In thinking about this short article, I struggled with the question: How do I make meaning out of life? It can be read and answered in many ways from one person to the next. What is meaning, exactly? Still, I admit to being pleased at the invitation, but also for being acknowledged for the six-year journey since converting to Islam, the journey to find and define what brings meaning to my life.
How I Make Meaning of Life
My wife and I drive out of the city. On the way, we share stories with each other.
We laugh about how complicated and intertwined the tales of our lives have become with each
other, and with and among the people we know.
We are amazed at how disparate events and people come together over time, in surprising
combinations.
2011 Look Back
BOB ABERNETHY: As 2011 draws to a close we take our annual look back at what we think were the most interesting and important religion and ethics stories of the year. We begin with a reminder from Kim Lawton of what some of those stories were.
New Harvard Journal Focuses on Comparative Theology
In 2009 three Harvard Divinity School graduate students decided to create a new journal. Their goal? To provide a setting where they and their colleagues could publish peer-reviewed academic papers about “comparative theology.” They did not expect many readers beyond Harvard Yard.
As Iron Sharpens Iron, So Does One Tradition Sharpen Another
Does theology have a role in discussions of spiritual discernment, meaning-making, and concerns about syncretism in contemporary interfaith worlds and culture? Should theologians and theologically interested believers limit themselves to developing and deepening the knowledge of their own tradition, or is there value engaging theologies beyond one’s chosen faith or worldview? Are these endeavors mostly or finally mutually exclusive?
Pluralism - A Home For All Of Us
When non-Christian religious leaders around the world were invited to attend the 1893 World’s Parliament of Religions in Chicago, the letter asked them to come and share the wisdom of their traditions. It also promised that at the Parliament they would be able to perfect that wisdom through Jesus Christ. As the 20th century approached, in other words, the most open, liberal, progressive people of faith in America shared the assumption that their tradition was the truest and most important. Historically, the Catholic doctrine of “extra Ecclesiam nulla salus,” or “outside the Church there is no salvation,” makes the point categorically. But Catholics have had no corner on the notion that salvation is exclusively theirs, a claim ripe for setting people of faith and practice against each other.
When Wiccans & Evangelical Christians Become Friends
For more than 26 years I’ve been doing interfaith work on behalf of Neopagan Witchcraft (often called “Wicca” or “the Craft”). In 1985 I was elected National Public Information Officer for the Covenant of the Goddess (www.cog.org). The job entailed serving as a liaison between CoG and the media, law enforcement, the government, and the interfaith community. I attended my first meeting of the Berkeley Area Interfaith Council, one of the oldest, most diverse interfaith groups in the country, and gradually found myself hooked on interfaith work. Terming out as Public Information Officer, the Covenant created the appointed position of National Interfaith Representative. That has been my role ever since.
The Oneness of the Human Family
A Declaration of Oneness for the Human Family,” drafted by Robert Muller and circulated by the Temple of Understanding, did not ignite the global interfaith response that other foundational documents have inspired. But it underlined and helped articulate an assumption that drives all interfaith endeavour, that there is a unique, connective oneness to the human family, and that every member of the family deserves respect, dignity, and opportunity. Marcus Braybrooke, who participated in the ‘Oneness’ discussions over the years, tells how the idea developed.
Indian Spirituality at T Mobile Los Angeles
I was looking for a new cell phone when I met 27-year-old Maz, a wireless expert who works for T Mobile at a mall in Los Angeles. We started talking about droids and ended up talking about interfaith. I wasn’t surprised. These days interfaith consciousness lies just under the surface of almost every encounter between strangers – especially in LA, culturally and religiously one of the most diverse cities in the world.
Diversity@work Conference – Toronto
On November 9th 2011, Skills for Change presented its third annual diversity@work conference at the KPMG corporate head office in Toronto with Senator Don Meredith as the morning keynote speaker. Nearly 200 of Canada’s leading employers, HR professionals and leaders from numerous community- and faith-based organizations attended the event.
Middle East and North Africa Religious Leaders Reject Violence Commit to Cooperation among Muslims, Christians and Jews to Build Peace
Marrakech, Morocco -- Senior religious leaders from across the Middle East and North Africa rejected violence and called for deepened multi-religious collaboration as the region undergoes historic transformations. They committed to stand in solidarity with all vulnerable communities, to advocate for full religious freedoms across the region and to call on all religious believers to become a united force to help ensure that governments honor the full rights, protect and serve all of their citizens without exception.
