News & Notes

Information and commentary on interreligious issues and beyond in Silicon Valley, the San Francisco Bay Area, Nationally, and Worldwide.

Do your actions belie your faith?

A study released by the Public Religion Research Institute in Washington this week suggests that Americans bring very different standards to how they evaluate religious violence. People were asked “when people claim to be ______ and commit acts of violence in the name of ________, do you believe they really are __________, or not?”

The responses showed a sharp difference in how people answered the question for Christians and Muslims. 75% agreed that someone committing acts of violence in the name of Christianity was not Christian, while only 50% said the same for Muslims.

On one level, we might wonder about the role that ignorance about Islam might play in the responses. 37% felt that Muslims who engaged in violence in the name of Islam were still “really” Muslims, while 13% were unsure. This might reflect a lack of understanding or experience with Islam and Muslims.

There is a very real likelihood that political and religious factors affect attitudes. While the numbers for Christianity stayed roughly parallel, there were significantly more Republicans than Democrats who believed that violence did not disqualify a person from being “really” Muslim (55% to 30%).

Likewise, there is a difference related to the background of the respondent. Only 33% of Catholics felt that violence was “really” Islamic, while 45% of white evangelical Protestants held that view.

I suspect that the prevailing narrative about Islam in both the Republican and White Evangelical worlds is rooted in misconceptions and distortions being promoted by the anti-Muslim echo chamber. And in the year since the survey was done, those voices have gotten louder. It’s important to reach out and educate our neighbors.

Religion in San Antonio

I find myself this week in San Antonio, Texas, at the Annual Meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature and the American Academy of Religion. Some 5,000 or so scholars of religion meet every year for sessions on hundreds of themes relating (sometimes in difficult  to discern ways) to the study of religion and/or the Bible.

Its an interfaith gathering of a different type- there are Hasidic Jews and Buddhist monks, Catholic priests in a variety of habits and clerics, professorial-looking men in tweeds and beards, young scholars with tattoos and mohawks. What brings them together is a shared interest in the life of the mind, applied to the multi-faceted manifestations of religion in this country and around the world.

Visiting the Alamo (a pilgrimage almost required in these parts), I found myself sitting on a wall across from the legendary chapel. Standing a few feet away was a street preacher, delivering his understanding of the Word of the Lord to the crowds milling around the courtyard. I pondered how the folks just down the road at the conference would interpret and analyze and challenge this street preacher’s understanding of Christian teaching and the interpretation of the Bible. But what surprised me was the number of people who would come up to him, not to heckle or challenge, but to thank him for “witnessing to the Gospel in this place.” One young man with his family wound up trading favorite Bible verses with the preacher, who was encouraged by the support. They huddled in a prayer circle and the preacher prayed a long prayer that seemed more oriented to affirming the rightness of their faith in the face of such unbelief all around than to a relationship to the addressee of the prayer.

Some brought together by mind; some by heart, but the scholars and the preachers were bound together by shared language (I was in another session about jargon) and shared purpose.

UCC celebrates Muslim Community

From the United Church of Christ newsletter:

UCC Clergy support California’s ‘Muslim Appreciation and Awareness Month’

August 08, 2016
Written by Connie Larkman

United Church of Christ congregations and clergy in California are celebrating the Golden State’s bold show of support for their Muslim neighbors, as the California State Assembly has declared August 2016 as Muslim Appreciation and Awareness Month.

“I’m really impressed with the California State Assembly resolution,” said the Rev. Diane Weible, conference minister of the Northern California, Nevada Conference United Church of Christ. “For me, it goes along with what I believe the church should be—a people of faith who join together to speak out and walk with those who are being attacked or oppressed.”

House Resolution 59, which quickly passed with bipartisan support on Aug. 1, is a visible witness against Islamophobia in a state that is home to 240 mosques, more than any other state in the country.

“As a third-generation Californian, I have long been proud of my state’s diversity and inclusiveness,” said the Rev. Elizabeth Griswold, pastor, Parkside Community Church UCC, Sacramento. “We need to continue to lead the way and set the example for the rest of the country about how to live in appreciation of one another.”

