Learning to Listen on the National Day of Prayer

Today is the officially observed National Day of Prayer in the U.S.

I was raised in the Evangelical United Brethren Church in the 1950s and early 60s. I don't remember much about the efforts that were made to teach me and other children how to pray. But, what I do remember is that I was taught how to talk AT G!D [this is the way Jewish Renewal folks use the name of the Almighty]. No one taught me how to LISTEN.

Listening is a critically important part of prayer no matter what our religious affiliation.

But what does it mean to listen during prayer? It certainly means more than just using our ears to hear a voice out of thin air.

It seems clear to me that in Christian scriptures, the Jewish Bible and other sacred books, God "speaks" to people through dreams, coincidences, synchronicities, events, books, films, and a whole range of natural phenomena.

We just need to learn to pay attention and to try decipher (perhaps with the aid of a spiritual advisor) what G!D's expressions mean.

There will be good news and bad, invitations, jokes, and certainly warnings.

If nothing else, we need to pay attention to the warnings, to the "writing on the wall" about the need to eliminate nuclear weapons, get the homeless off our streets, feed the hungry and stop poisoning our environment.

As surfers say in their charmingly Quixotic language, "We don't need a swami to tell us we're about to go over a cliff."

Cinco de Mayo and its Broader Significance

Today is a holiday celebrated in Mexico and other parts of the world as Cico de Mayo (the 5th of May). It is a holiday that has come to have two meanings. There is a link at the end of this e-mail to more information about Cinco de Mayo.

The original significance of this date was the observance of the anniversary of a day in the 1800s when a Mexican army defeated a French army of far superior numbers. In the US and other parts of the world (including Mexico) more and more people observe this holiday as a celebration of Mexican, and I would say Latin American, culture.

I wish we would do more of this, finding ways of associating holidays with spiritualy uplifting ideas.

A few years ago my peacemaker friend, Jim Douglass, reminded us that even though September 11th will forever be associated with the terrorist attacks on the US in 2001, there is another important event associated with that date.

On September 11th, 1906, Mahatma Gandhi launched his first non-violent campaign in South Africa.

I think a beautiful way of honoring those who died on September 11, 2001, is to remind ourselves of the Gandhi event and the call to find non-violent ways to resolve our differences.

Here's a link to more information about Cinco de Mayo:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinco_de_Mayo

Shopping for Fatwahs

The Grand Mufti of Egypt

The notion of Fatwahs caught my attention this morning as I was driving in to work. I was listening to Morning Edition on NPR.

I heard an interview with Neil MacFarquhar, long time Middle East Correspondent for The New York Times. He spent much time observing the customs Arabs and Israelis. He describes some of them in his new book, The Media Relations Department of Hizbollah Wishes You a Happy Birthday. A link to the interview appears below.

During the interview the author talks about the notion of "shopping for Fatwahs." On my trip to Egypt and Syria last year I learned the actual meaning of the word, Fatwah. It was explained to me by the Grand Mufti of Egypt who has responsibility for the religious/judicial system in his country.

Fatwahs are religious/judicial opinions offered in answer to questions raised by ordinary Muslims about daily problems they encounter, especially family and business issues. Most of us know the concept of Fatwah from the 1980s. Back then Ayatollah Khomeini issued a fatwah against author Salman Rushdie calling for him to be killed for writing the book, The Satanic Verses. Most Fatwahs are fairly mundane.

In the interview tells a humorous story about a young couple in the Middle East who were not married and were planning to drive to Mecca together for Hajj. General Islamic practice in the Middle East prohibits unmarried men and women from traveling together alone in the same car. The young man sought a Fatwah about this issue and was told that it was forbidden to travel together. His woman partner then pointed out that they had an agreement to travel together and split the cost of the journey, so that he should pay her to cover his half of their planned trip and then find his own way to Mecca. As the cost of this would be considerable, the young man sought other fatwas until he found a sheik who told him it was ok to travel together.

Not surprisingly, I know similar stories from Western religion: Catholics seeking out priests to hear their confessions who they know will give them easy penances; protestants who want an answer to a religious question who look around for clergy they know will be sympathetic.

I guess that this tendency to find a way to fit the rules to our needs is universal!


Here's the link to the interview:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=103769811

America's Most Popular Poet:Rumi

This last Sunday the public radio program called "Speaking of Faith" re-broadcast a program for which it won a national award. The program concerned the Medieval Sufi poetry of Rumi, a wonderful mystic who the American poet and translator, Coleman Barks, has managed to make the best-selling poet of any kind in the United States.

This particular radio program features an interview with scholar Fatemeh Keshavarz, who IPP brought to Louisville last fall for programs at The Temple and at Unity Church . Both events were made possible by Interfaith Paths to Peace board member Haleh Karimi.

The poetry of Rumi explores the relationship of humans to God (Allah, or G!d) with a love that approaches the intensity of romantic ardour in its devotion.

Fatemeh Keshavarz's insights are remarkable, and the poetry reciting during the program in its original Persian is truly beautiful

Here are a few words from "Speaking of Faith" about the program. A link to the program itself appears below.

The Ecstatic Faith of Rumi The 13th-century Muslim mystic and poet Rumi has long shaped Muslims around the world and has now become popular in the West. Rumi created a new language of love within the Islamic mystical tradition of Sufism. We hear his poetry as we delve into his world and listen for its echoes in our own.

http://speakingoffaith.publicradio.org/programs/2009/rumi/

Must See Interfaith Film: "Pray the Devil Back to Hell"

Yesterday my friend John called to urge me to dash out and see a movie that he thought illustrated exactly what Interfaith Paths to Peace and its mission are about. So, I went to see it last night.

