At a recent
meeting of the Commission on Christian Jewish Relations (CCJR) here in
Rochester, the members of the Commission were engaged in a painful and
difficult discussion, arising out of the controversy that erupted over a
letter, signed by leaders of fifteen Protestant religious denominations and
organizations that was sent to Congress on October 5, 2012 asking that Israel
be held accountable for monies sent to it by the United States in light of what
the authors of the letter perceive to be human rights abuses by Israel against
Palestinians and Israeli Arabs.
The letter spawned a flurry of articles in various secular and religious
newspapers and media outlets and angered a number of Jewish groups, including
members of a dialogue roundtable that meets yearly to discuss the
Israel/Palestine situation and of which a number of the signers of the letter
were members. The Jewish members
of that dialogue group canceled their October 23 meeting. As a commission dedicated to
Christian Jewish dialogue in our local Rochester community, we believed we had
to discuss this incident, as it had become a cause célèbre in American
Christian Jewish relations. We knew it would be a difficult, painful and
probably emotional discussion and we would have happily talked about something
else if we could have, but we believed that to be true to our mission, we had
to dive in, despite the discomfort it caused everyone on both sides of the
controversy.
In the course of
our conversations that day, we reflected upon what is the point of
interreligious dialogue. Some
people around the table believe that dialogue is not enough if it does not
result in some visible action in the world. We briefly talked about what we could “do” as a commission
to address the controversy that had erupted in the wake of the letter. One member of the commission then made
a statement that I believe is critical to remember for those of us who engage
in interfaith engagements of any kind:
Dialogue IS action.
Indeed. Dialogue is action. For people to sit around a table and
engage in substantive conversation about issues of mutual concern, about issues
that are difficult to discuss across various divides is itself real action that
makes a difference in the world.
Interreligious dialogue is not mere idle chatter. While it does not aim to change
anybody’s mind about fundamental religious beliefs, nor even about real world
political and economic realities that often stem from such beliefs, it does
some really important things that have real world consequences. First and foremost, it creates
relationships. Real flesh and
blood relationships between people who might otherwise never get to know one
another very well. And those
relationships matter a lot. Those
of us on the CCJR have built deep levels of trust and respect between us and
when these controversies erupt, and we have wildly different perspectives on
the substance of the controversy, we nonetheless are able to engage in
respectful, and even loving, conversation across those huge divides. That is not nothing. When people in conflict can see the
person on the other side as a friend whose feelings matter, the whole tenor of
the dialogue changes. The need to
be absolutely right diminishes as the desire to find some common ground arises.
Stereotypes are shattered and the religious “other” becomes a human being with
a face and a name. Relationships
can be transformative, and transformation is what most religious traditions
invite their adherents into.
That same week
the Interfaith Chapel hosted the first Scriptural Reasoning event, gathering
Jewish, Christian and Muslim students in the “Tent of Abraham, Sarah and Hagar”
(literally – in a tent!) on the River Level of our chapel. This was a first tentative step in
bringing these students together to talk about their respective sacred
scriptures, sharing with each other out of their own experiences and beliefs
and beginning to learn to listen to one another as they presented their own
scriptures to one another. This
was a new experience for these students, some of whom have not engaged in
interreligious dialogue before. They are interested in learning how to do it
and willing to learn about each other in more than superficial ways. As I watched and listened to them courageously
discussing their own sacred texts with others for whom those texts are not so sacred,
I was grateful for their willingness to go out on the emotional limb and open
themselves to this dialogical process.
Over time, I hope they will come to know one another and respect one
another more deeply. As trust
builds they will be able to share more and question more. It was a beginning and I was honored to
be able to share it with them.
Dialogue IS
action. Whether it’s a group like
CCJR that has been together for many years and where the participants know each
other well, or a group of college kids just coming together for the first time
and not sure what its all about, dialogue is the beginning of relationship
building. Relationships of trust
and respect matter enormously in a world of sound bites and polarized political
and social rhetoric. In a
religiously pluralistic world dialogue between people of different religious
traditions is action that matters because it builds bridges of compassion and
understanding that can help temper conflicts when they inevitably arise and
perhaps, even promote cooperation and problem solving.
When CCJR came
together around our monthly dialogue table in the midst of a painful
controversy, that dialogue was itself meaningful interfaith action. When the college students took time out
of their ridiculously busy schedules to gather in the tent and dialogue with
one another across their different religious traditions they were not just
killing time or making small talk.
They were acknowledging the interconnectedness of all of us. As St. Paul reminds the Corinthians,
one member of a body cannot say to another “I have no need of you.” (1 Cor.
12:21) All of the human family is
connected. We all have need
of one another and when we engage in dialogue, particularly at difficult
junctures, we acknowledge our interdependence and connection.
