7 years, 8 messages, 1 voice, G8 actions = hope

Eight documents were attached to our class curriculum for us to read. The documents were created by the religious leaders of the nations for the G8 to clarify, discern, and advocate for a common desire of  hope. My favourite quotes from each document are as follows:

London Forum on G8-action on poverty-2005

“Whatever we do to the poorest we do also for Jesus”

World Summit of Religious leaders -Moscow-2006

“Human person is religious by nature”

“Human life is a gift”

Just Participation: Call from Cologne-2007

“We remain concerned that under the motto growth and responsibility’ the G8 presidency has prioritized expanding market driven mechanisms, but it has put much less emphasis on       the G8’s responsibility for pursuing clear and coherent poverty eradication programmes with a focus on human development”

A proposal from people of Religion – 2008

“All religions hold life to be sacred and interconnected”

“Be fair to all life on earth”

Call From Sapporo-World Religious Leaders summit for peace -2008

“Every member of society is required to advance for the common good”

          “Religious traditions-each in its own way-cultivate spiritualities of compassion and love essential for the well-being of the human family.”

“Shared security”

“Commit to a reduction of total national defence and military expenditures and utilize the saved funds to establish an Earth fund dedicated to environmental protection.

“The massive scale of extreme poverty is a moral scandal”

“Mottainai”- do not waste

Italian Bishops conference: IV summit of religious leaders -2009

        “A spiritual approach can touch the hunger for meaning in our contemporary society.”

A time for Inspired action , interfaith leaders in the G8- 2010

“No one person is less valuable than another.”

“Address poverty, care for the earth, invest in peace.”

Bordeaux Religious summit – 2011

 “Justice, compassion and reconciliation are essential for genuine peace.”

The documents carried thematic messages of basic spiritual underpinnings for which the G8 should be considering when making decisions. It seems to me that these messages are very powerful and relevant. I mean who in their right mind could argue with any of these requests – equality, survival, prosperity is what it all amounts to. It seems much too obvious to me and to most people  that we are in the midst of an earth crisis and we need some unified movement towards love, peace, and wellbeing. I don’t want to be cynical about these documents. Anything can happen. Maybe the world can change.

If you consider atheism as a religion also, then you could probably  include them in support of many of the G8 demands mentioned. Perhaps for different reasons, but still they tend to come up with the same concerns for the earth and humanity from my limited experience.

Sometimes I wonder why I go to church because I don’t usually get that much out of it despite being a christian. I usually find it spiritually benign and pressure putting. However, it is documents like these, that keep me holding on to  a community embedded in deep meaning and purpose (by the way I measure meaning and purpose…  in my postmodernish style). Let us continue….and not as a bar code.

Bearing Faithful Witness

The Untied Church published a document dedicated to building United Church-Jewish relations. The document is over 100 pages of dialogue on  relationship concerns as well as study sessions and ways to build bridges. The most interesting parts for me were the sections where that document clarifies some of the misconceptions on Jewish beliefs in biblical passages. I thought the document did a good job of presenting the two religions as respectable and very relatable.

It encourages me to see the United Church making new strides in maturity of thought and dialogue towards  a neighbour loving world. Not only is it hopeful, it exemplifies the post modern era of breaking down the previously compaartmentalized view of the world in which we suffer the effects on a daily basis. If only  society could put more effort in bridging the gaps. For example at work I wish we could create a similar document on the relationship between the Christian perspective and the clinical/psychological perspective.

Also a document on how the Christian perspective fits in to the current educational structure woudl be very helpful and enlightening. The clarification of views would make my job sooo much easier on a daily basis where behaviour, culture, and religion are set up to be separate but in fact unknowingly embedded in one another. A simple document could be very powerful to help clarify and change many things. Perhaps once we delineate the christian perspective in education, medicine, psychology, politics, and science, religions will then realize that they are mostly advocating for similar things instead of being so concerned about their differences.

For example at my work we have a few people of different religions and we tended to relate to each other when seeing  a person or system behaving as toxic by either lying, secret keeping, shaming, being greedy etc. All of which most religions practice against however secular society does not concretely reject these practices. In fact TV culture embraces commonly rejected religious teachings such as materialism, violence, revenge, etc.

One comment in the article caught my attention because it was mentioned in church a few weeks ago. That word is YHWH. Apparently in Jewish tradition this word is sacred and not to be spoken. However our interim pastor taught the kids to practice saying the word over and over as a way of calming the breath. Yah = breath in.WeH = breath out. I believe she explained that the word meant breath or something like that. So we all practiced together saying that word and she mentions that whenever we were stressed we could recite that word in our head or outloud.

