instill a sense of belonging around our table. We find amongst ourselves many differences and many commonalities, all of which served to unite us rather than divide.

I see the same trends at other interfaith events that I attend. The event entitled Why We Stay, held back in September, I consider to be similarly successful. According to the surveys submitted by participants, the women’s interfaith event met a need in the community for conversations about religion, across religious divides.

I’ve noticed that interfaith events we consider successful have 3 key elements:

3. Trust

I postulate that we each already hold a sense of trust for the others around the table when we come together for these events. We trust that our loved ones would not invite to the table individuals whom we could not trust ourselves. And so the inner barriers we all have inside to keep the “other” on the outside were permeable.

At Why We Stay, the participants with whom I sat expressed to me a sense of relief and safety to be able to be in company of other women of faith who want to talk about the roles of women in religious community and the challenges they face, even across faith traditions. They inherently trusted the intentions of the other participants to join with them in honest, open dialogue.

2. Time to Mingle

I have also attended interfaith events that absolutely tanked. When I was in Hebrew High, my congregation’s teen religious school program, we visited a church so that we could meet their teen religious school class. I am ashamed to say that I, like my fellow classmates, spurned the initial attempts by our Christian peers to engage in conversation. We didn’t feel comfortable in the new environment to start these conversations, and we knew that if we could hold out for 15 minutes, the organized programming would begin. We did not have the trust necessary, nor enough time to mingle.

The social element of an interfaith event cannot be understated. Virtually no one will remember the content of the presentation verbatim – but we’ll remember how pleasant the conversation was with the kind Buddhist gentleman who sat next to us at the event. We’ll remember that the 7th Day Adventist woman we met by the drink table is from the same home town. These social connections forge within us positive associations that take an interfaith event from ‘good’ to great.

1. Focus

That being said, an interfaith event must have a focus in order to be successful. Only mingling will not create the lasting impact that our best interfaith events achieve. There must be a focus, a main point around which we rally. At Why We Stay, it was the roles and experiences of women in faith communities, through the lens of the Faithfully Feminist book and its authors. I sit on an interfaith panel once every two months in Joplin, MO, and for each panel we convene, we panelists focus on a particular topic. Last weekend, the topic was:  one holiday from my tradition, and what it says about my tradition. Previous topics include:  misconceptions about my faith, life cycle events, origins of my religion, etc. Even in my home, my “interfaith events” are centered around enjoying ourselves as a family.

Each event needs a focus. Now, 5 months after Why We Stay, we are thinking about another possible women’s event. What shall our next event’s focus be? If you have suggestions, please submit them to us at interfaithcincy@gmail.com.