"Most of the religions of the world are now practiced in this country. In addition to the indigenous religions of the Native Americans and the homegrown religion of the Mormons, there are Christians of Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant persuasion; Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, and Buddhist communities; groups that follow Zoroastrian, Jain, Sikh, Confucian, Daoist, Shinto, and Baha'i traditions, and religions from the Caribbean."
She continues,
"This changed religious landscape elicits different reactions. The issue is not only political, in the sense of how to tolerate difference so that all can cooperate for the common good in the civil arena. Without doubt this is the most vital concern, given the history of violence that religions have triggered, collaborated with, or been used to promote. But intertwined with this is a burning theological question, namely, how to be faithful to one's beliefs while making space for the difference of others."
There are three answers to that last question.
Fundamentalists defend their identity by declaring all others simply in error.
Relativists flatten out differences, thinking it doesn't much matter which religion people choose since all are variations of a common essence.
Others, including many Christians - and this is the Catholic stance - favor reaching out to others through dialogue. Catholics believe that in Jesus Christ Christians have a totally unique encounter with God's ways in the world - "who else holds dear such belief in incarnation, ministry, crucifixion, resurrection!" (Johnson) but also that we are called by God to dialogue with people of other faiths, realizing that God is present and working within each religious tradition. In dialogue, we respectfully learn from the different religious wisdom of others and share from our own tradition. In this way we can learn to glorify the immensity of God's Presence in this world, and learn what God's been "up to" in other faiths. When we return to our own tradition and practice, we are enriched.
Saint Pope John Paul II affirmed God's Presence within other faiths in his encyclical "Redemptoris Missio:" "The Spirit's presence and activity affect not only individuals but also society and history, peoples, cultures, and religions....God does not fail to make himself present in many ways, not only to individuals, but also to entire peoples through their spiritual riches, of which their religions are the main and essential expression."
One great topic to explore with friends from other faith traditions is this:
Why and where do you pray?
"AARP" magazine (February/March 2015) had an article, "The Paradox of Prayer," that I found very illuminating. The author, Bill Newcott, gave some interesting statistics about prayer. gleaned from the Pew Research Center:
48% of Americans ages 18 - 29 pray every day.
61% of the 50 - 59 age group prays daily.
70% of the 70 - plus crowd prays daily. (I do; I figure that I, at 72, want to come closer to the God I'll be meeting sooner rather than later!)
Newcott also interviewed people from various faiths and asked them about their prayer lives. Here are some of the responses:
Rabbi Tzvi Herrsh Weinreb, an Orthodox Rabbi in Manhattan, shared a story of Jewish faith on 9/11. He knew people who were in the Twin Towers that day:
"Two of them actually had the opportunity to call their rabbis, knowing they were doomed. The rabbi of one told him the best mode of prayer at that moment would be to help others - and, as it turned out, he was able to push several wheelchair occupants to safety just before he perished. The rabbi of the other man, who was on a floor above where the plane hit, counseled him not to pray at all - but to call his family and say goodbye. In desperate situations, I tell people to do what I do: Pray that the Lord will do what He sees fit, hope that the outcome He decrees will be the one that we would like....but be prepared to accept whatever the outcome is."
Muslims pray throughout the day; you can find a Muslim using a prayer rug at home, at work on their breaks, or at their mosque. There are five designated daily prayer times - "Like the five fingers on your hand," says Johari Abdul-Malik, an imam at the Dar Al-Hijrah mosque in northern Virginia. But Muslims are also encouraged to practice private prayer. Abdul-Malik says that Islam teaches that every prayer is answered, without exception, in one of three ways: " First, Allah gives you your du'a, or 'request,' or else Allah removes something equally bad from happening to you. Or He saves it until the Day of Judgement and gives it to you as a present."
Christian Bishop Charles E. Johnson of Greater Morning Star Apostolic Ministries in Maryland believes in the power of the black gospel music which his congregation sings and dances to every Sunday. Black gospel music began in the cotton fields of the South, and, sung today, recalls the victory of freedom which God won for those enslaved people. "Prayer is a time to reflect," Bishop Johnson says, "and music, like prayer, has a way of building our faith, and those songs have a way of taking us back and causing us to remember what the Lord has done, and what He's going to do, and what He's capable of doing. It's a way of saying thank you."
Marcel Uwineza, a Jesuit priest studying at Boston College, is a Tutsi from Rwanda, and vividly recalls the horrific 1994 genocide there during which close to a million Tutsis were killed, including his parents, brothers, sister, and many of his other relatives. In "America" magazine (April 4-11, 2016), in his article "Our Christian Hope," he recalls the aftermath:
"Prisons were filled with perpetrators of genocide. In villages, people lived with suspicion; those who had survived were not sure whether they would live to see the next day. We all asked ourselves: Will the sun shine on Rwanda again? Where has the God of Rwanda gone?
"More than twenty years later, the country has experienced great healing; and improvements in government, the economy, community, technology and education have given many people reason to hope. So, has the sun shone again on Rwanda? The answer is yes....
"So, where did the God of Rwanda go? It is clear now that God never left us! We left God; we realize this ever more deeply as we search for the truth and our faith is deepened."
Fr. Uwineza believes God has personally led him on a journey of twenty years of deep grieving, forgiveness, and healing:
"One day I met one of the killers of my brothers and sister. Upon seeing me, he came toward me. I thought he was coming to kill me too. But I could not believe what happened. As if in a movie, he knelt before me and asked me to forgive him. After a time of confusion, asking myself what was happening, and by a force which I could not describe, I took him, embraced him and said 'I forgive you; the Lord has been good to me.' Ever since that moment, I have felt free.
"I have realized that forgiveness heals the forgiver even more than the forgiven. My wounds have been able to heal others. I later found myself desiring to give the gift of my very self to the Lord as a Jesuit....(The Jesuits) sounded different; they knew the brokenness of our world and made us realize that the Son of God was broken too. The power of God was manifested through weakness on the cross. 'Rwanda can rise again,' they preached....I look to Mary, Mother of the Word, who came to Kibeho, Rwanda, to obtain for us continuous conversion."
I personally, a committed Catholic, dialogue with a dear friend who practices the Baha'i faith. I share Jesus and the Gospels and Christian spirituality with her. She has taught me that the Baha'i faith began in Persia in 1844. Baha'i beliefs include belief in one God and that God desires an end to intolerance and discrimination. There are no Baha'i clergy. She shared a Baha'i website with me where I discovered that the Baha'is have three obligatory prayers to pray daily. I found this beautiful Baha'i prayer, one of the obligatory three:
Short Obligatory Prayer To be recited once in twenty four hours, at noon.
I bear witness, O my God, that Thou hast created me to know Thee and to worship Thee. I testify, at this moment, to my powerlessness and to Thy might, to my poverty and to Thy wealth.
There is none other God but Thee, the Help in Peril, the Self-Subsisting.
Bahá’u’lláh (the author of the prayer)
In sharing and dialoguing with my friends of other faiths, i have been inspired by the way God works in their lives, especially through their prayer dialogues with God. I have faith that However they think of God, Whoever they believe God is, God will reach out to them through their humility, love, and sincerity to draw them ever closer to Himself. And we too draw nearer to unity with and in God every time that we respectfully dialogue about God, faith, and prayer with a friend.