"INTERFAITH UNDERSTANDINGS"

A Sermon by the Rev. Bruce Clear

Sunday, September 30, 2001

All Souls Unitarian Church

Indianapolis, Indiana

The world is becoming smaller. That metaphor has been popular for at least a generation. The sense of that metaphor is not only that transportation and communication have become so much more efficient that the distances from one part of the globe to another are increasingly insignificant, but also that each part of the world, each civilization, country, city and even village, is becoming linked interdependently with every other part of the world.

When I was young I remember talking on the phone to someone on another continent. You would say something, then wait a few seconds until the sound traveled far enough for them to hear. After that pause, you could hear the other person respond. Today, of course, communication across the globe is simultaneous, as is video transmission. We can see and hear events in Kathmandu, and speak to someone there, immediately, as things are happening.

Perhaps the more significant way in which the world is getting smaller has to do with that sense of interdependence and integration of business and even culture. You may have seen the story in the paper that a significant amount of American flags being purchased now were made in China. Europe, with its historically distinct cultures, is rapidly becoming a single economic and cultural entity -- the difference between the British and Italians will eventually be about as distant as the difference between New Englanders and Texans.

The world is becoming smaller. And part of our perception of the shrinking world comes from the fact that American culture is getting broader. Our culture is actually expanding. The world seems smaller partly because our society is opening up. As we expand, the world is embracing us. We are increasingly diverse in our make-up and a large part of that diversity is religious.

Until 1965, our immigration laws strictly regulated by race and ethnicity those who may move here to become U.S. citizens. Primarily, the government wanted to keep out Chinese, or any of the other ethnic groups from Asia. The bias, the discrimination, and the bigotry in deciding who is welcome in this country which was created by immigrants clearly was on the side of the European races.

In 1965, President Johnson signed a law that did away with racial prejudices and quotas in terms of who may enter and become naturalized citizens. As a result, for the last thirty years or so, we have had a substantial increase in Asian Americans, Hispanic Americans, and Middle Eastern Americans.

Perhaps the most significant part of this story is not the fact of immigration as much as it is that, after thirty years and more, the children of these immigrants -- children who were born here and grew up here -- are now adults. These birthright Americans whose parents came from other countries feel themselves completely American. And they are. They may be Japanese American or they may be Pakistani American or they may be Russian American, but their central identity is with this nation, their country of origin, and are no different in status from the children of Irish immigrants or French immigrants from years ago.

Perhaps the reason this is so significant is that these Americans may have been born in the country adopted by their parents, but they often have kept the religion they inherited from their parents. So just as Irish and Italian immigrants brought with them Catholicism, or German immigrants brought Lutheranism -- and these religions have become well integrated into society -- the fact is that now there is a deep reservoir of American-based religions from the East. American Buddhism, American Hinduism, American Islam, and so forth.

One of the most spectacular events in the history of religion happened in 1893 in Chicago. In conjunction with the World's Fair, called the Columbian Exposition, a meeting was called, for the first time in human history, of all the world's major religions. The gathering was called "The World's Parliament of Religions. It was an ambitious and astounding concept. In 1893, complex arrangements were made to bring to Chicago representatives of Buddhism, Hinduism, Jainism, Shintoism, Islam, Confucianism, and so forth. It was a fascinating assembly, a curiosity to many who under no other circumstances would have ever encountered someone from these religions. There was an exotic strangeness to these religions, and at the 1893 Chicago World's Fair it seemed almost like a midway attraction. But it wasn't. It was a serious attempt at world-wide religious dialogue. The organizers believed that bringing these religious leaders together would demonstrate how much all religions had in common. Instead, those who attended were more impressed by how diverse the religions are -- and yet each one had its own integrity.

What we are witnessing in this country is different from a gathering of world religions. What is significant is not just that the world's many religions can easily be found today in the United States. More to the point, the world's religions are becoming an integral part of the American religious landscape. It all happened very gradually, over a generation of time, but we can no longer claim that the United States is exclusively a Judeo-Christian nation.

There are, for example, nearly six million Americans who are Muslim. That means that in this country there are more Americans who practice the religion of Islam than there are Americans who are Episcopalian. Or Presbyterian. There are more than three hundred Buddhist temples in the Los Angeles area. That means that there are about four times as many Buddhist temples around Los Angeles that there are Unitarian Universalist Churches in all of California.

Ours is a patchwork of religious traditions. Countries that are predominantly Buddhist, for example, have their own brand of Buddhism -- Chinese Buddhism is different from Japanese Buddhism. Southeast Asian Buddhism is different from Tibetan Buddhism. Yet Buddhism in the United States uniquely draws from all these sources, creating (for probably the first time ever) a blending of cultural religious differences. The same is true for the varying forms of Hinduism and Islam.

