Great World Divide Rages On: A Suggestion |
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By Rev. Charles Brock, M.Litt
February 2022
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It almost goes without saying that America has always been a divided nation, from its 17th century founding on the East Coast to the events of today. Sometimes it has been violent, like the Civil War. But we often forget what the country was like before and after the Revolution when the losing loyalists were tarred and feathered by the rebels. Many were driven out of the country. And who would not acknowledge America’s racist past (and present) that has dominated its politics for centuries. What have we done to Native Americans over the years? You must call it genocide. This is only one example in a deeply divided world. Russia, China, India, Africa, Central America. We are at each other’s throats.
Religion had a hand in this as well. As an American example, Protestants hated Catholics. Catholics would not enter Protestant churches. My deeply committed German Baptist grandfather created a lot of jobs by hiring hundreds of Catholics (mainly Polish and Italians) to work for low wages but avoided them socially and religiously. He had no association with Jews or Blacks. He would not discuss the issues of World War II. Segregation was a good idea for him. Yet he was a loving family man. This is not untypical of millions around the world.
Most churches in my hometown paid little attention to each other. They were in competition with one another, and they were good with God and OK in their own denomination. Different denominations did not cooperate, with a few exceptions like feeding the poor (but they rarely asked why they were poor). World religions were of no interest or worse, considered works of the Devil.
The National Council of Churches tried to get its members to work together but with limited results. This is not to say that people haven’t tried and tried hard. All throughout my 55-year ministry and teaching I have seen clergy and laymen work at fostering interchurch and interfaith relations. My 35-year ministry in an English village was quite successfully with interchurch work between Anglicans, Catholics, Reformed, and Pentecostal churches. We shared services and did not sheep-steal (clerical phrase for poaching each other’s church members). But that was not the rule in other places.
My 35-year academic career at Oxford (concurrent with my English village pastorate) got me involved in interfaith work, and I was secretary of the working committee. We had Hindu, Buddhist, Muslim, Jewish centers and colleges training clergy, but they generated little interest in each other. I was once invited to speak at the Hebrew and Jewish center, but that was it. I was told that the Judeo-Christian alliance was phony. And Martin Luther King Jr. shouldn’t have thought of himself as a Moses type as in his last speech. “Moses belongs to us.”
I was also a member of a Jerusalem committee for six months to foster interfaith relations, meeting once a month. Maybe a dozen came, and that was considered a crowd. Members of other faiths were tolerated in the scores of religious buildings in the Old City, but non-adherents were not made especially welcome. No one ever asked me about my faith, though I asked a lot about theirs.
Is there any hope of interfaith cooperation? At present – NO. The Unitarian/Universalist denomination is committed to dialogue and sharing, but they are shrinking rapidly. We might see a bit more interchurch work developing, especially as the churches are going downhill (one tends to join with others through weakness, not strength), but the world scene is rather dire. Even Hindus, the most open of religions, are starting to become isolated fundamentalists.
Having said all that, I am nonetheless moved to propose a scheme. I am not optimistic about its success, but maybe it is worth a try in the long run.
Here’s the pitch: We need not only our own rich backgrounds, but also what the East and West have to offer, and that is a very big deal. Our own religions and cultures are valuable and generally have been around a long time, and I am not asking for a revolution. Nor am I asking for a fusion of world faiths. I am only asking for an active love of the other, no matter how different they are from us. This is not just toleration but an active engagement with and appreciation of the other. You don’t have to give up your current faith – unless that itself includes a total exclusion of other faiths. Then we have a problem.
It is a lot to ask. It hardly ever happens.
We have fabulous riches from the whole world to keep valuing and to interact with for our future well-being. I want to boil down some of it that anybody can grasp it. Jesus did that too when he said that you can reduce the Jewish-Christian law to a formula – love God and your neighbor. That is the law and the prophets. (Mk 12 et al)
Here is a suggestion:
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A Universal Benediction - East meets West
The world is on fire. We are tearing ourselves to shreds internally and externally, personally and socially. We need a new start based on old truths. Religion can help if we use the love and justice parts.
Asked if he was Hindu, Gandhi said: “Yes, and I am also a Muslim, a Christian, a Buddhist, and a Jew.”
Let us pray:
As Creator you made us stunning. Help us to understand and appreciate our differences. Abdullah Antepli
God, from the Infinitesimal to the Infinite. You envelop the ever-expanding Universe.
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Infuse us into Oneness that with Brahman, Gaia, Yahweh, Kwan Yin; We will strive for Love.
From the West – freedom. law, and forgiveness from the exodus traditions
Give us discernment as if we were slaves in Egypt. Hebrew from Mishnah
He has brought down rulers from their thrones but has lifted up the humble. Mary
Christ our Passover has been sacrificed for us, therefore let us keep the feast. Paul
The greatest jihad is to battle your own soul, to fight the evil within yourself. Muhammad
Those in oneness realize that I am in every being, wherever they go, they remain in me. Hindu
In separateness lies the world’s greatest misery, in compassion lies the world’s true strength. Buddhist
My doctrine is an all-pervading unity. Confucius
All things carry Yin yet embrace Yang. They blend their life breaths to produce harmony. Lao-Tse
Mother Earth and Father Sky never deny their children, my brothers, sisters. Anna Ruiz
Destroy nature and she will destroy you. Love her, and she will give you abundance.