Read more at www.ucc.org/

Muslim Appreciation and Awareness Month

cake from celebration of Muslim Appreciation and Awareness Month (photo: Moina Shaiq)

On Monday, the California State Assembly voted to approve House Resolution 59, officially declaring the month of August as “Muslim Appreciation and Awareness Month.”

The resolution, introduced by Assemblymember Bill Quirk of Hayward,

… respectfully acknowledges the rich history and guiding virtues of Muslim Americans, and commends Muslim communities in California for the lasting positive impact they have made, and continue to make, toward the advancement of the state and the nation…

Assemblymember Quirk said, “It is appropriate to acknowledge and promote awareness of the myriad invaluable contributions of Muslim Americans in California and across the country, and extend to them the respect and camaraderie every American deserves.”

The resolution comes at a time when anti-Muslim rhetoric in the public arena seems to be supporting anti-Muslim actions. A recent report by the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) noted that attacks on mosques have more than tripled- 78 incidents in 2015 as compared with 20 in 2014 and 22 in 2013.

The California Assembly has previous made similar proclamations of Awareness and Appreciation months for the Hindu and Sikh communities that help to make up our diverse California population.

Pluralism Sundays

For the past four years, the First Lutheran Church of San Francisco  has celebrated “Pluralism Summer,” a time to hear from leaders and followers of religious traditions beyond the Christian Circle. This year’s theme is “How Does Your Religious /Spiritual /Philosophical Tradition Inform How You Think About Politics?”

Pluralism Summer was inspired by the “Pluralism Sunday” project of the Center for Progressive Christianity. Pastor Susan Strouse (author of The IntraFaith Conversation) and her congregation decided to extend the spirit of that one day through the whole Summer.

Turkey and the Gülen Movement

News reports from Turkey have noted that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has repeatedly blamed the Hizmet (“Service”) movement and its exiled leader Fethullah Gülen for being a “shadow” subversive organization, and the instigators of the recent attempted coup. Erdogan has declared a state of emergency, arrested thousands of Turkish citizens, including Gülen’s nephew, and called for the closure of 1,043 private schools, 1,229 charities and foundations, 19 trade unions, 15 universities and 35 medical institutions over suspected links to the Gulen movement.

Those of us, however, who have known and worked for many years with local members of the Hizmet movement remain highly skeptical about Erdogan’s motives and characterization of Gülen and the movement. Hizmet is a loosely-organized movement comprising hundreds of local groups who have devoted themselves to service in the best sense- education, multicultural relationship-building and emergency relief projects serving disaster victims, the homeless, the hungry, and beyond. In the north and south Bay Area, we have been fortunate to work cooperatively with the members of the Pacifica Institute.

Farewell Examiner.com

Interesting synchronicity at work: as I mentioned in a recent post, I decided to return to the News & Notes blog after an extended and frustrating time with Examiner.com. The reasons for changing were piling up:

• every time I tried to log into my account to write something, the site refused my password and I had to go through the rigamarole of changing it. The next time, rather than accepting my new password, it would send me through the same process again.
• it was clear that the overall interest of writers at Examiner.com did not extend much beyond celebrity gossip, consumer goods, sports, and popular culture. Even among those who wrote about issues of religion, the quality of contributions was spotty.
• there was big pressure to include photos and/or videos with articles, accompanied by stringent rules about copyright (justified) and format (sometimes difficult). They provided a resource of Getty images, but I soon realized that interfaith news generally does not get much coverage. Unless I was looking for a picture of the Dalai Lama or an example of interreligious violence, appropriate visuals were hard to find.

So I quit. And now I see that Examiner.com has shut down as of two days after I decided to give it up. The URL now takes you to AXS.com, a site for tickets to live concerts and sports events. Farewell to several years of articles on things interfaith, but hello to a bit more freedom to write about what I want to.

Interfaith Prayer Vigil Responds to Recent Tragedies

Moralist: Wikimedia Commons

It’s been a grim stretch of weeks, filled with reports of terror attacks, police shootings, ambushes, attempted coups and on and on and on. The political cartoon in the San Jose Mercury News showed a woman carrying a newspaper filled with grim headlines opening a cupboard labeled “Thoughts & Prayers,” only to find the shelves bare.

