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this page Inter Faith in Action - Perspectives
Inter Faith Dialogue and Mission A perspective from the USA
Jolinda Matthews works at the University of Kansas in Ecumenical Christian Ministries and has also been actively involved with the World Student Christian Federation over the past eleven years.
National Context
Mythology of the founding of the United States is being rewritten in some ways to be one of the founding of the United States as a Christian Nation and not as a nation where freedom of religion is paramount. Examples include: Arguments around a Ten Commandments monument that was placed in a court building in Alabama by a judge. Lawsuits ensued to try and have the monument taken away because of the symbolism of the Ten Commandments. The judge wanted to emphasise the Christian foundation of the decision making in his courtroom. The law ruled that the monument should be removed although over a hundred Christians assembled to protest and pray that the monument might remain. Recently Court cases have been brought concerning the national pledge of allegiance requesting that the words 'under God' be removed from it as some students feel that being asked to say these words infringes on their rights. The term was only added in 1954 in response to Communism. At the same time there has been a call that there be a Constitutional Amendment to rewrite the pledge so that 'under God' is retained. In Kansas within the last eighteen months evolution was taken out of the science syllabus and replaced with creation although this has since been revoked.
The current administration in Washington, both the President and the Vice-President, hold a Christian belief that by God and by history the United States has come to have a role of spreading Christian idealism in democracy. Also the largest and fastest growing Christian groups are non-denominational and fundamentalist. The main line denominations are not growing in such large numbers. These fast growing groups present Christianity as 'The Way' with little room for other faiths to be part of the dialogue.
Local Context
Events of September 11th 2001 brought out a lot of violence against Muslims throughout the United States. The local campus ministry declared itself a safe space as of September 12th 2001, so that anyone who felt they had been harassed or felt unsafe could come to the ministries' building for assistance. Surprisingly fourteen students turned up saying they had been harassed in the first twenty-four hours and that they wanted to return to their home countries, abandoning their studies. The Campus Ministry offered support and responded to requests from Muslim students for a broader dialogue even though their Mosque had been apprehensive. The dialogue continues, it is not just Muslim Christian dialogue but includes other faith groups.
Dialogue
At a local, state and national, level their continue to be dialogues between different faith groups, Christian Muslim, Christian Jewish, Jewish Muslim - all feel that they are being 'watched', and individuals that they are restricted by concerns not to appear to want to convert or to give away 'secrets' of the faith they represent. These are often a Christian led initiative, which brings its own limitations.
The Episcopal Church
Nationally for the Episcopal Church, Inter Faith work is a part of the Ecumenical Office. The Ecumenical Office was charged with taking on this work in1999. The Inter Faith Office works with a number of organisations including:- The National Council of Churches, which has its own Inter Faith Relations and Inter Faith Office, also The Council for a Parliament of World Religions, (The Inter Religious Council of Central New York works through this office) The United Religion Initiative, The United States Conference of Religions and Peace, The World Conference on Religion and Peace, a number of Jewish Christian dialogues around The National Conference for Community Justice, The Council of Synods on Jewish Christian Relations. Around Muslim dialogue the Episcopal Church works with three organisations:- The Islamic Circle of North America, The Islamic Society of North America, and The Muslim American and Society, as well as its role with NIFCON.
A major new initiative to come out of the Ecumenical Office post September 11th is the Inter Faith Education Initiative, a joint project with the Episcopal Relief and Development Chairs. Responses to September 11th (fear anger, and suspicion) revealed how misinformed many Americans are about the belief and practices of other religions. The Inter Faith web site outlines the basics of the faith of sixteen world religions and general guidelines. Educational events have also been held in the New York City area as well as seminars and resources for the National Church to do work around education on Inter Faith issues.
It has been recognised that there is too much work for one person to hold both the Ecumenical and the Inter Faith brief. There is an initiative by The General Convention was to make a full time position of an Associate Deputy for Inter Faith Relations. This role will be developed and the goal is to have a person in post by 2006. Although the goal is a long time off the commitment is to make this a permanent post.
Concerns
Those involved in both Ecumenical and Inter Faith work are ageing, young people are by and large not engaged in these dialogues. On the National Council of Churches there are few young people. There is a concern that work will not be continued beyond the current generation.
The move to the establishment of a Christian Nation as outlined at the beginning is alarming. A threat to the freedom of people to practice religion other than Christianity is also a threat to the freedom to practice Christianity in an authentic way.
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