Views of Violence: Abu Dhabi Gallup Center Report
A widespread belief concerning Islam emerged and solidified in the minds of millions after the 9/11 attack by Al Qaeda operatives. It has been strengthened since by senseless deadly attacks on military and civilian targets, all in the name of Islam. This belief states simply that Islam, at the heart of its teachings, is a violent religion. Its own sacred text is believed to promote and even demand death to those who do not believe and follow the way of Islam.
Conversely there are those who believe that there are politically motivated groups operating from Islamic countries that hide behind their interpretations of the Quran. And it is these groups who act violently, not on behalf of Islam, but on behalf of their own political and social agendas.
Rita Semel’s 90th Birthday
San Francisco’s new mayor came to the 7:00 am interfaith Thanksgiving Prayer Breakfast this year. So did the city police chief, the fire chief, half the city’s supervisors, San Francisco’s own Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi, and 400 clergy and lay leaders. For a prayer breakfast in San Francisco?!
It was also the 90th year birthday party for the woman who made such an event possible. The theme for the day tells the story – “Healing the World: Honoring the Work of Rita Semel.”
Compassion, Charity, and Interfaith Culture
Karen Armstrong’s The Great Transformation (2007) suggests that compassion became a dominant theme in human experience for the first time between 800 to 200 BCE, called the Axial Age by German philosopher Karl Jaspers. Armstrong notes that over this 600-year period a religious revolution occurred in four different regions of the world: Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism on the Indian sub-continent; Confucianism and Taoism in China; monotheism in the Middle East; and philosophical rationalism in Greece. In each case we discover ancient traditions calling followers to compassionate, ethical behavior.
Launching On Common Ground 2.0
Dr. Diana Eck and the Pluralism Project are updating their award-winning resource to explore the religious diversity of the United States. The first edition of On Common Ground: World Religions in America was released as a CD-ROM in 1996, providing teachers, students, and scholars with an innovative interactive resource in three parts: “America’s Many Religions,” “A New Religious Landscape,” and “Encountering Religious Diversity.”
TIO at the American Academy of Religions
For anyone interested in religion, the American Academy of Religion annual meetings are an embarrassment of riches. What was new in San Francisco this year as 10,000 scholars, students, publishers, and advocates gathered was the unprecedented presence of interfaith studies. Professor Diana Eck from Harvard’s Pluralism Project, who served as president of AAR 2005-06, helped legitimize interreligious studies academically. Five years later the progress is encouraging for anyone interested in bridge-building among religious, spiritual traditions. Interfaith workshops, panels, and receptions punctuated the all four days of meetings last month.
Looking Back at TIO’s First Year
Gratitude is the word underlining The Interfaith Observer’s first year. Dozens of people have gone out of their way since January 2011, when TIO was no more than a dream, to make TIO a unique publication systematically exploring a set of issues critical to humankind’s future.
Best Practices for Interreligious Ministry
In addition to adequate theological grounding on how to situate the religious other within the framework of one’s faith tradition, there are certain attitudes, virtues, and skills that would appear to be crucially needed in being able to creatively relate to, engage, and cooperate with religious others. In an excellent volume specifically addressing the subject, Catherine Cornille has laid out humility, commitment, interconnection, empathy, and hospitality as five such key elements to be nourished and cultivated in this regard.
Translating Kalema - Images that Speak a Thousand Words
As a little girl, I learned that “sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can never hurt me.” I learned wrong. Words are indeed powerful. As a wordsmith, I know what we say and how we say it can change how you feel about yourself or another. Words can be as sharp as a knife and heavy as a brick. Words can and often do hurt. Yet, if words can hurt, they can also inspire. The adage that a picture is worth a thousand words compels me and led to the notion of an interfaith photography competition.
What Excites Me about Interfaith Work?
This article grew out of a presentation Bettina Gray made at a meeting of interfaith leaders attending the November 2011 meetings of the American Academy of Religions/Society of Biblical Literature. The session focused on innovative interfaith activity and was organized by the Coexist Foundation.