However, the more than 200 people who gathered at Santa Teresa Catholic Church in San Jose on Wednesday evening did not find the cupboard empty. Leaders of religious communities including Baha’is, Zen Buddhists and True Land Buddhists, Sunni and Ahmadiyya Muslims, Catholic and Baptist Christians, Jews and Unitarians brought prayers, chants, and meditations for peace and healing. They reminded attendees of the call for peacemaking, compassion, and respect that lies deep at the heart of diverse religious traditions. As we lit candles at the end of the service and circled the sanctuary, one could almost see the web of relationships, light, and prayer that linked the participants together and tied us with others around the world.

These were my comments for the evening:

Over these past few weeks and months, as we sit at our breakfast tables with the morning newspaper, or watch events unfolding on TV, or find ourselves awash in comments on Facebook, Twitter, or other social media that may be informed and thoughtful or opinionated and angry, we may find an echo of our souls in the words of the prophet Jeremiah[1]:

Grace Cathedral Vigil Remarks

These remarks were prepared by Michael G. Pappas, the Executive Director of the San Francisco Interfaith Council, for a community Vigil for Peace held at Grace Cathedral in San Francisco on Monday, July 11, 2016. In addition to addressing recent events in our nation, they offer as well a history of the SF Interfaith Council’s engagement with civil rights in the past, present, and future.

One of the great mysteries of humanity is our inclination to come together in times of crisis. This evening, Bishop Marc Andrus and Dean Malcolm Young have brought us together to reflect upon the horrific violence that has plagued our nation these past days, weeks and months, but more importantly, to challenge us, as people of faith, to rise to the occasion and offer a fitting response rooted in our collective rich spiritual traditions…for this we are thankful.

Two crises, twenty-seven years ago, our City’s homeless crisis and the devastating Loma Prieta earthquake, in a like way brought religious leaders together and enlisted a response, in this case, to feed and shelter the homeless, prepare for disasters and offer up a unified voice of faith on the most pressing issues challenging our City…and thus, the SFIC, as we know it today, was born.

But the question is begged, was there no interfaith cooperation in our City before the formation of the SFIC?  History is punctuated with crises. It is in the DNA of communities of faith to emerge and offer a prophetic voice at those critical moments. The immense crisis in history, then, bringing together religious leaders, was inspired by the tireless and charismatic voice of Civil Rights Martyr the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

The INTRAfaith Conversation: Dr. Susan Strouse

After a generally unsatisfying run at Examiner.com, I’ve decided to return to my own blogging platform to allow me more freedom of expression. You can find my older postings, at least for now, under San Jose Interfaith Examiner.

The Rev. Dr. Susan Strouse has been a pastor in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America for over 17 years, serving congregations in Buffalo, NY, and Novato, CA. Since 2004, she has been at the First United Lutheran Church in San Francisco. “I’m still on my own evolving spiritual journey,” she says, and a considerable part of that journey has involved the encounter with non-Christian communities and individuals.

Each Summer for the past several years, Rev. Strouse has invited representatives of other religious traditions – Wicca, Hinduism, Brahma Kumari, Jewish, Buddhist, Muslim, Baha’i and more – to come during “Pluralism Summer” to share their teachings, perspectives, prayers and selves with the congregation. “Make no mistake about it: we haven’t watered down our identity as a Christian church in the Lutheran tradition,” she wrote during the first year. “That is who and what we are. But we’re also very interfaith-friendly. And we believe that it’s our duty and our joy to make friends with all of God’s people – even if they don’t believe, worship or practice the same way we do.”

Inevitably, profound questions arise out of such encounters. Many who have been involved in cooperative engagements with people of other faith traditions discover that it is often easier to talk with people of a different religion than it is with the person sitting next to you in your own congregation. For others, the struggle is within, as in the case of Elsie L., a parishioner in Buffalo. After a church session in which a Hindu woman active in interfaith activities had spoken to the group, Elsie spoke to Pastor Strouse. “If I accept the Hindu path as equal to Christianity,” she said, “I’m worried that I’m betraying Jesus.”

Years of wrestling with that question and similar ones resulted in Strouse’s new book, The INTRAfaith Conversation: How Do Christians Talk Among Ourselves about INTERfaith Matters? In it, Dr. Strouse addresses the challenges that the increasingly interfaith realities of today present to Christians, and invites reflection on how Christian theology and identity might be shaped and even strengthened by cooperative interfaith encounters.