Doxology
Praise God from whom all blessings flow, Praise God all creatures here below
Praise God all heavenly hosts above, Praise God with Oneness, Justice, Love.
Love the Lord with all your heart, and soul, and mind, and strength; and your neighbor as yourself. Jesus
Go in Peace. Walk in Beauty. OM, AMEN, ALLEULIA Hindu, Hebrew, Navaho
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From the West – freedom, law, and forgiveness from the exodus traditions – boiling it down
Jews are freedom and law lovers, and their central idea of freedom comes from the exodus from Egypt and later desert worship. The exodus is celebrated in every service in every synagogue every week, and quintessentially in the annual Passover, the central celebration of the Jews. The other major event is Yon Kippur, or the Day of Atonement when sins of the individual and the nation are confessed, transferred to the scapegoat or its equivalent, and forgiveness from God and the neighbor is offered.
Christians claimed Jesus was like Moses both as lawgiver (Sermon on the Mount} and deliverer from Rome (Messiah) and the sin-bearer at the Crucifixion with transference of sins to Christ (Mass, Eucharist). Songwriter Mitski is an example of transference: “I am a musician, but the reason they really pay me the big bucks is to be the place where anybody can put all of their feelings, their ugliness, that doesn’t have a place in their own lives. I’m like the black hole where people can dump all their shit, whether it’s a need for love, or it’s hatred and anger.”[1] According to Freud and Jung, this was the main function of psychoanalysis.
Islam has been known as a fighting faith taken from Jews and Christians, but its big idea of jihad is to fight with oneself to get straight with God and the neighbor. Fighting for the faith, if necessary, because of persecution, comes afterwards. Duty to God, oneself, and others is crucial in Islam as it is in all faiths. They have many mystics including Rumi, the whirling dervishes, etc.
From the East – unity, duty, and compassion from India and China
To try to sum up, Eastern religion is quite a task – perhaps impossible. But I would like to try to boil it down. It is said that it takes years for a Zen acolyte to grasp the essence of Buddhism. That is because it isn’t just an intellectual concept – it has an emotional side as well which is hardest to grasp. The same could be said of the Christian concept of love – it is one thing to talk about it – it is an entirely another thing to feel it and devote your life to it. The same is true of the great Eastern concept of Oneness – that which both Hinduism and Buddhism strive to realize in their hearts and minds. It is Oneness with others, God, nature, and the universe. We are part of each other and the universe whether we recognize it or not. The key is spiritual recognition. It takes effort.
The consequences are enormous. Imagine if people really believed with hearts and minds that Oneness was a top priority. This could help eliminate the hurtful individualism in the West and the prioritizing of one’s own culture above others. One would see the other in oneself. Imagine how that could change the world. Fundamentalists could then see other religions as valuable rather than hateful.
The Chinese have added a subtle addition when they see Twoness in Oneness as in yin-yang. Within each major idea there is a twoness – light dark, male female, heat cold, etc. “Yin yang describes the two complementary forces — yin and yang — that make up all aspects and phenomena of life. It encompasses the actual process of the universe and all that is in it. Yin and yang are depicted as the light and dark halves of a circle.” (Encyclopedia Britannica) Note black within white and vice versa. This is a crucial clue to living.
We all can apply this – capitalism communism, Republican Democrat, Jew Christian, male female, fundamentalist liberal, etc. – the list is endless. It not only leads to understanding but also to peace.
Buddhism also stresses compassion – and who doesn’t need that? All religions also have law and duty as fundamental.
From Gaia – love of and care for nature from ancient Greece to Native American tribes
This is so obvious that it takes an oil executive to disagree with it. But even they are coming round to see that burning fossil fuels is a disaster eventually destroying the world. It is especially hard on the Third World. The West has been particularly obtuse grasping what damage we are doing to the Earth and to the poor of the world, but wiser heads and hearts are prevailing. We need to keep it up – urgently. In the United States, Native Americans and smart scientists unattached to extraction industries can show us how.
Summary
What does it mean to make these comparisons (not compromises)? All religions not only need to listen to each other but also see the wide-ranging benefits in appropriating the different major ideas into their own. Who would not agree that these concepts are life giving and would enhance our lives?
If you agree, then do it. The way the world is divided, we might not have much more time to try to get it together.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
The Rev. Charles Brock, an Erie native, is an Emeritus Fellow, Chaplain, and Director of Ministerial Education at Mansfield College, Oxford, UK, where he taught for 35 years. He serves as the Director of the Brock Institute for Mega Issues Education at the Jefferson and as Director of the Institute on the American Dream at Penn State Behrend. Rev. Brock is also acting minister of the First Unitarian Universalist Church of Girard, Pennsylvania. He is a founding member of the Jefferson Education Society, where he serves as the secretary of the Board of Trustees.
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End Notes
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Ben Beaumont-Thomas, Mitski, the US’s best young songwriter: ‘I’m a black hole where people dump their feelings’ Guardian UK February 4, 2022
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