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Interfaith and the shadows of religion Part I

by Frank Kaufmann, July 21, 2014
The early, autious, little ste!s into interfaith enounter in our time emerged while im!erial, su!ersessionist, on"ersionary,
and #alkani$ed im!ulses and mentalities still dominated religious assum!tions in ma%or world religions& 'ome religions
were more e(treme or o"ert in these attitudes and !ostures, but in fat all ma%or world religions ould be so defined either at
dee! le"els, or at signifiant setors of its most !owerful leadershi!& It also should be noted that e"en though muh of this
darkness has reeded due to reent deades of interfaith effort )and !robably due to the growing seulari$ation of modern
!eo!le*, e"en so, many established religions retain some base elements of these ways, at dee! and highly established le"els&
#eause early interfaith was )and in most ases still is* basially a on"ersation in !olite om!any, autious, timid, afraid to
offend, !olite, brittle, not o!en, easy or intimate, a tremendous amount of what really needs to be disussed still goes unsaid,
uns!oken& The religions !resenting themsel"es are tirelessly )or tiringly* in"ested in !resenting only their good side, or
worse a side so good that it is in fat nowhere to be found& +nd the dialogue !artners smile, nod their heads and bend o"er
bakwards to be more affirmati"e of the !artner,s religion than almost any !ratitioner or belie"er inside that tradition really
is&
There are a number of im!ortant as!ets of these uns!oken ground rules in interfaith that are !ositi"e, good, and hel!ful&
-"er the last .0 or 40 years suh on"ersations ha"e !ro"ided !latforms for !eo!le to talk to one another, and ome to ha"e
lo"ing and aring relationshi!s with !eo!le from other faiths, relationshi!s that would sim!ly be unheard of %ust a "ery short
while ago in our modern history&
#ut des!ite the good and !ositi"e growth and dee!er understanding that has arisen in these 1000s of !olite and autious
interfaith en"ironments, there remains un"isited muh of the "ery most needed on"ersation that should ha!!en
interreligiously& 'ure it,s ok to year after year sit through /That,s lo"ely& I lo"e ha!attis& The embroidery on your
headsar"es is so beautiful& 0es we too ould benefit from your dee! res!et for and understanding of silene&1 #ut what
about, /2idn,t some ountries e(terminate innoents in the name of 3hrist41 /2oesn,t your religion teah that if land e"er
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Interfaith and the shadows of religion Part I
by Frank Kaufmann, July 21, 2014
was yours, then it must fore"er be yours, at any ost, sooner or later41 +nd so on and so forth&
These diffiult te(ts,
teahings, and traditions
are what I all /the
shadows in religion&1
56570 religion has
them&
This is not to say these
shadows are ignored&
5nlightened thinkers
within eah tradition do
take suh matters
seriously& 8reat thought
and in"estment goes into
finding ways beyond the
shadows so that 8od,s
sweet healing light an
shine through& #9T, so
far these efforts ha"e not
unfolded in shared in:uiry& These on"ersations are not yet !art of interfaith enounter, e"en after all these deades& To me,
it would be great to hear, /;ello you #uddhist, you Jain, you 3hristian& 0ou know, we ha"e a few !assages in our sri!tures
that '- tend to su!!ort "iolene that it,s killing us to try to find the way around this& <isten, here are some of these
sri!tures& 'ound !retty bad huh4 2o you ha"e any ideas about how we an su!!ort the onstruti"e truth im!lied in these
!assages, while eroding their great !ower to ser"e the !er"erse ends of "iolent !eo!le41
=ill interfaith talk reah this le"el4 It seems inreasingly !ressing that it must, and must do so sooner than later&