A Knuckle Sandwich for Unity

I refuse to fall into the trap of bitchin’ about the secularization of the Christmas season this early. Advent hasn’t even started yet, so I will resist. Must resist being bitter and sour. Must… stay… strong…

Instead, lets talk about getting along (or the futile efforts to get along with others). I just finished reading The Meeting of East and West by F.S.C. Northrop (read my pithy review here). Northrop is trying to suggest a way for all cultures, especially Eastern and Western to get along. His idea is that we adjust our attitude of life, relax, try to be more in the moment and enjoy the aesthetic aspects in life. He takes almost 500 pages to say this and does it with much heaver, jargon labored, academic language and has a little more nuance than what I have offered as a synopsis. On the eve of World War II it is no surprise that Northrop thinks getting along is pretty important. Read the book, it is pretty awesome.

One major flaw in Northrop’s project is rooted the assumption that there is a way for people to get along. I have recently come to this profound realization when talking about and considering religious pluralism issues.

Before I go any further, you should know that I really do not enjoy talking about religious pluralism. The conversation usually has some major talking points:

We just need to realize how we are more similar than we think

We just need to learn about the other a little more

We all embrace the idea of the “golden rule”

There is a lot that these other religions can teach us

And my favorite:

We are all heading to the same place

It was right after this picture was taken that the lion proceeded to rip out the zebra's throat...

BLEH. These are surface, blasé ideas that wash everything with the same color paint and does not take the challenges or interfaith dialogue seriously. Currently I have been working on this idea of religious pluralism in one of the many committees I am on (and I am on more committees than I need to be) and recently found the group of people spiraling around the above comments. Just as I felt the overpowering urge to take my Bible (the hardcover, large print, King James version that all good Baptists should have) and start smashing my fingers in frustration I was stopped when someone noted brilliant observation that some people just don’t like other people. What!

This statement was exciting to me because if we took it seriously then we would have to take the time to address some of the real challenges that religious pluralism and ecumenism faces – how do you bring together people who really, really, really hate each other. For example, could you see bringing Egyptian Coptic Christians into a room with Egyptian Muslims? There is a lot of hatred because of a recent rash of Christian persecution in Egypt.

Or could you imagine bringing someone from the Armenian Orthodox church together with a Muslim from Turkey?

Or could you imagine bringing in a Baptist with another Baptist from a different church and/or denomination?

Impossible!

These are just three examples of people not liking people and I am sure there are many more. World religions are rife with violent and hateful feuds, tangled in a deep mistrust that make the infamous feud between Hatfields and McCoys look mellow. These division sare around identity, ethnic, religious, and familial. These divisions carry deep wounds, pain, and hatred between people of different faiths, ethnicities, and cultures. Recently, in light of the precarious cease fire concerning the Gaza Strip, I heard about a form of therapy for Palestine children. This therapy involved stomping on a mock Israel flag and then burning it in an effort to help the children express their anger. Such actions are not paving a way to peace.

When we consider a trite phrase like, “can’t we all just get along?” we need to be realistic about the deep, deep wounds that exist and that are still very open and fresh for many people. Northrop does not consider or address this reality. He is working from a very theoretical position, so he can be excused. Yet we carry his failure and flawed assumptions when we again and again enter into “interfaith dialogue” and ignore the reality of the world. It is difficult to face such hatred. It is scary to face such hatred. And, it ruins the closing ceremony when we all hold hands and sing, “Let there be peace on earth…”

If we want to take something like interfaith dialogue seriously, then we need to find a way to face such hatred, acknowledge it, and then see if there any possibility for the work of reconciliation. This is real work, hard work, and not many want to do it.