Interfaith News Roundup - December 2023

December 2023 Interfaith News Roundup

by Paul Chaffee

The Interfaith News Roundup is a monthly publication of The Interfaith Observer. Paragraph by paragraph the Roundup summarizes major religion/interfaith stories that are underreported. Each paragraph is linked to the full story it introduces.

If you’d like to receive the Roundup monthly, you can sign up for our mailing list here.

The Big Picture

Twenty years ago portable metal-detectors became popular in England, inspiring historians to join the activity and see what the detectors can discover. It has been considerable. A million and a half objects have been unearthed. Today the date of each discovery is recorded and entered in a database along with its GPS coordinates. After recording the data, finders can keep their findings or donate them to a museum. Local metal-detector archeologists and historians are focused on two issues in Medieval England – the Black Death and the Protestant Reformation.

Photo: Wikimedia

Jainism is a relatively small religion, but one of the oldest, reaching back 3,000 years and more. Jains are becoming increasingly active players in the interfaith world. Among its core beliefs is Satyagraha, meaning “truth force,” which Mahatma Gandhi took to mean a radical commitment to nonviolent resistance, and which grounded Martin Luther King’s approach to peace.

A second less appreciated Jain doctrine is Anakantavada, or many-sidedness, which suggests that truth cannot be grasped without a multiple point of view. The doctrine is often explained through the story of the six blind men who perceive an elephant from different points of view.

In the 20th century, Jains began arriving in the United States after the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 opened up U.S. immigration. Today, Jains are estimated to number between 150,000 and 200,000 in the United States, with their larger population centers in Chicago, Southern California, Texas, and New York.

The tragic history of Western European and American powers stealing religious and artistic artifacts from indigenous and first nations communities is finally, though slowly, turning around. For instance, an article in the United Kingdom titled “Native American Headdress Set to be Returned to Blackfoot Homeland After Century in UK Museum” caught people’s attention. Restoration of stolen historic religious and artistic treasure is becoming possible but takes time and is expensive.

China keeps tightening the screws on religion. A new Chinese law, the Patriotic Education Law, states in part: “The state is to guide and support religious groups, religious institutes, and religious activity sites in carrying out patriotic education activities, enhancing religious professionals’ and believers’ identification with the great motherland, the Chinese people, Chinese culture, the Chinese Communist Party, and socialism with Chinese characteristics.”

Great Mosque of Xi'an, China — Photo: Wikipedia

Meanwhile, the Chinese government has closed hundreds of mosques in northern China, which has large Muslim populations. Some mosques were saved by becoming less ‘Muslim,’ for instance in taking down minarets.

Twenty-two years ago this month, the Interfaith Encounter Association (IEA) was founded by Rabbi Dr. Yehuda Stolov, then a student. He had encountered for the first time an interfaith dialogue group and was inspired to create an interfaith community that has grown into a movement. Stolov had noticed the pain and anguish felt by people – Jews and Muslims, Christians and Druze – who have lost family members in Middle Eastern struggles. He noticed how similar all grief is, regardless of race and religion. The first IEA encounter event was held December 2001. Two decades later the IEA includes 125 active groups throughout the Middle East. Four thousand people participate in their ongoing three-day weekend encounters.

The IEA website opens with these words: We are working to build bridges between Jews, Muslims, Christians, and others across the Holy Land, based on tradition and culture without any political agenda. 20,000 people have joined so far. Will you? During IEA encounters, relations develop among participants while getting to know each other spiritually and personally, not politically. And you don’t have to be from the Middle East to participate.

Ten years ago The Interfaith Observer published Rabbi Stolov’s story about developing an organization for creating strong, heathy relationships among those who once were strangers and antagonists.

Where Do You Get Your News?

Arguably the most important religious gathering this fall was the October Synod of Bishops convened by Pope Francis. The press, per usual, mostly ignored the Synod. In the U.S, some newspapers provided a summary, brief paragraphs about this meeting of bishops focused on better communications. We can be thankful to James Reece who offers an illuminating review of the gathering in a Religion News Service’s report, “Firteen Hidden Gems in the Synod on Synodality.” Reece offers a nuanced and detailed understanding of the event. Highlights included the Synod’s emphasis on women and youth in an extended discussion about who the church is and what it should be. Bottom line: much more deep dialogue is critical for the Church’s future.