Blending personal stories, thoughtful reflection on the changing face of America and pastoral concern, The INTRAfaith Conversation invites readers to understand and appreciate just what doing Christian theology means in today’s multi-religious world. The book’s sections reflect the breadth of Strouse’s focus: dealing with the new religious context; what it means to think theologically as a community; tolerance, exclusivism, inclusivism, and pluralism; personal experience; and pastoral and leadership issues for congregations entering the interfaith world. The book is designed to be used with a discussion group; each section is followed by a series of questions for reflection and discussion along with suggestions for further reading.

I recently had opportunity to ask Dr. Strouse some questions about her book and her ongoing work:

IFS: What in your experience of the interfaith encounter led you to write this book?

Rev. Strouse: It all started with Elsie Leary. When I began my doctoral work, I called it “The Elsie Project” (several years later, when Paul Chaffee from the Interfaith Center at the Presidio read my thesis, he was surprised because he’d always thought I was saying “LC,” meaning Lutheran Church). Elsie was a member of my former congregation back in Buffalo, NY. After Sept. 11, 2001, our adult forum decided to study the world’s religions. They chose to study Hinduism first. I asked them if they’d like me to invite a Hindu guest to come for one of the sessions and share her story. They said yes, so I invited Pat, who was part of an interfaith women’s group I belonged to.

After the session, Elsie asked if she could stay and talk about something that was bothering her. She began by saying how much she was enjoying the study. She had appreciated meeting our guest and hearing her personal story. But she had a big concern. “If I accept the Hindu path as equal to Christianity,” she said, “I’m worried that I’m betraying Jesus.”

That got me thinking . . . and thinking. . . and thinking. Later, I read a book by Professor Judith Berling of the Graduate Theological Union in which she talked about the two poles of the interreligious learning process: 1) understanding another religion faithfully, and 2) reappropriating Christian tradition in light of new understandings and relationships.

And I realized that, while there was a lot happening on the interfaith scene (the first pole), not much was being done on the intrafaith (the second pole) side of things. So I decided to go to The GTU and get my doctorate in interfaith education. I finished that in 2005, with the intention of turning my thesis into a book. As you can see, it’s taken a while to reach that goal.

IFS: Why do you think this is an important topic for today?

Rev. Strouse: In the first chapter of the book, I talk about the interfaith landscape. As Diana Eck of Harvard’s Pluralism Project describes: “All of us live in the new world in which the proximity and intermingling of people of many faiths is a fact of our global life and increasingly our local lives as well.” That’s just a given.

The second chapter is entitled “The Intrafaith Landscape: A New Reformation” and it gets more complex. For one thing, Christianity is undergoing a major shift in the Western world, and most churches don’t know what to do about it. Membership is in free fall. And it’s not only about “spiritual but not religious” millennials declining to join the church in the first place; there’s also the “church alumni society” (described by John Shelby Spong), who have left. There are many things contributing to this phenomenon and gallons of ink (or bytes) being used to explain what’s going on and what to do about it. But I don’t see much about how the church should be responding to the interfaith landscape: what to do with some of the inherent exclusivist claims of Christianity that creep into even the most progressive churches among us. There are many “Elsies” out there and church leaders should be helping them to wrestle with the intrafaith questions with creativity, courage, and pastoral sensitivity.

IFS: What do you hope people will take away from reading the book?

Rev. Strouse: I hope people will form discussion groups where they will:

• learn new information and resources;
• feel a sense of hope that they’re not alone in their questioning;
• engage in challenging conversation, respectful of differences of opinion or beliefs;
• be open to new ways of thinking about their faith and expressing it both in a personal and congregational context

IFS: What was the most challenging part of the writing for you?

Rev. Strouse: Finding the time to write in the midst of full-time parish m ministry; finding a balance between the academic and the practical. My intended audience is intentionally somewhat broad: from lay members of congregations with little or no theological training to clergy with extensive theological backgrounds, albeit not necessarily in this area.

Examiner: What else would you like people to know about you?

Rev. Strouse: Some of my favorite spiritual practices are dancing, coloring, and walking a labyrinth.

—
The Rev. Dr. Strouse continues to reflect on her work and its implications at The INTRAfaith Conversation and at progressivechurch.wordpress.com/.