Middle East Work Group

INTERFAITH RELATIONS – William G. Gepford, American-Arab Relations
“The Challenge Before Us”

On Monday, March 30th, I was invited to attend a Prayer Breakfast at the Islamic Center of America on Ford Road. It was an occasion for the “Interfaith Community” to welcome the new Archbishop of Detroit, The Most Reverend Allen H. Vigneron.

I was glad to have been invited, as a previous responsibility prevented my being present at an earlier such event. This one was well-attended. I saw many friends and quite a few representatives of the growing religious pluralism that now characterizes Detroit, not to mention our nation as a whole. It was a time, for those who had not heard him before, to hear The Archbishop’s views on what it means to think, create and develop relationships, “interreligiously.”

Of course, the Catholic Church, as all other religions in the area, will continue their traditional practices. No one would expect that to change (or would we?). And the Archbishop implied that such practices are a consequence of established beliefs about the Bible, Jesus and God. But that raises the fundamental challenge: How can we, then, talk, work and worship together without insinuating particular dogmatic claims about God?

We are challenged by the 21st Century where people of literally all religions (and cultures) “rub shoulders” in offices, schools, hospitals, athletic activities, on the production line and, yes, even in marriage. We are being confronted, literally every day of our lives, to find a way, or ways, to correlate our differences in faith, so that they do not become little “religious triumphalisms” that can lead to conflict, eventual destruction and certain death.

For the Christian community alone, as it approaches the moment of Pentecost, we must take seriously the fact that God has been experienced in many languages. The Spirit of God has descended upon all flesh (Acts 2:1-13). Although it happened at one particular place, it was a universal revelation (pluralistic) that transcended the particularity of time and place.

Our striving, therefore, cannot be one of superiority over others, but of humility with others. Among the many religions and many religious people in the world, no single faith community has a uniformly good or bad record in human affairs. Each religion offers a “mixed bag” when measured in terms of how well people are enabled to live more justly, humanely, and trustingly before God.

I am convinced that the poison of militant extremism (and this can be of both the verbal as well as the physical kind) can be neutralized. My experience leads me to the conviction that the practice of love, (as I believe Jesus taught), not the defense of doctrine, is the primary challenge for Christians in today’s world.

Let us hope that the coming of Archbishop Allen Vigneron will be the harbinger of a new vision that also has to do with God’s ongoing relationship with others beyond Israel and the church.