Looking back, I suspect that the paster was not privy to this document. Or at least didn’t feel it was necessary to adhere to in a Christian church. Still I hesitate with disrespecting  Jewish tradition even within the Christian tradition. I hope those kids don’t go to school and start saying the word over and over at their desk when they happen to sit next to a kid who is Jewish and might find it offensive.

For me, keeping a word sacred and unspoken  brings a certain sense of awe and wonder and an understanding of God which is greater than words. It widens our conception of sacredness to begin with and seems respectful. It is also setting a boundary between God and humans which may be helpful.

 

Nostra Aetate – Declaration on the relation of the church to non-Christian Religions

I really liked this document which basically says that the Catholic Church wants to connect to other religions as brothers and sisters in love. Great. Even better, it is basically saying, lets look at what we have in common and try to bridge the gaps by focusing on the positive. How wonderful. I couldn’t agree more. Maybe religions all answer the same questions differently but generally we can try to value one another. Hopefully the trickle down effect works in this situation whereby this document will act as a force of goodne

ss through the Catholic people.

I can think of many current examples where religious beliefs got in the way of relationships at work but I think it is better to refrain from implicating myself in sensitive work politics

at this time.  However, the negative, divisive, destructive themes, I still see relevant TODAY in Winnipeg and tied to the detriment of religion are the following:

***1) Shame based religious models.

2) Entitlement based religious beliefs.

3) Hierarchy/Colonialism.

4) Fear based religious beliefs.

5) Non intellectually integrated religious beliefs with a person’s true human body, spirit, and emotional beliefs. Religious beliefs that are not integrated with the truth of our surrounding earth, nature, and world.

And then the other major destructive forces I see regularly in non-religious secular people is bullying, racism, power, and greed. All of which tie into sick relationships and effect everyone involved in a community.  I think that dialogue with other religions will take more then this simple document. I am glad it is simple but the above mentioned destructive elements work equally to tear relations apart and also need to be addressed at the same time in a very integrated way. I also believe that healing starts from within. Within a person, within a church, within a religion, and then we can dialogue to others about healing and right relationship. As far as I know the catholic church does not have a good relational healing method  within the church. I watched a movie recently where the priest of the church had sexually abused upwards of 30 children over the course of his life and never mended those relationships or apologized. The church did not have a healthy way or procedure to help him mend those relationships either. It is my perspective that the Catholic church has to really develop a more advanced look at the emotional devastation that sexual abuse has on people and its social role in healing that abuse. Further, as we are humans which make up the church, the church makes mistakes and is not perfect. That means the church need to offer apology freely to those it does wrong to. We can’t move forward until we remember the mistakes of the past and resolve them or apologize for them. In AA they call this admitting we are not God, and building healthy boundaries. What works for a “sick alcoholic person” might be a good philosophy that would work for a “sick shame addicted” church. By the way, keep in mind that the Alcoholic loves to smile at everyone and can even talk love but that doesn’t mean that they are able to love.

Concern for everybody

By reading Karen Armstrong’s chapter 7, you get a sense of how the major regions of the world were evolving in a similar way.  During c. 450 – 398 bce. the asians, the greeks, the middle easterners, and the east asian region, were all teaching the practice of caring for others albeit the political instability and wars that permeated the entire continent.

It is interesting to learn about the historical political context occuring in Israel during the time when parts of the torah were being formed. I gained new insight into some of the Old testament books of the Bible and why they were important back then. When you put all the religious history together though, it seems strange to me how God works through people in different ways. Many people dedicated their lives to the search of truth and enlightenment however Yahweh never spoke to Socrates or Mozi like he did some of the prophets. Why is that? Granted  yahweh never spoke to the Buddah because he was more interested in  obtaining  peace through the practice of calming the mind and wasn’t as concerned about anything else. If there is only one specific God that is truth who is on the side of the Israelites why didn’t other people in other parts of the world also experience a similar phenomena? My only conclusion is that God reveals himself/herself in different ways as a entity in harmony with goodness, compassion, peace, values, and justice.

The book feels like a birds eye view of the earth in a different age. Armstrong swoops over each continent gazing at a window of transition to compassion  that no one at the time probably realized was parallel to other transitions going on at the same moment. There was no internet or google earth to see what other people were up to. I wonder if the changes in culture were ever influenced by each other. For example, I wonder if the Buddah had ever heard about or met Socrates, or Mozi in his travels around east asia. How would they get along?

