Building The Vocabulary For Religious Diversity

Posted August 26, 2006 in News

Religious Diversity. What is it? How do we do it? Should we be doing it? Would our God approve? What does that mean? How do we cohabitate with "the other" without losing or compromising what makes us unique?

These are the sort of questions that are starting to be discussed. The mystics tell us that before something can be made manifest within this world, it must first be understood and envisaged. These are important discussions and questions that will shape our world and civilizations not just for the next few days or months, but for decades and generations to come.

There is a lot of work being done in this area, and many articles will follow. The links today give a smattering of what has been happening, and from a number of points of view. The idea being that it is like looking at an elephant, what you see and how you would describe it depend on your proximity and angle to the animal. The broader our understanding of the different perspectives and issues, the more integrated our models will become. If nothing else, one important trait should be to recognise that accomodating paradoxes will inevitable in any integrated model, and that the model will always need refining.

Some might ask if it is biblical to consider diversity, or would we be insulting our God? There are some passages that tell us God approves e.g. Isaiah 56:3 "Let no foreigner who has bound himself to the LORD say, "The LORD will surely exclude me from his people."And let not any eunuch complain, "I am only a dry tree."" Similarly, there was King Solomon's prayer at the consecration of the second temple 1 Kings 8:41-43 " As for the foreigner who does not belong to your people Israel but has come from a distant land because of your name— for men will hear of your great name and your mighty hand and your outstretched arm—when he comes and prays toward this temple, then hear from heaven, your dwelling place, and do whatever the foreigner asks of you, so that all the peoples of the earth may know your name and fear you, as do your own people Israel... "

For those wanting more theological reassurance, this article about not building an altar out of only one stone published this week on Algemeiner might assist. New Zealand's Gisborne Herald enthusiastically announced the 2007 Asia-Pacific Dialogue to be held in Waitangi with a couple of excellent quotes. The first from Thomas Jefferson "A nation cannot be ignorant and free". The Vacel Havel's plea that we need a story that will help us "...to be a people with an elementary sense of justice, the ability to see things as others do, a sense of transcendtal responsbility, courage, compassion and faith."

Then we see potentially exciting books about to be published such as Amir Hussain's "Oil and Water: Two Faiths One God" (c/- Religious News Service). We see dialogues such as the recent Swiss and British exchanging ideas on what is meant by diversity and know that such discussions will lead to more books and papers. This Swiss Info article is excellent because they tease out the definition as contributors commented that diversity does not just cover race and religion; but also sexuality, class, cultural traditions. Fox News have also entered the fray with their opinion on What religious liberty really means.

Then we see practical developments on the ground (too many to be cited here, and some I do not want to draw attention to because they are too early and vulnerable). If certain parties are offended that I am not drawing attention to their endeavours, they are noted with affection but I am not going to expose them to more danger than they are already in. The meeting in Babel Iraq is a high risk noting, but the players knew that before they even met, and their example will have to cover the other souls who also deserve compliments at this time. Both Alsumaria and NewsBlaze have covered the first reconciliation meeting. Which was organised by Iraqis for Iraqis. The meeting noted that there are no winners in war, and that they all have a shared interest in restoring their country.

The same can be said for this whole planet, there are no winners in war and we all have shared interest in its restoration as we all drink the same water and breathe the same air.

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