He was right.

The film is called "Pray the Devil Back to Hell." It's a documentary about how Muslim and Christian women in Liberia band together to stop a civil war ravaging that West African country during the middle part of this decade.

The women use every tool they can think of from withholding sex from their husbands to surrounding and barracading negotiators in a building at a stalled peacemaking conference until they bring peace to Liberia.

The film illustrates how seemingly powerless people can move mountains when they work together and show imagination, creativity and steadfastness of purpose.

The film is currently showing in Louisville at the Village 8 Theaters. It may only screen in Louisville for a few days. So, go see it if you can.

Here are details about the local screening. A link to the film's web site is at the end of this e-mail.

Pray the Devil Back to Hell

No Rating
Length: 72 min
Plotline Summary
"Pray the Devil Back to Hell" is the gripping account of a group of brave women who demanded peace for Liberia, a nation torn to shreds by a decades-long civil war. The women's historic achievement finds its voice in a narrative that intersperses interviews, archival images, and scenes of present-day Liberia together to recount the memories of a few of the women who were there. In 2003, Liberia was a country devastated by decades of political dislocation, humanitarian crisis, and street-to-street urban warfare. Charles Taylor, then President of Liberia, had emptied the country's pockets as creatively as any dictator in memory. His ascent to power led to the deaths of thousands of people and a nation in complete ruin. Out of the wreckage, more than 2000 Christian and Muslim women throughout the country began to organize and banded together in an effort to bring an end to the fighting. At great person risk, they protested creatively and persistently for peace in the worst days of brutal and protracted civil conflict.

MOVIE TIMES FOR:
Wed 29
Thu 30
Fri 1
Village 8 Cinema
(1:25 PM), (3:20), (5:35), 7:50 PM

Here's a link to more information about the film:

http://www.praythedevilbacktohell.com/v3/

What We Think of as a Religious Experience

I was having lunch today with my friend Melissa Bernstrum when I was moved to ponder what we think of as a "religious" experience.

Since we hadn't talked in a long time, we were catching up on things. Melissa told me that other than news of family and work the thing that was most on her mind was Tai Chi (an ancient Chinese form of what I would call movement meditation). Melissa practices (and teaches) Tai Chi several times a week.

(if you live in Louisville and would like to experience Tai Chi, there is a free offering from 5:30 to 7 p.m. Mondays and Wednesdays featuring Tai Chi master, Baba Serikali, at the Public Health Building at Preston and Gray)

She waxed enthusiastic about this meditation and said, "For me it's almost a religious experience."

I looked at her for a moment and said, "Melissa, from the sound of joy in your voice, I would say tht it IS a religious experience for you.

That just draws my attention to the fact that for some odd reason we don't think of things that connect us most deeply to our spiritual selves as "religious experiences." But they are.

Easter is a time to be especially mindful of our Jewish friends

Last night I took part in a Seder dinner marking the beginning of Passover for Jews.

Earlier in the day, I read an opinion piece in the Louisville Courier-Journal by Rev. Joe Phelps of Highland Baptist Church. In his article Joe talks about how some Christian groups are trying to surreptitiously present a Seder meal replete with Christian symbols as an authentic Jewish Seder.

This is unfortunate and dangerous.

Here's what Joe has to say:

. . . Healing in the holidays

By Joe Phelps
Special to The Courier-Journal

My friend Mark sent me an article last week describing a newly published book on Passover, innocuously titled Passover Family Pack: Everything You Need To Enjoy a Passover Seder Dinner. Problem is: it's a Christian book that "Christianizes" the various Passover symbols (the wine represents the blood of Jesus; the matzo represents his body; the three matzot represent the Christian Holy Trinity ... you get the idea). Unsuspecting Jews, beware.

Mark, who is Jewish, sends articles like this occasionally as a way to assure me that he's not a paranoid wack job when he speaks of being fearful of Christians targeting his faith tradition for takeover or annihilation, or when he says that the Easter season is his most dreaded time of year because "we'll get blamed for killing Christ all over again."

Mark is my soul brother. Though we come from different faiths, we share a faith nonetheless.

So I feel compelled at the outset of Christians' Holy Week to state the obvious: Using the death of Jesus to fuel anti-Semitism is flat wrong, perhaps even evil. "The Jews," as John's gospel calls Jesus' adversaries, refers to a certain segment of the religious leadership more worried about control than they were the ways of God. "The Jews" are not all Jews. Besides, Jesus (a Jew) made it clear that the mission of His followers was to love, forgive, reconcile. So to stir up anger against Jewish people today or to scapegoat all Jews in history is a bastardization of the central message of Christianity's leader.

Here's a link to the full article by Rev. Phelps.

http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2009904080448

My Jewish friends from time to time remind me that Judaism and Christianity are two separate religions. There is really no such thing as "Judeo-Christian." Jews have their own theology, beliefs and practices. Christians may see the roots of their beliefs in Judaism, but Christians should respect and honor our Jewish brothers and sisters for who they are.

So I call on all of my Christian friends to have a blessed Easter, but to at the same time honor our Jewish friends as they observe the powerful Jewish observance of Passover.