First,
I want to thank my friend Louis Chase not only for inviting me, but for being a
leader in the interfaith movement. I came to know Louis when he was President
of Interfaith Communities United for Justice and Peace, an organization founded
after 9/11 to promote a peaceful response to religious fanaticism and violence.
We meet every Friday morning at 7 am at the Immanuel Presbyterian Church. If
you are an early bird and want to meet some interesting people and work for
peace, you are always welcome to check us out.
Lent is a time in which we remember the
temptations of Jesus and look at our own lives—what tempts us? One of the
biggest temptations that Jesus faced was Satan’s offer to make him the leader
of the world—to rule all the nations. Of
course, Satan was willing to give this power to Jesus only if he agreed to
worship him, not God. Jesus response was, “No way.” He knew the way to save the
world is not by the love of power, but by the power of love.
After 9/11, we Americans were tempted to
use our global power to launch a war against terrorism. We were motivated not
by love, but by fear. We invaded Afghanistan, and then Iraq, killing hundreds
of thousands of people and displacing millions. We created prisons like
Guantanamo in which we used waterboarding and other forms of torture. We now
are sending drones all over the world to kill people we suspect might be bad
guys. During this dark period, we have not followed the Prince of Peace, but
rather the God of War. We have forgotten what Jesus told his disciples in the
garden of Gesthemane: “Those who live by the sword perish by the sword.”
Jesus shows a better way, and that’s why I
became an interfaith Quaker after 9/11.
Let me begin by sharing how I became a
Quaker thirty years ago. I first became
a Quaker in Princeton, NJ, my home town, in 1984. I was drawn to Quakerism
because I love the Quaker practice of silent, open worship. I also love the
Quaker commitment to peace and justice. And I love the Quaker belief that each
of us can have direct inward access to God, or Truth, through the Inward Light
of Christ. This is the Light described as the Logos in the Gospel of John: “the
true Light that enlightens everyone was coming into the world.” Quakers believe
that the Inward Light is present in everyone, and indeed, in every living
creature, since the Gospel of John also says: “Through him (the Light of
Christ, the Logos) all things were made, and without him was not made anything
that was made.” In other words, the Logos created and is present in every
person and in everything—including every religion—to some measure.
I found this Universalist approach very
appealing since I have been deeply interested in other faiths ever since having
a profound experience of Christ in 1971. I became a seeker and learned much
from people of other faiths—Hindus, Buddhists, Bahais—as well as Christian
denominations. Soon after attending Princeton Friends Meeting in 1983, I met
Quakers who were involved in a magazine called “Fellowship in Prayer,” now
called “Sacred Journey.” This magazine was founded in 1949 (the date of my
birth) by a missionary named Carl Evans who believed that war would end if
people of different faiths prayed together for peace.
Evans was ahead of his time, a pioneer
in interfaith peacemaking. I became editor of “Fellowship in Prayer” magazine
and had the opportunity to meet and interview spiritual leaders and teachers
from various traditions—Jewish, Sufi, Buddhist, Native American, etc. This was
the beginning of my interfaith journey as a Quaker.
In 1988 I spent a year at Pendle Hill, a
Quaker Center for Study and Contemplation, where I met and courted my wife
Kathleen Ross, a Methodist minister. A year later, we were married at Claremont
Friends Meeting and began a twenty-year ministry together which I sometimes
called a Methodist-Quaker alliance. Kathleen deepened my understanding of
liberal Christianity which is very open to dialogue and working with people of
diverse faiths. Sad to say, Kathleen died of cancer five years ago, but I am
very grateful to her for sharing with me the warm heart of Methodism.
My
commitment to interfaith peacemaking began in earnest on 9/11. At that time,
like many people, I felt enormous fear and anxiety about where our country and
world was headed—so I decided to undergo self-purification through fasting and
prayer. To reach out to my Muslim neighbors, I decided to fast during the month
of Ramadan and went to visit local mosques. When my Muslim neighbors heard I
was fasting and reading the Quran during Ramadan, they were incredibly
appreciative—some even invited me to their homes. My heart opened up to them
and I became hooked on interfaith peacemaking. I started regularly attending
interfaith events and soon found myself on the board of various interfaith
organizations—the South Coast Interfaith Council, Interfaith Communities United
for Justice and Peace, and the Parliament of the World’s Religions.
I also became a kind of Quaker
ambassador to the interfaith community. I wrote a pamphlet called “Islam from a
Quaker Perspective” which was published by Wider Quaker Fellowship and
circulated around the world. There was even an edition published in German! I
began giving talks and workshops about Islam and interfaith peacemaking at
various Quaker gatherings. Finally, I was given a letter of support by my
Yearly Meeting, affirming that I have a calling to do interfaith ministry.
