Interfaith Cooperation

Whenever there is a natural disaster -- Nepal, Haiti, and Thailand -- we put our differences aside and help each other, regardless of color, cultural differences or religion.  Why do we only do that in times of crisis?

Most people of faith will agree there is only one God, but many paths.  My path may differ from yours; I may choose a different religion, but we still believe in the same God. 

Whether you see that being as vengeful or loving decides whether you will live in anger or peace.  I choose to disregard the vengeful God of the Old Testament.  I choose to disregard the strict rules and mercilessness of that God's anger.  I choose instead to believe in people, in faith, in our commonality, in a God who gave us all we needed to create a world of harmony and still works through prayer and meditation to bring us to this path.  While I am neither blind nor stupid, I believe most people are born with an even mix of good and evil.  The special amongst us were born with more good; the monsters, more evil, but most of us lie somewhere in between these two extremes.

I am not the best person in the world; yet, like you, I am not the worst either.  I have bad moods.  I can be disrespectful.  I get angry.  I, too, lose sight of the beauty and wonder in this world, shocked as I always am by the anger, violence, and intentional pain we cause each other. 

For this reason, I avoid the news.  Articles about Boko Haram' cruelty or the Taliban's latest attack, or my own country's refusal to solve international political problems with compassion send me into a depressive funk for days or even weeks.  I am upset by news that even today we spend more time trying win for our own gain than we do trying to make sure everybody wins.

That life is a group effort seems clear to me.  We are connected by faith in the same God, by biology in the same human bodies, by psychology through the same emotions.  We are connected by the web of life.  We are connected by cause and effect.  We are connected through tech. 

At this point in history, we are globally connected to each other in multiple ways.

Therefore, it makes no sense to me that we should not fight with each other over the rules of one religion versus another.  I believe there are more good people than bad, but somehow the bad people always seem to be in charge.  Our leaders -- political, religious, business, etc -- rarely seem to be interested in anything but power and money.

The love of money is the root of all evil, because the love of money usually accompanies the love power, and the will to use both against the weakest members of our human family.

Yet, because there are more of us than there are them -- regardless of how much money any individuals have, regardless of their faith, regardless of their power -- our voices are strong, our actions even stronger.

If we bound together as people who share so much in common with each other, and put aside all of our differences, we could change the world.  We could force our leaders to work together for the greater good.  We could follow the path illuminated before us by God, and truly create One World.

I jokingly have a theory that God's ultimate goal in creating the universe was to bring all beings -- those on this planet and those yet to be discovered in space -- to a point of peace because God is a creator, an engineer, and a director, who is trying to make the God Cut of Star Trek.  (I do not mean to be disrespectful of God.  I just think It likes a good joke.  For proof of that, have you SEEN the platypus?)

God wants not only peace, but free exchange, mutual cooperation, respect and love to flow between all of us, connecting every being in Its' light.

I do not like people who believe in a vengeful God, those who make bombastic statements and vote in favor of cruel laws aiming to do nothing but harm.  I do not like violence, no matter whether it is physical, emotional, or economic.  Moreover, I especially do not like it when those responsible for these cruelties claim the Divine has ordained their actions and their hatred.

I refuse to believe in a God who wants the world they are creating.  I firmly believe those who do these things and those who support them are messing up the God Cut of Star Trek.

But how to fix it?  How do you bring love to a heart that is full of hate?  How do you heal centuries of violence?

I struggle often with the question.  I have no answers.  I only know that we start with forgiveness.  We start by recognizing the Divine in each other.  And, no, atheists, you do not have to have any faith at all to recognize another person's inherent value.

We start by holding precious every form of life on this planet.  We start with communication.  We start by sharing our cultures, our stories, our traditions, and our beliefs -- not to argue about differences -- but to enlighten, engage, and embrace every person we encounter in the warmth of joy, understanding, kindness and compassion.

This is my prayer, today and everyday.

Finally, because I believe in living my words, I start by apologizing to Pamela Geller.  Though many share my anger at her beliefs and her actions, I recognize her hate for those of the Islamic faith comes from fear.  Most hate does.  I want to assure her that the belief in One God, recognition of the Divine in all Its' forms, and trust that most people are not mostly evil, can heal.  I offer her my apologies and my forgiveness.  I ask God to help her forgive and to make her feel safe in a world with people of other religions.

Amen.