The United Religions Initiative (URI) Finding our Common Humanity Dialog was conducted September - November 2009 using a previous version of InterMix.  Results were excellent, but participation fell off significantly between the first and second rounds.  In the first round 26 messages were written and voted on to elect a single message from all participants.  In the second round 15 messags were written and voted on by four sub-groups representing Christianity, Islam, Judaism and Other Faiths.  Here are those good results. 

Round one - Unity Round

URI selection: Embracing our Common Humanity by Jared Kass

I am a Professor of Psychology.  I have been been teaching for over thirty years about spirituality as a resource for peace.  My students come from a broad range of religious backgrounds, including Protestants, Catholic, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, and Jews -- as well as others with Nature-based, and Goddess-based perspectives on spirituality.  Through this work, I have learned important lessons about how to help students embrace our common humanity.

First, before entering any difficult areas of conversation, we get to know each other as people.  We share biographical material that helps each student emerge as a living human being.  To learn a few facts about each other's families and life struggles reveals our common humanity.  On this level, our hopes and aspirations are very similar.

Second, we allow ourselves to examine the dark side of religion: how we have been wounded by religions -- whether our religion of birth, or a religion that has been in conflict with our own.  It is painful to bear witness to these stories, but this is a major part of our common humanity: the terrible mistakes that our religions have made, in the name of service to God.

Third, we learn about the maturational goals of each religion, and the wonderful practices of prayer that each tradition has developed.  As we sing each other's prayers, we experience spiritual bonds.
 
Fourth, we examine our conflict resolution skills: how we usually handle conflict with others.  This activity personalizes as issue that most people avoid -- which is one major reason that inter-cultural conflicts are often handled so poorly.  We have not prepared ourselves for this inevitable aspect of human experience.

My work as a teacher has helped to transform my identity as a Jewish person.  I am highly aware of the oppression that Jews have experienced.  But I am also aware that Jews have caused suffering.  This is true of each religion.  I no longer need to idealize my own religion, or anyone else's.  Rather, I look for mature people within each religion, as allies in the effort to teach all of our traditions to become congruent with our shared ideals.

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Round two - Diversity Round

Christian selection: My Faith Witness - by Naseem George

I am a woman social worker, rooted in Christianity. I worked as a human rights activist and promoter of peace and justice for last 25 years. My commitment has been for non-violence and peace on the bases of justice. This has been a very difficult choice in order to bring change in the society. As a woman living under an Islamic law and in the patriarchal society, has convinced me to remain peaceful and struggle for a change in the society by joining hands with other women activists. So that, women may gain recognition as full human beings with respect and dignity. God created man and a woman in His/Her own image and not a woman to be half of that of a man in worth and dignity.

As a Christian woman, I would like to communicate from my faith that God is love and that love is  manifested in human beings without any discrimination. For God, all human beings are equal with their womanly/manly qualities. God has put me in a special context where there is lack of tolerance, where majority of the people feel that their religion is superior than all the others around, where terror and insecurity of life prevails. Where few militants rule life of the majority of good will, where militants determine religious values according to their personal perspective. I believe that God has a purpose for putting me in such a context. God's compassion compels me to live that God wants, "What I want is mercy, not sacrifice." (Matt. 9:13,) May God's mercy prevail on earth today and always.

 The peace initiative stimulated me to established Civil Society CC in Multan and since I have shifted to Sargodha, I have established Seeds of Peace CC and am still working actively for the URI. I have worked as Peace and Justice Promoter for the Dominicans in Asia/Pacific Region. As a Justice and Peace worker and a Christian woman activist, I have represented the Church of Pakistan with in and outside of the country. This connectedness with others is my greatest motivation. The God's grace has kept me faithful and moving on for the truth. The TRUTH that sets us free. In response to that I try my best to witness God of love and compassion.

Naseem George

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Jewish Selection: Embracing our Common Humanity - by Jared Kass

Jewish spirituality has been a central part of my life for more than five decades.  When I am sad or distraught, the haunting melodies of Jewish prayer -- which I learned as a young man from a beloved cantor -- nurture my spirit and help me find inner peace.  When I compare myself to others, and envy their attainments, the precept thou shall not covet helps me remain cognizant that my life, too, is filled with riches.  When anger has erupted between me and those I love, the words of Hillel -- What is hateful to you, do not to others -- prevent my "self-protective hostility" from escalating the conflict; and help me diminish my anger through empathy-building dialogue.  When I observe systemic social forces that bestow undue privilege and power on some, while disenfranchising others, I know my responsibility, taught by the prophets, to advocate social justice.

From conversations with my Muslim and Christian friends and colleagues, I know that their spiritual traditions provide them with the same inner peace, conflict-resolution skills, and ethical imperatives.  But we have not learned to apply these same skills with sufficient depth in our interfaith relationships and tensions.  It is time for us -- Jews, Muslims, and Christians -- to understand each other's traumatic historical narratives, to support the preservation of each group's identity and dignity, and to build a culture of peace, rather than reacting impulsively and destructively to the grievances we feel.

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Muslim selection: Embracing our Common Humanity - by Jahan Stanizai

"our unity is our strength and our diversity is our wealth" a quotation from the EU, President. Let's keep that in mind to embrace our common humanity.

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Other Faiths Selection: Embracing our Common Humanity - by Utul Sawani

Dear Friends at URI,

Thank you very much for this opportunity to participate in the dialogue.

It seems to me that we have to look very attentively at the long millennia of our history of the horrible bloody conflicts between religions and even between the sects of the same religion. Not infrequently, the rulers have used religion as a pretext for slaughter and loot.

If we do that, it will become crystal clear that in order to find our common humanity, we shall have to make determined effort to get rid of this trait of animosity, hatred and cruelty perpetrated in the name of religion. Only in that way we shall be able to march confidently toward the full blooming of civilization. In short:discard religious animosity - find common humanity.

Atul Sawani

(Retired journalist and translator)

21.11.09
 

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