And back to the subject of death which is relevant to my weeks events and my curiosities, Armstrong doesn’t focus very much on this subject. I believe she has an agenda in this book to show a theme that works for her purposes and I am concerned she might be pulling bits of history together that might not actually go together. My history is not terribly sharp at this point but the book seems to be slanted to make a point about compassion. I like her point and it brings people together but I wonder about the others who might have a different take on the history. Nonetheless her argument really strengthens the need for religions to work together in community to develope compassion.

I am dog sitting for a friend and the dog learned to share her toys and food with my dog in a short period of time (different breeds and fur colour). It saddens me that humans have gone through over 2000 years since the axial age teachings and we still are greedy. I can’t believe that my coworker can drive her car onto our work parking lot that was purchased through an illegal scandal of embezzlement which was all over the news and gets away with it. She is supposed to supervise foster kids who have been exploited. It sickens me that her rich lawyer husband stole money from the poorest of the poor and she sat back and watched. We are not in the compassionate age yet unfortunately. yikes pure greed!

 

 

 

That we may know each other

The documents read this week were regarding the United church-Muslim relations today. It was good that I read this article because I encountered some “Islamophobia” this week at work. I was careful to clarify to a superior that there was just 99 faces of God and not 99 thousand faces of God like they thought (among other things).  It disappointed me that I even had to defend the Muslim tradition, because I though that as a work place, we would be into the whole “P.C.” thing but apparently not. (By P.C. I mean politically correct).

In general I am usually disappointed with people’s inability to be open-minded. I just don’t get why people are so closed. Maybe it has to do with our obsession with the greek idea that perfection is power as mentioned in the article. From what I have read of the Bible, I have seen many examples of Jesus emphasizing love and reaching out to all people. Where did our Western society diverge from Jesus’s teachings of openness?

 My favourite insight from the article was where a theologian noticed “a correlation between the idea of the God who dominates the world and the idea of the soul seeking to dominate, and never to learn from the body.” This I think is an extremely analytical insight into the mirroring that people do with our perception of the world and the forces that prevail in it. Christianity has a limited view of God by the perspective depicted in the narrative framework. However, according to Moltman, the idea of the trinity does help to clarify and expand on a better perspective of God that would reflect a God who is; there for one another, and each person in social relationship as opposed to a God of domination. I like where Moltoman was going with this.

Last week a close staff member’s son died of cancer. Subsequently there have been a number of tragedies to have ensued the work place beyond what I could ever expect or make sence of. Another member was in the hospital with cancer, another is loosing her vocal chords to cancer and several other unexpected deaths. (Yes I said several). This has brought me to a new place of searching in a way as it hits so close to home. My dad has been very ill and so I feel I am surrounded by grief and loss struggling to find emotional comfort.

After reading the articles on the muslim tradition, all I could think about is the comfort that ritual brings to the suffering no matter what tradition. This week I also read many christian prayers and words of comfort posted on various sites online. Even though I try to be an open person, there is something more comforting about the words of my own faith tradition that soothes my emotions unlike the words of another religion in a time of crisis.

I read a poem about  angels in heaven this morning at morning meeting as a part of my role here. Usually I try to do a generic prayer and please everyone and not provide answers from my own biases but this morning I felt we really needed to ground our thoughts in a tradition that fit with the person who suffered the loss and to share comforting words of hope of an after world and guiding light. I am also comforted to know that Muslims also believe in angels.

How to be a perfect Stranger

Yusuf Islam (Formerly Cat stevens)

This week I read a couple of chapters from “How to Be a perfect Stranger” from my new and exciting and light Kobo device. One chapter on the religious etiquette of Judaism and the other on Islam. Upon reading about Islam, I immediately thought of the well-known rock/folk singer from the sixties, Cat Stevens, who now calls himself Yusuf Islam.

Yusuf Islam wrote some amazing songs that have inspired me with deep sentiment, compassion and sincerity from the sixties. Recently, I discovered that he had pursued a colourful life journey of religious exploration. I believe he explored many faiths and then devoted himeslf  as a Jesuit priest and now a devout and practicing Muslim. WOW! How often does a switch like that  happen?! It must have taken him much courage to journey from one faith to the other and yet he doesn’t speak of it that way. He claims that Islamism fulfills something within that no other religion did.   He  believes he was always called to become a Muslim.

I took the time to listen to his newer CD in which he wrote a few religious songs some in english and some in another language. One song was written about Allah being God’s messenger and is very catchy. I enjoyed listening to all of them and recognized the words as verbatim  to the faith statement written in the Islam Chapter of How to be a perfect Stranger.  It is foreign for me to hear about Allah in music but comforting that I am hearing it from Yusuf. My mixed feelings also come with the knowledge that all things new take time.