A startling journalistic factoid last month came in a Pew Research report that a third of Americans under 30 now depend on TikTok to get their news In the general population, those depending on the social website has gone from 3% to 14% in the past three years.

And if you think TikTok is simply an entertainment venue for youngsters, get this: TikTok is promoting its own version of Jesus as a long-haired, bearded, white Jesus. Those sharing TikTok’s version of Jesus with other viewers are rewarded by the social media platform. Viewers ignoring the TikTok vision are punished.

The best interfaith news last month was the launching of the Global Interfaith Monitor (GIM), a bimonthly newsletter of the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs at Georgetown University in Washington D.C. If your learning curve is progressing from Interfaith 101 towards Interfaith 300, GIM may become the most important global interfaith publication designed for you available.

Consider GIM’s table of contents for its inaugural issue. First comes a declaration from the Seventh Congress of the Leaders of World and Traditional Religions. This extraordinary declaration emerged from Kazakhstan, whose president and national leadership strongly support interfaith relationships.

GIM continues with an address by Pope Francis to religious leaders from all traditions. Then comes the following table of contents of interfaith news:

Fifty years ago ‘interfaith’ programs were sometimes characterized as wine & cheese sessions for affluent, progressive, mostly white congregations. As the GIM news items above suggest, we’ve come a far, far distance from that earlier characterization.

Personally…

Thirty-one thousand Brazilians have contributed their voices – one-word, one person – to an aggregate recording of the Old and New Testaments. The whole of Brazil is being invited to participate in a project. About 90 people a day are being taped. The massive recording is scheduled to conclude in 2025 before moving to additional countries. The goal is to increase peoples’ scripture reading.

Photo: Unsplash

In a recent statement the Vatican indicated that priests can baptize transgender people  as long as it is not done in order to confuse the faithful or create public scandal. This is similar to Pope Francis’ repeated suggestion “that the Church is not a ‘tollhouse,’ and the door of baptism should not be closed to anyone.”

The notion of digital chaplaincy may sound alien the first few times you hear it. Or not. Eileen Campbell-Reed takes a deep dive into the subject in an article titled “What is digital chaplaincy? And why do we need digital chaplains?”

In this season of gift-giving, let me hold up three slim books, books that most impressed me this past year and would make wonderful gifts. First comes Daniel Cooperrider’s Speak to the Earth and It Will Teach You: A Field Guide to the Bible. He writes, “We’ve thought that scripture was a key to understanding nature, and not vice versa.” His book may well transform the way you look at nature as well as the way you understand scripture. It is illuminating.

The Death of Omnipotence and Birth of Amipotence by Thomas Jay Oord is a book I’ve waited to read all my life. Despite the somber title, its reflections on God and love and humankind made me want to sing and dance. Oord’s explication of the Christian doctrine of atonement makes more sense to me than others. Best of all, Oord’s reflections on the failures of ‘omnipotence’ as a word, on the mystery of suffering, on how love works, and much more... ‘Aha!’ moments came to this reader one after another.

Then, for everyone from three to 103, take joy in ABCs of the World’s Religions written by Vicki Michela Garlock and beautifully illustrated by Raman Bhardwaj. Each letter of the Engllish alphabet gets highlighted on two pages, starting with a poetic couplet followed across the page by a brief paragraph. For instance, “A is for ALTARS that hold special things. Flowers, candles and books along with other offerings.” Across the page we read “Altars were some of the first sacred spaces humans ever built. They are found in many religious settings, including Hindu and Buddhist temples and Christian churches. Incense, water bowls, and money are other common altar items.” Adults may recognize a number of the entries … but good luck with words like JAYANTI, WESAK, and WAHEGURU

Enjoy!



Header Photo: Wikimedia