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P.O. Box 1516, Summit NJ
Phone 908-277-2120
Fax
908-277-2283.
Robert
Corin Morris,
Executive Director
Suzanne
Morris,
Center Director
Lisa Green,
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by Robert Corin Morris
As all the world knows, and fears, descendants of Abraham find themselves today in bitter conflict: Jews, Christians and Muslims trapped in a spiraling pattern of violence.
But sometimes, in the midst of conflict, humanity breaks through. As Israeli soldiers moved in to expel the last Jewish settlers from their Gaza Strip homes, I saw a few Palestinians in a TV interview who said unexpected tears had come to their eyes over the plight of the settlers. “We know what it feels like to be displaced from your homes,” they said. “As much as we want them gone from Gaza, we can’t help but feel some human sympathy for their sorrow.”
For a brief moment the long-resented settlers were not just enemies, but fellow sufferers. Deep bonds of human connection were revealed—bonds that are the only ultimate cure for the warring madness of our species.
God’s October Surprise: Three Festivals in the same Timeframe
As some of the children of Abraham fight, others reach out to strengthen the bonds of our common humanity. Muslim clerics condemn terrorism, Popes visit mosques and synagogues, Jews reach out in constructive dialogue with Christians and Muslims. And, a group of Muslim, Christian and Jewish leaders is calling everyone to take advantage of what they call “God’s October Surprise.” For the next three years, a coincidence of calendars brings together special religious holy days of all three faiths: the Muslim month of Ramadan overlaps the Jewish High Holy Days near the Christian feast of St. Francis of Assisi and the observation of Worldwide Communion Sunday.
I was happy to be included in the group that met all during last year to launch this initiative. Calling ourselves the “Tent of Abraham, Hagar and Sarah,” we met, a dozen or so from all three faiths, for more than polite conversation. We shared our personal spiritual journeys, worshipped together, shared our hopes and fears, and envisioned ways we could foster better contacts between our religions. The biggest surprise was how ignorant we supposed experts in interfaith relations were of each other’s faiths. I had no idea, for example, of the richness of Muslim legends about familiar Bible stories, nor how much they emphasize the overwhelming mercy and kindness of Allah.
We heard about the Muslim Peace Institute at American University, a prep school that turned its Christian chapel into an Interfaith Center, Jews and African-American Christians sharing together a “Freedom Seder” that combines their shared experience of slavery, and how interfaith engagement had influenced our own experience of the Divine. We sang Sufi chants and Hebrew wordless melodies and shared a Christian “agape meal.” But most of all, we shared our anguish at how all three of our faiths, full of such human wisdom, are being hijacked by fundamentalist leaders who dumb them down into hateful black-and-white weapons to exclude and attack others.
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That’s when Rabbi Arthur Waskow of Philadelphia’s Shalom Center brought up the “October Surpise.” Why not use this as a time to emphasize the constructive, peace-making elements in all three of our traditions? Both Muslim and Jewish legends say that Abraham’s tent was open in all four directions to welcome travelers of all sorts and conditions. We quickly came up with a list of possible activities for local congregations, peace organizations, and concerned citizens. (You can access that list
at
http://www.tentofabraham.org , which will give you complete information about this initiative.)
Small Efforts, Part of a Bigger Picture
At Interweave this season, we’ll be doing a lot to promote better Jewish-Christian-Muslim understand and cooperation: a Wednesday morning series about Islam, a High Holy Days workshop with Shefa Gold about Repentance and Renewal in all three traditions, an evening of Dances of Universal Peace, our fourth year of Women of Sacred Story meetings, and a set of special invitational programs for rabbis, ministers, and imams. As part of responding to the Tent of Abraham call, Interweave will be having a special
Candlelight Vigil for Reconciliation among faiths at the end of Yom Kippur, during Ramadan, on Thursday, October 13, at 7:30 p.m.
None of this is going to stop suicide bombers in Baghdad. But small steps like these are investments in the
long term future. America and Europe are the two major places, now, where all three religions have a real chance to build bridges and train new generations for the future we must create together. That will take thousands of small steps.
Whether a person is your “enemy” or not depends a lot on your angle of vision. Ignorance is a great vision distorter. Difference becomes threatening. Threat creates fear, which generates the hostility that leads to injury. This deadly spiral can only be avoided, or reversed, by holding firm in the mind the humanity of your opponent, seeking the other’s well-being, setting up mutually beneficial relationships.
The Gaza pull-out revealed common humanity in another way. A Jewish philanthropist raised $14 million dollars in three days from Jewish donors to help Gaza Palestinians buy, preserve, and continue an agricultural business run by departing Gaza Jews. Otherwise, the greenhouses would have been destroyed, the Palestinian jobs lost.
Doing good to opponents in a serious conflict is but one small step in tikkun ha-olam, the repair of the world. But, like the sympathy of displaced Palestinians for their displaced Israeli neighbors, it is a step in the only direction that holds any promise for the future.
What can you do? Stop the spiral into enmity in some area of your life next week, no matter how small it seems. Join us this coming season at one of the many events that build bridges of understanding.
General Theological Seminary in New York is also offering a course with leading feminist Biblical scholar Phyllis Trible that will focus on Hagar, Sarah, and Abraham, Mondays at 7 p.m. beginning September 12. The course may be audited for $395 plus fees; contact Helen Goodkin at
Goodkin@gts.edu .
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