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Tuesday, February 10, 2009
By HOLLY KOZELSKY - Bulletin Staff Writer
Representatives of Islam, Christianity and Judaism gathered Monday to discuss religion and answer questions from an audience of about 35 people.
“Toward a More Perfect Union: An Interfaith Dialogue on Religious Freedom as an American Heritage” was presented Monday morning at Patrick Henry Community College.
The event was sponsored by the Scholar’s Chair, a television program that features discussions on faith, science and philosophy.
“Men are guided by the Holy Quran to regard all religions as sacred,” said Khalil Shadeed, producer of the Scholar’s Chair and president of Read1 Communications, as he gave an opening address. He talked about religious freedom being guaranteed in the U.S. Constitution.
The moderator was Dr. Montenique L. Finney, a Christian education counselor with Life Force Counseling Center. Panelists were Rabbi Beth Socol of Ohev Zion Synagogue of Martinsville on Judaism; Quaker Pastor David Wolfe and the Rev. David Adkins of Starling Avenue Baptist Church in Martinsville on Christianity; and Imam James Shabazz of the Martinsville Center of Al-Islam on Islam. The Rev. Lynn Bechdolt, pastor of Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, gave the closing remarks.
Talking about Jews considering themselves the chosen people of God, Socol said, “This chosenness does not mean we are better than other peoples but that we are obligated to lead an ethical life” to inspire others.
“We are the classic example of ‘You don’t have to be wrong for me to be right,’” she added.
Only two-tenths of one percent of the world’s population is Jewish, Socol said, and 80 percent of Jews live in the United States and Israel.
Wolfe asserted that religious tolerance is only the beginning.
“Freedom comes and is asserted at its best when we move beyond just tolerating somebody” to learning from others, he said.
Wolfe said his recent experience living in Iran taught him a new perspective on religion, both his own and that of others. “To explain to someone with no knowledge ... of the Trinity made me dig really deep” into his own religious understanding, Wolfe said.
People of different religions “are just starting to trust each other, and I hope we can continue that,” he said.
Shabazz said that although it is good that America has grown beyond being just a Christian nation to being “now a Judaic-Christian-Islam society, ... still that is wrong.” Other religions should not be ignored or overlooked, he said. “America is a work in progress.”
“When we speak of freedom, it is free dome,” Shabazz said, touching his head. “Free the dome” — the mind.
Maintaining peaceful relations among different religions is “tricky because religion has been recognized as one of the forces that brings a country together and brings it unity,” Adkins said. When there are many religions, a country has to look to other sources of identity.
He touched on struggles different religious groups have been though to practice in peace. “It’s easiest to advocate religious liberty when you’re the minority that needs it,” Adkins added, to the applause of the crowd. He then gave examples of religious groups that gained freedom to worship only to deny that freedom to other groups.
Adkins said that the second story in the Bible (after Adam and Eve) was of religious warring: Adam and Eve’s sons, Cain and Abel, “built two (altars), not one. Because Cain didn’t like the way God smiled on Abel’s (altar), he killed him.”
Bechdolt said, “To me it’s really basic. It’s not about big ideas. It’s about being neighbors together. ... If you have compassion in this world, you will answer your neighbor. That’s really all that makes a difference.”
Following their addresses was a question-and-answer session. The audience seemed tense when one man challenged religions that do not accept the precepts of the New Testament. Thumping a Bible, he boomed, “What about the part that says, ‘I am the Way, the Truth and the Light?”
Bechdolt said, “We need to look at the passions of the man (Christ) and his love for the entire world. ‘For God so loved the world,’ not just a few folks.”
“One of the things that brings us all together is the fact that we all have sacred texts,” Socol said. “There are one or two things that separate us. You are quoting from a text that is in your religion, not in our religion. It is difficult for us to answer because it simply is not in our texts.”
The man continued with other questions and comments. Shadeed took the podium to say, “Religion gets people excited. We want to make the questions concise” so more people are able to ask and have their questions answered.
Several other members of the audience posed questions that were answered briefly.
The Rev. Thomas Penn, associate pastor of New Bethel Christian Church, gave an opening prayer, and the Rev. Mable Finney, pastor of New Bethel, gave a closing prayer.
More information on the Scholar’s Chair is available at www.scholarschair.com. Thirty-five programs can be viewed on the site, including a January 2007 interfaith dialogue held in Martinsville with Shabazz and Bechdolt. |
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