In 2011, I published a book called
“Quakers and the Interfaith Movement,” which was intended as a handbook for
Quakers interested in becoming involved in this work. It contains chapters on
the Interfaith Movement and Compassionate Listening as well as various
theological perspectives by leading Quaker scholars. It describes what Quaker
institutions, such as Friends Committee on Legislation and the American Friends
Service Committee, are doing to promote interfaith dialogue peacemaking. It has
a chapter on Quakers and Muslims, and Quakers and Jews and Israel/Palestine—the
most challenging issue for the interfaith movement.
I’d like to share with you with you some
of the highlights of my book. But first, a little background about Quaker
theology.
One of my favorite quotes is by William
Penn, who was a Universalist Christian. Unlike the Catholics, who at that time
believed that only Catholics would go to heaven, and unlike the Calvinists, who
believed that only Calvinists would go to heaven, William Penn thought that
people of good will and good action—whether they were Christian, or Muslim, or
Jewish—belonged to “one religion” and were kindred spirits:
“The humble, meek, merciful, just, pious
and devout souls everywhere are of one religion and when death has taken off
the mask, they will know one another, though the diverse liveries they wore
here make them strangers.”
Pacific Yearly Meeting—the branch of
Quakers to which I belong—agrees with Penn and affirms that the Inward Light is
universal, though not easy to put into words:
“The Inward Light is a universal light
given to all men [and women], religious consciousness being basically the same
wherever it is found. Our difficulties come when we try to express it. We
cannot express; we can only experience God. Therefore, we must always remember
tolerance, humility, and tenderness with others whose ways and views may differ
from ours.”
My friend and colleague Sallie King, a
professor of philosophy and religion at James Madison Univeristy, makes it
clear that just because all people are illuminated by the Inward Light, not all
people and religions are alike. We must honor differences as well as
commonalities. As Sallie points out:
“This is not to say that all religions
are one. The religions are indeed different. While Friends avoid creeds, our
Testimonies—Truth, Nonviolence, Equality, Simplicity—are clear and not to be
compromised, as is our practice of submitting to the guidance of the Spirit.
These give us the guidance we need in our relating to other religions.”
This in a nutshell is the theological
basis for Quaker peacemaking. What about its practical application?
As I note in my book, “one of the most
Quakerly methods for encouraging interfaith dialogue and understanding is to
listen deeply to those of other faiths, without judgmentalism” (p. 24). My
teacher and friend Gene Hoffman pioneered in this approach and I had the
privilege of editing a book of her writings. I also had the opportunity to go
to Israel/Palestine with the Compassionate Listening Project, which was
inspired by Gene’s approach and led by brilliant Palestinian and Jewish women.
As we visited refugee camps, kibbutzim, and various organizations in
Israel/Palestine, we learned how to listen to people who had strongly opposing
perspectives. It was a life-transforming experience. I received training in
compassionate listening and have shared it in many venues, including at the
Parliament of the World’s Religion in Melbourne, Australia,
Closer to home, I have facilitated
interfaith cafes that use a compassionate listening approach. Kay Lindahl,
founder of the Sacred Listening Center, developed the interfaith café model
which has been widely used in many places, including here in Pasadena. A year
and a half ago, I helped organize an interfaith café at Orange Grove Meeting,
sponsored by the Parliament of the World’s Religion. Around 30 people showed
up. We met in small groups and shared our spiritual experiences by responding
to open-ended questions like: “What does your religion say about peace? How
does your religion help you to deal with conflict nonviolently in your family,
workplace, and community? How does your religion affect how you take a stand on
issues relating to social justice and peace? What do you think is the biggest
misperception people have about your religion? How have your views about
religion changed over the years, and if so, how and why?”
These questions have no right or wrong
answers and open up dialogue based on experience, not dogma. The beauty of the
interfaith café approach is that it creates a safe space where people can talk
about their faith and hear about our faiths in a f/Friendly way. This model has
become very popular in the Long Beach area, thanks to the South Coast
Interfaith Council. Perhaps this is something you might like to try here in
Burbank!
My book also describes what Quaker
organizations are doing to promote interfaith peace and understanding
nationally and globally. For example, the Friends Committee for National
Legislation, a Quaker lobby started in 1943, called on Friends to become more
engaged with the Muslim community and its efforts to promote peace and justice.
When conservatives tried to prevent a creation of an Islamic Center in lower
Manhattan, FCNL circulated a petition that garnered 8,000 signatures and
presented it to Faisal Rauf and his wife Daisy Khan of the Cordoba Center.
For the past couple of years I have
gone to Washington, DC, to take part in a Quaker lobby day. Hundreds of Quakers
from across the USA gathered in DC to call on our elected officials to reduce
the military budget by a trillion dollars over the next decade. We were
encouraged to set up meetings with our elected officials in their home offices.
I currently serve on the board of the
Peace and Justice Academy, a small prep school started by the Mennonites five
years ago. This remarkable school teaches students how to be social
activists. It recently made the decision
to become the nation’s first interfaith high school. If you want to know more
about this school, an open house is taking place this Sunday and I’d be happy
to provide you with information about it.