It is a point of pride in education to teach our children about the great "melting pot" tradition of the United States -- that we brought together immigrants from so many different countries. The metaphor was, of course, a bit skewed because there was, by policy, a natural bias toward white European Christians. Today, our melting pot is expanding, becoming more inclusive than ever. One profound result is the increasing religious diversity around us.

Most of these religious groups, once considered to be mysterious and foreign, are increasingly part of the American culture. In 1893, at the Chicago World's Fair, representatives of the world's religions were brought over here so that we may learn about them and understand them better. Today, our task in learning about different religions is important, not because it helps us understand them; for indeed, "they" are now "us." We learn about different religions in order that we may better understand who we are as a nation.

I read earlier from Diana Eck, founder of Harvard University's Pluralism Project. In another article, she elaborated on how she decided to focus on American religious diversity as an academic study. She pinpointed it to the academic year 1989-90 when it suddenly dawned on her that the Hindu and Muslim students in her classes were not from overseas. They were Americans, born here of immigrants who were naturalized citizens.

Her realization of the broadening of the religious boundaries astounded her as she looked around the classroom, There were, she wrote:

"Muslims from Providence, Rhode Island, Hindus from Baltimore, Maryland, Sikhs from Chicago, Jains from New Jersey. They represented the emergence in America of a new cultural and religious reality.... Some had been to Muslim youth leadership camps, organized by the Islamic Society of North America. Some had been to a Hindu summer camp in the Poconos, or to a family Vedanta camp in Saylorsburg, Pennsylvania. Straddling two worlds, critically appropriating two cultures, they lived in perpetual dialogue between the distinctive cultures of their parents and grandparents and the forceful, multiple currents of American culture. In their own struggles with identity lay the very issues that were beginning to torment the soul of the United States.

"The sons and daughters of the first generation from South Asia rose at Harvard to become five percent of the undergraduate population. In the Spring of 1993, when that first class graduated, I slipped into the balcony at Memorial Church for the Baccalaureate service and sat with families of Mukesh Prasad and Maitri Chowdury. Both were the first marshals of the Harvard and Redcliffe graduating classes that year. Both were Hindu. Maitri recited a hymn from the Rig-Veda in ancient Sanskrit. It was a new Harvard. It happened in only four years."

It occurs to me that as Unitarian Universalists, we stand in a unique position with regard to this phenomenon. For one thing, our emphasis on religious freedom requires respect for the diversity of traditions that our culture is now experiencing. More importantly, though, just as this country has been and continues to be a nation of immigrants, so also our church has tended to be a religion of immigrants.

Some eighty percent of us were not raised as UUs, but come from other traditions -- Catholic, Methodist, Evangelical, Jewish, and so forth, as well as no church background at all. From this experience we have learned the value that each one has in contributing to the health of the whole. The more diverse the group, the deeper the resources for wisdom.

And so it is for our own country. We are richly blessed by having a diversity of traditions around us. Such diversity seems to have appeared suddenly without much awareness, but it is here now, and we should take full advantage of it.

There is something beyond diversity that is needed from us. As Diane Eck mentioned in the reading, there is an important difference between "diversity" and "pluralism." "Diversity" is merely the acknowledgment of the many cultures that make us who we are. "Pluralism," on the other hand, is the active encouragement of diversity, an affirmation of the value of differences. Pluralism is the point of view that says there is no one true religion to which everyone must belong. It is honoring and respecting that different peoples and different cultures not only have a right to their beliefs, but that their beliefs can in fact be right for them, even if they aren't necessarily right for everyone else.

A pluralistic society is one that willingly embraces the different religious traditions. I believe that our country has an opportunity to play an important role in the world's future. We were fortunate, at the founding of our country, to be the first major nation that adopted a democratic form of government. Ever since, our system of government has been an important model before the rest of the world. Over time, dozens of other countries have adopted their own various forms of democracy, and we should feel good about the role we played in that evolution of government.

I believe that, if we take pluralism seriously, we will have another opportunity to model another important value in a world which is aching for tolerance, a world that is becoming more interdependent. We are nearly unique in our diversity of cultures and religions and traditions, and we can aspire to show the world that diversity can be an asset, not a liability. We can model for the world a pluralism that makes society richer in value and stronger in support of each other.

