Religions hope for better understanding

http://wisdomofreligion.blogspot.com/2008/07/religions-hope-for-better-understanding.html

The article "Religions hope for better understanding" follows my commentary.

A true believer will never look down upon any form of worship, he looks to the devotion an individual has towards the divine and not the method.

A spiritually accomplished person firmly believes in his faith, and believes in the path he follows and understands that it will give him the salvation and takes him closer to God. He or she understands and believes that all traditions offer the salvation to the believer.

The Foundation for Pluralism believes that God does not practice preferential treatment towards any faith or a group; and we don't either. All of us are HIS creation and HE belongs to us all. No one owns HIM, nor does anyone have any exclusive influence over him. Who would want a God that will not give equal access to all?

We honor, cherish and respect every way people have come to praise and worship the divine. We revere every one of the spiritual awakeners, to name a few: Krishna, Zarthusthra, Moses, Mahavir, Buddha, Jesus, Muhammad, Nanak, Bahaullah, and every Great Spirit that people have to come respect.

We believe that each one of us is created by the same divine system, and respecting each one of his creations is the best form of honoring that divinity. Knowledge leads to understanding and understanding to acceptance and appreciation of people with different points of view. If we can learn to accept and respect the God given uniqueness to each one of the 7 billion of us, then conflicts fade and solutions emerge.

Every religion frees us from the negative engagements. When we truly believe in the oneness of God and the oneness of mankind, we have accepted God’s greatness and parity of human beings.

The world is a better place today because of spirituality, without which there would be chaos. All the religions are on the same side; that of goodness for mankind.

The Foundation is committed to providing the media and world leaders with insights, and policy solutions to effectively managing the multi-ethnic, multi-religious and multi-cultural societies. We are committed to developing solutions for pluralistic governance of diverse people.

We believe that the purpose of all faiths is to bring peace and happiness to each individual and connect humans with the divine. We strongly defend the goodness of each religion. We believe that political motivations have deliberately blamed the wrongs of the world on religion. It is our commitment to identify and ascribe the wrongs to individuals responsible for it and uphold the honor of each faith.

Our mission is to encourage individuals to develop an open mind and an open heart toward their follow beings. If we can learn to accept and respect the God given uniqueness of each one of the 7 billion of us, then conflicts fade and solutions emerge. We believe that knowledge leads to understanding and understanding to acceptance and appreciation of a different point of view.

Mike Ghouse
http://www.foundationforpluralism.com/
http://wisdomofreligion.blogspot.com/

Chattanooga: Practitioners of area’s minority religions hope for better understanding of their spiritual journeys

http://timesfreepress.com/news/2008/jul/01/chattanooga-practitioners-areas-minority-religions/


By: Holly Leber


It might be an exaggeration to say that in Chattanooga you can’t throw a rock without hitting a church, but with more than 1,000 Christian churches, there’s a clear religious majority in the area.

Stephen Eskildsen, a professor of philosophy and religion at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, said the Christian majority in Chattanooga can be “a bit daunting” for people of different faiths.

Meanwhile, some Christians say that they are compelled by their beliefs to profess a single path to salvation. “Certainly as Americans we offer freedom of religion, so I don’t necessarily look down on people of other religions,” said Brent Baughman, senior pastor at Stanley Heights Baptist Church. “However, I feel very strongly about my personal commitment to the biblical authority.”

Dr. Eskildsen, who calls the trend of increasing religious pluralism in the United States an encouraging one, said he does not believe one belief system is superior to, or should be endorsed over, another. “An atheist has just as much of a right to feel strongly in (his or her) views as a Christian does,” he said.

What is it really like to practice a non-Christian religion, or no religion at all, in Chattanooga? Four local residents share their stories.

CLAIRE HALE, AGNOSTIC AND HUMANIST

Claire Hale’s parents raised her to think for herself and to find her own answers. At 85 years old, she continues to search.

Raised Southern Presbyterian in Anniston, Ala., Mrs. Hale said she grew up in the church and taught Sunday school but eventually moved away from Christianity and organized religion, opting instead to find community in the spiritually diverse Unitarian Universalist church. She refers to the church as being a searching culture and says there are people who feel very uncomfortable in such an environment.

Mrs. Hale, who lives on Signal Mountain, said: “There comes a time when you have questions and begin to search for other answers. I think probably the spiritual entity, or whatever, is bigger than any particular religion.”

She takes any challenge or disagreement in stride. “The only problem I would have is if an individual becomes cruel or fanatic or would not accept other people’s beliefs. In the Bible Belt, you do experience that,” she said.

Mrs. Hale, a former social worker, said she has faced few personal difficulties because of her religious views but does recall a client who refused to return after learning Mrs. Hale was not a Christian.

“I’m not a nonbeliever,” she said. “I don’t have the answers.”

A longtime attendee of the Unitarian Universalist Church, she recalls being told as a young woman, “Young lady, that church belongs to the devil” by a fellow bus passenger.
She respects other people’s choice to worship in their own way. “I’m not a Christian, but that doesn’t mean (others) can’t be,” she said.

She said for a long time she thought she was a Christian and that it took a long time to realize she believes an array of possibilities exist.

