By Janis Siegel, JTNews Correspondent
On July 19, a crowd, composed largely of aging baby boomers, filled the Interfaith Community Church in Seattle’s Ballard neighborhood to hear Rabbi Ted Falcon of Bet Alef Meditative Synagogue, retired pastor Don Mackenzie, and Muslim Sufi minister Sheikh Jamal Rahman discuss their new book, Getting to the Heart of Interfaith: The Eye-Opening, Hope-Filled Friendship of a Pastor, a Rabbi, and a Sheikh (SkyLight Paths Publishing, 2009).
This Seattle-area spiritual — and now literary — “band of brothers” hopes that if people learn about other’s beliefs, they may feel less threatened by them.
“We will survive only if we learn to treat ourselves, our neighbors, and our planet with greater wisdom, compassion, and caring,” they write in the introduction. “We will survive only if we learn to replace the current climate of fragmentation, suspicion, and self-interest that has our planet warming, countries warring, and loving relationships waning — with more hopeful visions.”
The book is dedicated to Father William Treacy and Rabbi Raphael Levine, who worked together on an interfaith television program that was developed by Levine and aired for 15 seasons on KOMO-TV in Seattle.
It took the three men five years to write the book.
In that time they’ve developed a practice they call “inclusive spirituality.” After a short meditation and an invocation given by Sheikh Rahman with an Islamic prayer, the three spiritual leaders got down to the business of their message — promoting greater unity and understanding between the three monotheistic religions.
In Getting to the Heart of Interfaith, they prescribe five steps that individuals and communities can take to overcome the distance between religions and cultures. They include “moving beyond separation and suspicion, inquiring more deeply, sharing both the easy and the difficult parts, moving beyond safe territory, and exploring spiritual practices from other traditions.”
Each had an epiphany of sorts after a trip they took together to Israel in November 2005 that dramatically altered their worldviews.
Mackenzie had not been back to the region since he lived in Lebanon, with his wife, from 1966 through 1967, until they were evacuated during the Six-Day War.
As his memories of a people he grew to love came flooding back, he hoped he would find a land full of peace and safety, but he knew differently in his heart.
He began to develop a more pronounced compassion for Israel and the plight of the Jews.
“Israel aspires to be the safe haven for Jews who have suffered indignities and violence because of the Christian repudiation of Judaism, the conviction that Jews have not seen the true light of Christianity,” wrote Mackenzie. “The anti-Judaism, expressed most dramatically in the Crusades, the Inquisition, and the Holocaust, has resulted in human suffering that cannot be measured, cannot be imagined by Christians, and violates the very essence of the message of Jesus.”
Mackenzie is hoping Christians will face their role in the Middle East conflict with more honesty.
“I don’t think Christians understand,” Mackenzie told JTNews. “Reconciliation is not possible until you name the truth.”
To transform the intransigent and chaotic conflict in Israel and the disputed territories, it will require a change in the Islamic world’s perceptions, Rahman told the crowd.
Rahman, an Islamic Sufi scholar originally from Bangladesh, had a very different experience as the plane approached Ben Gurion International Airport. After all, his friends warned him that Israel might not be the best vacation destination.
“I was scared, actually,” said Rahman. “To an average Muslim, all of America and all of the entire military might of America is there. These are big perceptions.”
Rahman said he was pulled out of line at the airport and questioned extensively about his business there after he told the young female soldier he was a Muslim. However, she displayed a visible change of heart, he said, when he explained the Amigos’ mission.
“Interfaith — very good,” the screener said to him repeatedly, with an attitude shift that struck him.
From the Wailing Wall to the Dome of the Rock, Rahman said he saw many people showing love and devotion through their faith practice.
“The condition in the Holy Land is a reflection of what is in our own hearts,” he said.
Having been to Israel several times before, Falcon saw Israel through different eyes this time, as he traveled with his ecumenical partners.
“On this interfaith trip, we visited more Christian sites then I’ve ever seen before,” Falcon told the crowd.
His experience in one of the most famous Christian sites, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, convinced him that everyone needs to drop their sense of “possession” when it comes to religious places.
“Inside the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, different groups of Christians have laid claim to different parts of the space,” said Falcon. “This huge building has been Balkanized.”
He mused that the keys to the church ultimately had to be handed over to a Muslim family.
“They became focused on their own survival and their own expansion,” added Falcon. “The forms we create to support us in meeting the sacred become more important than meeting the sacred.”