Inter-religious Dialogue

Yesterday in Chapter, my brothers invited as many representatives of different faiths that they could. We all sat down together to get to understand and know each other better.

Right off the bat, our facilitator let us know that our feelings might be hurt. In fact, she said, "Expect to get your toes stepped on." Speaking in groups like this is like dancing with a stranger. You want to dance but you're unsure and may accidentally step on your partner's toes. It's not done on purpose. Remember that.

Naturally, we began with prayer. We prayed 12 prayers for peace, each taken from different spiritualities. Then there was silence as we looked at each other appraisingly. We were invited to ask questions.

Bam.

Immediately, the first question was hurled to the Wiccans. It was a question as to the relationship between Satanism and Wicca. Their spokesperson was the high Wiccan priest. He did an excellent job explaining the difference. He also volleyed questions back, but they were more rhetorical and no one took him up on it. There were a lot of questions about Wiccan symbols and Satanic symbols. I finally got that straight; they both use pentagrams, but Wicca has the point up and Satanists have the horns up and point down. Also, it's the Satanists who use the upside down cross. Wiccans are really pagans.

I thought we'd use up all the time with them until there were questions to the Muslims. They were on the defensive. A lot of questions were about the extremist fundamental terrorists. The media makes it look like the majority, but they are not. Their Imam was their spokesperson. He made the religion seem very peaceful.

Actually, all the time was almost used up until someone asked the Buddhist about their stand on war. Is it ever just? The answer was "in self defense." This led to questions about the Dalai Lama and Tibet.

We were almost out of time when a Pentecostal Evangelical asked the Catholics why they distinguish between Catholic Christians and Christians. I was trying to think of an answer when a couple of Catholic converts immediately answered. That's not surprising if you think that they've answered this question in their own minds in their discernments over whether to convert or not. They had ready made answers.

There just wasn't enough time. Every one left saying that they couldn't wait for Part II.

God is great! Allahu Akbar! Alleluia!