“The world opens up,” Mrs. Hale said. “We’re all climbing the same mountain from different directions.”

SAMPAS JANHOM, BUDDHIST
From time to time, Sampas Janhom will meet people who try to convert him to Christianity. He doesn’t mind too much, he says; he welcomes any opportunity to learn.
“I like to study all religions,” said Mr. Janhom, who works at Thai Smile restaurant on Market Street.
Born in Roi Ed, Thailand, Mr. Janhom calls himself an occasional practitioner of Buddhism.
“We can pray, we can practice, we can repeat,” he said. “If we forget the main thought of Buddha, we can repeat and practice and do meditation.”
He lived for several years in Saudi Arabia and has worked for the U.S. Embassy. Though he has lived in the United States for nine years, Mr. Janhom is still a newcomer to Chattanooga, having been in the city only three months.

Mr. Janhom said that while customers occasionally will hand him pamphlets from their churches, he rarely gets asked about Buddhism. However, he said many people who enjoy Thai food will express interest in learning about his homeland.

Mr. Janhom, 56, said he has enjoyed visiting Thai temples in different states. He also spent time visiting Christian churches in Thailand.

“In Thailand,” he said, “I have many Christian friends.”

He encountered missionaries who tried to convert him but to no avail. Even though he doesn’t consider himself a devout follower, Buddhism still holds a special place in his heart.
“(Buddhism has) taught me to find a reason when I have a problem,” he said. “We can solve problems anytime if we think about Buddhism.”

Mr. Janhom sees similarity, rather than discrepancy, in different world religions.
“Everyone likes to be loved, no one likes to be hated ... every religion wants the people to be nice
people, even Christians.”

RABBI MEIR GOLDSTEIN, JEWISH (CONSERVATIVE)
Grocery shopping can pose a challenge to Meir Goldstein.
A conservative rabbi at Chattanooga’s B’nai Zion Synagogue, he maintains a kosher diet and said it can sometimes be challenging to find acceptable food here.
But the challenges Rabbi Goldstein has faced as an observant Jew in the South are certainly not limited to dietary difficulties.

“I’ve had people tell me that the right way to relate to God is the Christian way a number of times,” he said. “It doesn’t feel good; people who haven’t experienced Judaism and don’t really know how I believe presume that their understanding of the Holy One is the only correct one. God is bigger than any one way of understanding. My way is the best for me, and I think there are certainly other ways to relate to God.”

People who don’t know him or his family, yet assume his traditions are an incorrect way of worshiping, pose a challenge to him, he said.

Rabbi Goldstein, 33, grew up in Phoenix and has lived in Los Angeles, Philadelphia and Eugene, Ore.

“Chattanooga probably has less religious diversity than other places I’ve lived in the United States,” he said. “Religious minorities are more invisible here.”

“Being Jewish in America, by and large, is to be an outsider, but one of the things that’s been unique to my experience here in Chattanooga has been to be in such a small Jewish community, to be so rare as to be a religious or observant Jew.”

He is very aware that people will stare when he wears a yarmulke or kippah (traditional head covering).

“People either will tell me about Jews that they’ve met or known, or they’ll try to ignore it, but their eyes float up toward my head.”

He said people often assume that Judaism has the same structure of belief that Christianity does. “Sometimes people will presume that Judaism is the same belief as Christianity, except for Jesus.” He said the notions of sin, repentance and hell do not play as central a role in Judaism as they do in Christianity. “By and large, in most of my interactions, people haven’t had any experience with Jews or Judaism.”

KHALID HASHMI, MUSLIM
As a member of the city of Chattanooga’s Office of Multicultural Affairs, Khalid Hashmi has made it his business to promote understanding among different religious and cultural groups.

Being Muslim in Tennessee has been challenging, Mr. Hashmi, 56, said. He recalls shopping with his wife and six children soon after Sept. 11, 2001, and seeing people lock their cars at the sight of his family. “We thought, ‘What happened?’”

Taking action, he helped facilitate a workshop about Islam and appreciated the opportunity to teach community members about his faith.

But for each person who is eager to be educated and helpful, there are others who remain narrow-minded and afraid of the unfamiliar, he said. If he is seen praying in a rural area, he said, people will sometimes ask what he is doing or express distaste in their gestures.
He recalls Fillin’ Finley, a 2002 prayer celebration at Finley Stadium that only included Christian prayers. The memory still stings.

“We requested to be included because our tax dollars go to the government too,” Mr. Hashmi said, “but they did not allow inclusion.”

The Pakistan native said media reports that focus on violent Muslims make him feel his religion has been “hijacked” by a few individuals who give Islam a bad name. Just as he wants the non-Muslim population to recognize the actions of a few bad seeds do not represent the Muslim faith, he understands not all non-Muslims are discriminatory. “There are not very many people who discriminate or who are prejudiced, but we have a long way to go,” he said. Lack of exposure to different traditions and races can cause tension, Mr. Hashmi said.

“We are normal people like everybody. Of course, there are some who really resist those who they don’t know. There are some people in the community who will, unfortunately, hate you because of who you are, how you look and the faith you practice.”