Tom, (Freidman) I don't know whether the world is flat, but I do know we live in an interfaith world.
Actually, it was not the house, but the Senate! Chaplain Rajan Zed, North Nevada Hindu Association led a prayer that was supposed to be a testament to inclusiveness in America, not intolerance from narrow minded believers. Three fundamentalist adherents were arrested after disrupting the session repeatedly shouting
Of course, the abomination is the sheer hatred masquerading as genuine faith. Now interfaith relations are tricky - we need a lot of dialogue and as Methodist theologian, John B. Cobb Jr. suggests an openness to mutual transformation. We are still making baby steps here - Thomas Thangaraj, professor at Emory, suggests that we need to still draw distinctions between "praying together" as in sharing together in one prayer, and "being "together for prayer" where we all join together to pray according to our own faith traditions.“Lord Jesus, forgive us father for allowing a prayer of the wicked, which is an abomination in your sight,” the first protester began.
“This is an abomination,” he continued. “We shall have no other gods before You.”
What is most troubling to me about the narrow-minded Christians who are convinced that only through Jesus can anyone be saved, and therefore they are ready to condemn even righteous folks in other traditions. They are also proponents within Christianity of a narrow-minded perspective where only by believing their fundamentalist or evangelical theological persuasion fellow Christians might be saved as well.
In the "What Others are Saying" section on the left column of this blog, you can find two pertinent reports.
Aaron Krager's post from Faithfully Liberal - "Christian Fundamentalists Disrupt Hindu Prayer"
Don Byrd's post from Talk to Action - "US Senate Opens with Hindu Prayer, Confuses David Barton"
Speaking of prayer....
God, you who created life with all of its diversity (and said that it it good!) - save us from religious bigotry.
Amen,
John
Photo Note: http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewCulture.asp?Page=/Culture/archive/200706/CUL20070626a.html
1 comment:
I like the distinction made between "praying together" and "being together for prayer". I think that interfaith dialog, with respect, is most needed in our world today.
I had the pleasure of being at a conference last fall where Arun Gandhi spoke, and he talked about how his grandfather included prayers from many religions in the morning worship.
For a nation that was supposed to be founded on religious tolerance, we seem to be very intolerant, when it comes to putting it in practice.
peace,
Lorna
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