Giving Thanks for Multi-Faith Friendships
I was
talking with two dear friends the other evening after our annual Troy-area
Interfaith Group Thanksgiving Celebration. I am a white Christian pastor. My
two friends are immigrants, Amin is a Muslim man who grew up in Pakistan, while
Padma is a Hindu woman who was born in India. I have worked closely with both
over the past ten plus years in interfaith efforts, and in the course of this
work, we have become close friends. Both Padma and Amin have been a blessing to
me, and it took a move from California to Michigan for friendships like this to
be forged. Therefore, as we approach Thanksgiving at a time when nativism and
anti-immigrant sentiment are running high, I want to celebrate their presence
in my life (and not just Padma and Amin, but the many people I’ve come to know over
these past ten years in Michigan). This face of our nation, which some feel the
need to resist, often in the name of Christianity, was recently pictured on the
cover of Time Magazine. The picture is an updating of the famed
Norman Rockwell painting of Franklin Roosevelt’s “Freedom of Worship” emphasis (compare the two pictures to see how things have changed). The image on the cover is powerful, and a reminder of who we are as a nation, when at our best.
I wish
I could say that I’ve had friendships like this my entire life, but it simply
isn’t the case. Growing up in Oregon I experienced little religious diversity.
We were Protestant, Catholic, and maybe Latter-Day Saint. I didn’t know any
Jews, Muslims, Hindus, or Buddhists. I know that some in the community practiced
Native American religions, but I didn’t encounter these practices in any
substantial way. When I went to college in Eugene, there may have been
religious diversity at the university across the street from where I studied,
but it didn’t impact me in any real way. I remember walking by the Sri Chimnoy house and encountering a few
Hare Krishna devotees, and of course there were the “Moonies” who had a small presence.
Still, I didn’t have any real life-changing encounters with people of another
faith tradition. It really wasn’t until I moved to Santa Barbara at the age of
40 that I first began to expand my horizons. In Santa Barbara, most of my
interfaith relationships were with Jews, and I made some wonderful friendships
with members of the Jewish community. These friendships included my friendship
with Arthur, a rabbi with whom I was able to collaborate on a number of
projects. Then, sometime before 9-11, I began to have a few contacts with the
Muslim community. After 9-11 those contacts grew stronger. Then we moved here
to Troy, and I got involved with the relatively new Troy Interfaith Group. Life
has never been the same.
In our
conversation the other evening, Amin made an important point. Our friendships
haven’t undermined our devotion to our differing traditions. Instead, they have
strengthened them. I’ve become stronger in my faith, as have they. There is no need to
fear such encounters. Immigration may broaden the variety of religious
practices in our country (along with broadening our ethnic and racial make-up),
but that is not a bad thing. It is an enriching them. I realize that the
opportunities I have had in recent years to build relationships across religious
traditions isn’t available in the same way to everyone. I live in a community
that is about a third immigrant-born, with a large Asian community. That affords
me more access. But on this Thanksgiving Eve, I want to invite others to take
advantage of every opportunity to build relationships across faith lines, like the ones with Amin, Padma, and Arthur, which have blessed my life. You
will be blessed, as have I! And our nation will be better for it!
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