As
you probably know, Claremont School of Theology, which was formerly a Methodist
seminary, has been transformed into the first interfaith seminary in the
nation, thanks to a 50 million dollar grant from the Lincoln family. It is now
called the Lincoln Claremont University and its mission is to train young
people to become Christian pastors, Jewish rabbis and Muslim imams in one
institution rather than in several. Claremont Lincoln isn’t interesting in promoting
a one-size-fits-all religion. Rather it is committed to nurturing religious
leaders who are clear about their own faith and comfortable working and
studying together in a multi-religious, pluralistic community.
I have been inspired by Professor Glen
Stassen, an Evangelical Baptist, who coined the concept “Just Peacemaking.” He
argues that the debate between pacifism and “just war” cannot be resolved, and
isn’t particularly helpful. He believes that all Christians, and indeed all
people of faith, should do all they can to prevent war. He was involved in the
recent publication of a book entitled “Interfaith Just Peacemaking,” edited by
Susan Thisthethwaite. As a Quaker, I am thrilled that people of diverse faiths
agree that “war is not the answer.” I
should mention that Glen Stassen went to a Quaker school and has on the door of
his office an FCNL sticker that reads “War is not the answer.” Isn’t it
marvelous when peace makers work together and learn from each other?
I’d like to close by discussing the
final two chapters of my book: one relating the Quakers and Islam, the other
relating to Quakers and Israel/Palestine.
The chapter on Islam contains not only
my pamphlet but also excerpts from the translation of the Quran by Michael Sells,
a Quaker professor of Arabic studies who used to teach at Haverford and now
teaches at the University of Chicago.
The chapter on Israel/Palestine deals
with the thorny issue of how we can create a just peace in this troubled region
nonviolently. It contains an essay by a Quaker of Jewish background who went to
Israel/Palestine with the Compassionate Listening project. It also has an essay
by Guiford College professor Max Carter, who frequently takes students from
Guilford to Ramallah, where a Quaker school was established over a hundred
years ago. This school has trained many leaders in the Palestinian community
who have acquired many Quaker values while still preserving their identity as
Muslims. This chapter also describes the work that the AFSC is doing to
encourage young Palestinian leaders to work for justice nonviolently.
Interfaith work in the Middle East can
be very difficult, and it isn’t always easy here at home. My Jewish friend Ruth
Broyde Sharone has written a lively memoir about her interfaith reconciliation
work called “Minefields and Miracles: Why God and Allah Need to Talk.” She
recounts many inspiring stories of interfaith cooperation, and also of painful
misunderstandings.
We may not agree on theology, and we all
have very different religious practices, but we can agree that we are called to
“love our neighbors.” This is the heart and the essence of the Torah, the
Gospel, and the Quran—and most other faiths have a similar teachings.
The three major Christian organizations—the
Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue (PCID), the World Council of
Churches (WCC) an ,the World Evangelical Alliance (WEA)—met during a period of
five years to discuss how Christians could witness to their faith in a
multi-religious world. I highly recommend downloading and reading this historic
document, which was published in 2011, since it is the first time that
Catholics, mainstream Protestants and Evangelicals have agreed on guidelines
for interfaith dialogue and cooperation within the context of Christian
witness. Among other things, this document encourages Christians to engage in
respectful interreligious dialogue, to build relationships of trust with those
of other faiths, to reject violence, to speak truthfully about other faiths, to
refrain from all forms of material “allurements” to gain converts, to work for
freedom of freedom, and to cooperate with people of other faiths for the common
good.
I think we can all agree it’s important
to cooperate with people of other faiths for the common good. That’s why I want
to lift up a relatively new interfaith service organization that has come to
the San Gabriel area. It’s called Family Promise and it’s part of a nation-wide
network that has helped thousands of homeless families to become housed.
My wife Jill Shook and I met three
years ago at a Peace Parade here in Pasadena, and we were married two years ago
after a whirlwind courtship. I proposed to Jill after only three weeks. In our
marriage vows, we affirmed “the Prince of Peace has brought us together for a
purpose greater than either of us can imagine.”
Jill and I come from very different
backgrounds. She is an Evangelical Christian and I am a liberal Quaker, but we
agree on deeply held values—like peace and justice, helping the poor, and
loving our neighbors. And we have discovered you don’t need to agree with
someone’s theology to love them and work with them and have a wonderful relationship.
When we got married, we invited people
of diverse faiths to be part of our wedding party. Muslims, Jews, Evangelicals,
liberals, conservatives people of color, the affluent, the homeless, and even a
stranger from China who happened to be in town and wanted to see an American
wedding—all came to our wedding and were welcome.
“Love God and love your neighbor as
yourself” is a commandment we need to take seriously and embrace
wholeheartedly. It’s part of our DNA as well as our religious heritage. What
the interfaith movement calls us to do is to love ALL our neighbors, no matter
what their race, religion or ethnic background. It isn’t always easy, but it’s
worth it!
