Documenti di Didattica
Documenti di Professioni
Documenti di Cultura
the event can give the impression that it is sponsored by city government.
The event may have been intended to be a multi-faith event, but it certainly
beginning of the program, Rabbi Yitzhak was invited to read Psalm 46, a
psalm of reassurance. Though the world may quake and feel wobbly, surely
Following Rabbi Yitzhak, the next speaker, a Catholic nun, read from
the book of John. She read verses in which Jesus is quoted as saying that
famous line, “No one comes to the Father except through me.” After she
spoke, the keynote speaker, Adolph Coors IV, took the podium to share the
father was senselessly murdered when he was only a 14-year-old boy, and
1
much of Adolph’s young adult life was a fruitless search for spiritual
gratification through the kinds of means that many of us have learned are,
changing car accident. During his recovery – just at a time when he was
considering leaving his wife and young son in pursuit of yet another false
that only belief in Jesus as God’s son who died for all of humanity’s sins can
grant people eternal life in heaven. He was very clear. He said that there are
not many ways to be in good relationship with the Creator of the Universe –
only one way, his way. He repeated this message passionately, and then
asked everyone in the room to bow their heads in prayer with him, at which
prayer I could not share, Rabbi Yitzhak and I were among only a few people
with their heads held erect. It was a strange feeling. I felt incredibly small
2
and invisible. I felt like the guy in the movies who everybody in town thinks
is guilty of some crime, while only he and God know that he is innocent.
This was an extremely painful experience, and the pain Rabbi Yitzhak
and I felt was not lost on some of the Christian clergy who were there. We
priest, from former Eugene mayor Jeff Miller (himself a minister), and from
others as well.
perhaps worst of all, a feeling of profound separation from the people who
my core spiritual beliefs. And yet, these thoughts flooded me. I heard my
mind ranting:
3
not my people, and they want to remake America
superiority.
Listen to me. Listen to these thoughts. They sprang out of anger, out
4
spiritually disrespected and misunderstood. The feelings were normal, and
indeed, what happened was wrong and very hurtful. And yet, if the feelings
completely, to think of them as the ultimate Other, to even hate them (God
forbid!) – then I have not found a way to avoid the pitfalls of anger.
Because the truth is – the truth that I place my trust in – is that all of
our religious communities are flawed vessels for the divine. All of our
flawed and do harm in some ways, and all of our communities hold sacred
pieces of the cosmic puzzle. All of our communities – all of the people on
this planet down to a person – hold pieces of the puzzle we collectively need
to put together in order to create the great tikkun, the great repair and human
5
spiritual gifts of religious groups that I feel the most threatened by, but when
For example, although I don’t share their beliefs about Jesus being the
and secular progressives talk a good talk, but fail to show up in large
wife, Melissa, worked for a prison reform organization in that city, and
through her I, too, came to visit inmates in prisons. Guess who shows up in
Christians show up. I saw it again, most recently, while Melissa and I were
taking classes for prospective foster and adoptive parents through the state’s
and clearly prioritizing the needs of these unwanted kids over their own
powerful, passionate way of faith that gives people the courage to act on the
could even see evidence of the genuine spiritual gifts present in Evangelical
6
Christianity in Adolph Coors’ speech. For instance, one of the
him talk about the spiritual risk he took when he decided to find the man
who had murdered his father when he was just a boy of fourteen and seek to
reconcile with him. Adolph located him in prison and began visiting him
So there is real value there – there are spiritual talents and gifts in
Evangelical Christianity. And so there also are spiritual talents and gifts
present in every other faith community in the world. The beauty of having
the gifts distributed so widely – the beauty of no one religion or sect having
a monopoly on all the gifts, is that what it means is that we all need one
another to bring all the gifts together and be all that humanity can be.
In order for that sharing of gifts to happen, however, all the religions
and denominations need to recognize that none of them have all the gifts.
None of them has a monopoly on the Truth – nobody has all the answers,
and God – the one we call the Infinite One, the one the prophet Jeremiah
calls the Fountain of Living Waters in this week’s haftarah – God… doesn’t
7
All that being said, after my experience this morning, I have been
religious absolutists of every faith – ever being able to enter into a respectful
disheartened by the fear I have that it would be difficult for many in these
communities to even understand why what was done this morning was
pattern of hateful thoughts and total distancing from people who believe this
way, because that is where pain festers and dehumanization begins. Today I
sat in a room full of people who are on the other side of America’s culture
war from me, and yet, they are my brothers and sisters, and despite
ultimately need each other, and if I lose sight of that, then I lose sight of one
of the spiritual beliefs that I hold most dear. We are all created b’tzelem
elohim, in the image of the Divine. It’s hardest to remember that about
One of the concerned Christians who spoke with us after this morning’s
event mentioned the need for dialogue – appropriate dialogue in safe, well-
8
religious orientations. I think this idea is right on target. I would add that
progressives needs to happen in our own faith community and across all
faith lines. I don’t know who would mediate it. I don’t know how some of
would be negotiated. But I know that without this kind of dialogue, the
culture war in this country will only become worse – it will become an even
hurled by brothers and sisters at one another. I hope that the chance for this