I only caught brief glimpses of the memorial service for the World Trade Center victims that was held at Yankee Stadium in New York. But the pieces I saw were stunningly moving to me. Regardless of the words that were said, the images from that event were powerful: An Indian-American Hindu in a turban holding hands with an Asian-American Muslim in a prayer cap, holding hands with a Jewish-American in a yarmulka, holding hands with a African-American Muslim, all with heads bowed while a Christian says a prayer. It is a dramatic image that competes in my mind to replace the horrible picture that was stamped there on September 11.

This is the America we can aspire to become. Diversity is a fact. It is our task to make pluralism, the affirmation of diversity, a priority.

Some years ago, when the religious right was so frighteningly powerful in attempting to make this country homogenous in religion, an organization for religious liberty was created called "The Interfaith Alliance." Many perceived there was, at that time, a real threat of endangering the rights of religious minorities. The "interfaith" movement was born, joining Christians and Jews, Muslims, and Hindus, Buddhists and Sikhs and Bah'ais and all other religions of goodwill who honor the rights of all individuals and the freedoms of all religious faiths.

The Interfaith Alliance describes its concerns this way:

The Interfaith Alliance works to ensure that the religious traditions and heritage of all Americans are protected. We work toward a pluralistic society where people of all faiths -- and those who identify with no faith -- are welcome.; where no one faith receives preferential treatment and our religious diversity is celebrated. We reject the use of region as a political weapon. We work to refute the claim that the only true American outlook is to subscribe to a narrow and exclusive vision of a "Christian America".... We believe that religion is best served as a constructive and healing voice that brings us together based on our shared values."

Since its founding at the national level, hundreds of local Chapters of the Interfaith Alliance have been formed nation-wide, including here in Indianapolis. All Souls is a member of this Alliance, and I encourage any of you who share this interest to join as individuals, and become involved in its activities.

In the last few weeks, we have been learning some very important lessons about understandings across the faiths. We are learning difficult lessons about stereotyping and bigotry, and about how interdependent we are not only with religions abroad, but also with our own pluralistic religious landscape in the United States.

It is not too late to turn very difficult lessons into positive ones. The principles and values of a pluralistic society need to be on the front burner right now. This is the time to show to the world -- and especially to show to ourselves -- how interfaith understandings can make us all better people, and make America a better, and stronger, country.

Reading from Dr. Diana Eck

Professor of Comparative Religions, Harvard University

excerpted from an interview in

Bill Moyers' PBS Show "Moyers in Conversation"

Show aired September 19, 2001

We have become the most religiously diverse nation on earth. We have extensive Buddhist traditions, places like Los Angeles are now the most complex Buddhist cities in the world. We have Hindus who have come not just from India, but from Trinidad and the Caribbean. We have Muslims who have come from the Middle East and from India and Africa and Indonesia. We have this challenge in the United States to do something that has really never been done before, which is to create a multi-religious and democratic state.

About ten ears ago, I realized that my classes (at Harvard) had students from all over the world, and 47 of (these "international" students) had actually grown up in the United States -- as Hindus from San Antonio or Muslims ffrom Pittsburgh. I realized I didn't know much about the new religious diversity of the United States so I set out to find out. The program called "The Pluralism Project" was created at Harvard, using students and graduate researchers to study for three of four years just who we've become religiously.

We have a new religious landscape in this country, where there are mosques in places like Cleveland, Ohio, and Hindu temples rising in city suburbs. The "we, the people" of the United States of America has become so much more complex, and richly so. But most of us don't realize it.

We have long presumptively thought of ourselves as a Christian nation, a Judeo-Christian nation, a secular nation as well, but we have never really stepped up to the plate and said, "now in the late 20th and early 21st century, we have to take seriously the religious freedom that is part of our constitution." And religious freedom brings religious diversity. Now we have it. We have lots of it. Diversity itself is not pluralism. Pluralism requires that we engage with that diversity. We find ways to know one another because we can't live at such close quarters with one another without knowing more about one another than we do.

One of the things I've seen most positively about these recent events, if one can see any real positive thing, is the coming together in a multi-faith way to mourn, to remember, to have vigils. Almost none of the major services that I've seen has been without its Islamic, its Christian, even its Hindu and Buddhist and Sikh representation. There's a kind of manifestation of who we are religiously that is quite new. Rosh Hashana services in the last couple of days for the first time in many synagogues involved the invitation of an imam to be present with them.

Now, more than ever, we need to cultivate relationships with like-minded people in other religious traditions: Christians and Jews and Muslims and Buddhists and Sikhs, and people of no faith but of deep concern for humanity.

We need to listen to one another. I think this is a moment to listen. There are many people who are being heard now: Sikh-Americans, Muslim-Americans, even Hindu- Americans who have never had the opportunity to have their voices heard by their fellow citizens. I do think we need to listen.