Yusuf  is a good Islamic spokesperson for the West. Probably many of his American fans from the sixties would be curious about venturing into his new record on the confidence of his earned character, like I was. His music provides good exposure for Islamism to eradicate fear in people who don’t know much about the religion, like me.

Few people I know, met, or heard of,  have ever converted from Christianity to Islamism. The people I know (generally spiritual but not religious) would be much more quick to explore Buddhism or Hinduism as brought over with the yoga trend. Personally I  am more interested in religions with a strong earth based component than the Abrahamic ones. I feel a strong divine connection to animals in visions and in my dreams.

However, I really like the book “How to be a perfect Stranger” because it enables people to experience religion directly and what better way to learn about something. So much more information is received in a ceremony than one can possibly read in a book. Also by experiencing a ceremony we learn more and more about the value of each individual on this earth through relationship.

I have attached the song A is for Allah by Yusuf Islam. Enjoy if you have the time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-L-GOHa5-YQ

I don’t feel like writing about Judaism because it is such a complex and sensitive subject which I don’t have a handle on yet and am humble enough to admit it.

Mending the world

In 2004, the Untied Church Council of Canada published a report of revised statements on their world view and world religious perspectives. The title is very ambitious, “Mending the World“.  It attempts to alter  the United church’s stance towards a more holistic world ecumenism.

It tries to emphasize the need for being world centred rather than church centred in which the church makes decisions that include everyone in God’s hands. It reminds me of the ancient old hymn “He’s Got The Whole World in his hands” . Ironically that hymn was written in 1927 according to Wikipedia. I guess we didn’t get the message the first time.

The article mentioned that it requires efforts through partnerships, relationships, sharing, and seeing what is “right” from a framework out

side of our own framework. I can see how this issue arose since the world is moving in a dark place, and I see how the church has stagnated.  Much of its stagnation I believe, is precisely because it hasn’t evolved with society. Our society is mixed race, filled with immigrants and people who do not “think like a greek” or western thought.  The greek way of thinking as mentioned in class can be summed up as  “what is truth” and often permeates western though and subsequently the church ? However, “who is the true person” is a way of thinking  now emerging as culture dilute themselves away from western thought.

I find it interesting how meticulous these documents are and how intentional the church has become in every inch of their purpose here on earth. I am scared that the more intentional and thoughtful the church becomes with their theological and ethical correctness, it will defer any accountability that an individual has to their neighbour. People can sign up for church just like they do eco friendly cars. Or “Organic” co

ffee. It sounds great but the organic coffee is actually grown from slave wages and the eco car was bought for image so you can feel better when you fly around the world outputting more fuel then an entire region of China.  I see so much effort put into words with minimal results when it comes to the action of church. I see more and more documentation piling up with regards to theological correctness but I don’t know if it is actually helping anything. I hope it does make a difference and I love what the article hopes to accomplish. Seems like we put a lot of effort into our words instead of our hearts.

A few years ago I  heard a Peruvian shaman speak at a 2004 retreat. He shared some of his teachings and I will always remember him as being very captivating and wise. He said he believed that the world was moving into an age of humility. People are going to become much more loving towards each other. I believed him and still believe him. I see sparks of his theory showing up in many plac

es. I see it in this document too.  The “me” generation is over.

What helps me is not more correct words. I mean isn’t just saying you love your neighbour enough? Most of us don’t even know who our neighbours are unfortunately. Can’t we just keep things simple?

 

Tales of Wonder

                                                                                 Houston Smith

Tales of Wonder is  the autobiography by the enchanting legend himself,  Houston Smith. A prolific writer on world religions, I was intrigued to learn of his adventures as the first book of study in our academic class endeavour.  I opened the pages with excitement as I was desperate to read a tale or two of his worldly travels. Perhaps his experience in India was as life changing as mine was. Did he actually experience the presence of God as palpable and healing? What was his most heart touching moment of love and compassion that to many of the religions practice? Was his experience of the divine different in different settings? My anticipation for these answers grew as I learned more about Mr. Smith in class and otherwise.

 The book, Return to the Sacred, by Jonathan Ellerby came to mind as he was a follower of Houston Smith. Dr. Ellerby travelled to many faith traditions with interesting stories of divine connection that were beautiful and life changing. Surely Mr. Smith in his 90 years of worldly adventures would have this and more…the  book was going to be dense and intense.

However…Once I began reading….I realized that the book wasn’t all that I was anticipating. We got an extensive account of his whereabouts, his academic achievements, his personal tragedies, his social networking advantages as any autobiography would include however; I think I missed the thread of “wonder” as described in the title. I missed the story within the story. Where was all this wonder he was talking about? How did it FEEL to meet the Dalai Lama? How did he EXPERIENCE God. How had his life changed through his blessed experiences? What humbled him? What challenged him the most? Why should one even bother practicing religion? What purpose does religion serve?

Through my travels and experiences with religion I have so many stories to tell, so many amazing, life changing sacred moments. Mr. Smith seems to be an academic at heart. He is an articulate   teacher of world religions in so far as he is able to describe and interpret the various practices of religions. He is able to formulate good arguments for his theories, as I watched one of his lectures on utube. I just think that someone who has never experienced another religion would not be convinced by his autobiography that religion has any worth in experiencing other than perhaps studying for the sake of learning. 

To me, experience is everything. To me, a big part of spiritually is not just the “what” but also the “how” and “why”. Postmoderners are sick of the “what” information. Religion (in my mind) is supposed to enhance the spiritual in people. (Houston said this at one point).    However, I think he put too much emphasis on the details of his experiences than on articulating the details of the “wonder” that should likely have come out of his experiences. It seems to me a bit weighted on the ego based account of his academic successes which could be teetering on the expression of bragging.

Nonetheless, my imagination connected the dots on some of his stories through relating to my own experiences. He seems like a very vibrant and lovely person with a lust for life. It left me with a curiosity about reading his other books which may be fascinating academically.

Dialogue or disaster – world faiths in conversation

This term I will be using my blog differently. I will be discussing and reflecting on the class assignments etc. with regards to world faiths. Comments and feedback are appreciated by readers of any faith. This is an opportunity to reflect, articulate, learn, grow, expand, enlighten, and challenge ourselves. Let the journey begin…

Attempting Dialogue

In my last post I mentioned that I avoid dialogue but I didn’t mention that I have found ways to co-habitate with skeptics which I think is worth mentioning.

C.S. Lewis attempted to dialogue with the skeptics but I think in this day and age his arguments would not be all that effective. Chronicles of Narnia’s intricate weaving of myth and the Christian story my come close for some people, but we live in a society that has disconnected its stories to reality. The real world is very separate from our escapisim TV media world.  I see most people just trying to survive their job and their demands and they don’t take the time to connect their beliefs with the life they live. I also see a world where people are tired of being preached to and the emphasis is on “whatever makes you happy and can get you some money”. That is what I see as culture of the younger generations. The heavy beats of the rap music with repetitive lyrics that numb you into a hedonistic bliss of consciousness.

What I do see working is by practicing faith by my own example. People at work know that I am a Christian and they watch what I am doing. One staff from an early point in time made it known that he was an atheist. My response to him was something like “That’s great, I admire someone who is confident in their beliefs”. I recall him voluntarily telling me that he had seen much damage in his childhood that occurred on account of religion. I believed I responded by sympathizing with his issues. Now two years later we still get along and he has been a good team player that I can count on in times of crisis. My tactic is to build relationships, respect, and dialogue about healing the wounds first before we jump ahead into a new vision of Christianity. I see so many wounds that need to be dealt with which take priority over intellectual banter. Here is where, I try to be an example of love and compassion. My hope is that when people feel love and compassion they will carry that with them and want to pass it on to others and hopefully grow in their practice of faith even if they don’t believe in God.

Another example was when a girl at work was very vocal about her faith as an atheist. She hated religion and she hated me for being so naive about the whole subject. She was a smart kid who had a lot of the “Bill Mar” teachings which she often went out of her way to explain to me. I never argued with her and always changed the subject. As I got to know her better I found out that her mom was a devout catholic who had committed suicide. I then understood a little more where she was coming from. I had a friend once who’s brother committed suicide and the catholic church refused to conduct the burial. It was a very emotionally traumatic experience for him and his family. Thihnking back to that experience, I often talked to the girl I work with about things that were important to her and tried to help her find meaning in her life in simple ways, like a favourite song, or coffee flavour or  video game etc.

Recently I went over for dinner and the subject came up again about religion. I changed the subject strategically in favour of what one girl at the table had said. She had said something like “God never talks to me”. So I went with that part of the conversation and said ” You know that my grandma said once that God spoke to her”. The group looked at me and frowned. I told them the story and everyone listened. Then the girl who was atheist spoke up and said “Apparently my little nephew claims that my mom came to him in a dream and told him that Jesus was in his heart”. So I didn’t make a big deal about the topic but I just smiled and said something like “wow, what a great story”. Then the religion debate fizzled and no one knew what to say after that. We changed the topic and I knew that the girl would be remembering her story after having told it to people. I believe it was a sacred story that was helping her build her identity. The great mystery continues…