I am a pariah.
I am a Prophet. I am both the
epitome and the paradoxical antithesis of the InterFaith Movement. And I am 1 of many millions who are emerging
through the social evolution of humanity.
What am I and why do I matter? To answer this it is necessary to transcend.
Within the InterFaith Movement, there are
boundaries. 1 of the 1st
questions we ask each other is: What are
you? What is your religion? What is your background? These questions are utilised as a simple and
benign means of better understanding each other. But these questions also polarise individuals
into pre-established categories of history, politics, culture, belief, and
characteristics; all which may
inaccurate reflect who an individual actually is. We all utilise this information to increasingly
perceive an individual, yet excessively relying upon these questions reinforces
the traditional divides that separate and antagonise our different communities.
To the established guard of our global
InterFaith Movement, these boundaries are a nurturing safety blanket. When each of us 1st ventures into
the InterFaith Movement, we must penetrate through the cocoons that exist
around our respective religious communities.
These cocoons are developed through the respective millennia and
centuries of each religion as a protective suspicion towards anyone outside of
our respective fold. Again, it is simple
and benign, yet divisive and antagonistic.
So when an individual within a religious community searches to build
understanding, Peace, and cooperation with an individual or group from another
religious community, that individual often becomes the target of suspicion from
within his/her own religious community:
Why is s/he cavorting with the enemy?
What are his/her allegiances? Will
s/he stay True to our beliefs and our cause?
Insufficiently answering these suspicions can lead to reduced standing
and advancement within our own religious community.
These same suspicions are also generally applied
to the whole of our InterFaith Movement,
and to anyone associated with it: What
is the purpose of cooperating with other religious communities? Are the other religious adherents attempting
to convert us? Will our activists
maintain our rituals whilst becoming immersed within a culture of
pluralism? To allay these fears, 1 of
the foundational rules of our InterFaith Movement (along with abstinence from
proselytising) is preserving the integrity of each individual’s religious
identity and affiliation. This means
clearly identifying the religions of interreligious activists and reinforcing
these boundaries. Indeed, 1 adage touted
within our InterFaith Movement is that interreligious activism encourages an
activist to become increasingly knowledgeable and steeped within an activist’s
own religious tradition because the activist is called to become a teacher to
outsiders who are less knowledgeable about the tradition. Yet interreligious activism also exists as a
path for “multi-religious” individuals to cultivate an awareness and practice of
interreligious spirituality and engagement.
And the overwhelming reinforcement of boundaries also means ignoring or
denying the propensity for an interreligious activist to simultaneously belong
to multiple religious traditions and communities. For people like me, this denial is a problem.
I am a Mixed Ethnicity man and a Mystic. That means that my family comes from many
different tribes and I love everybody.
My ethnicity includes African, Swedish, Danish, Seminole, Israeli, and
Irish heritage. My spiritual path is
rooted within Judaism and I practise elements of Hinduism, Buddhism,
Christianity, Islam, and additional traditions.
Growing up, my far and mor raise my siblings
and me outside of any specific religious tradition. As such we are able to build friendships
with, and admiration of, many teachers from many different traditions and
cultures. When I become an adult, I
begin to search for a spiritual path and a tradition that can welcome me as
home. Yet, each established religion and
traditional community I previously encounter tends to make certain claims of
exclusivity regarding affiliation and allegiance. And thus the politics tend to become
tenuous: being aligned with 1 community
often involves refusing alignment with another community. Attempts for maintaining cohesion can often
seem inconsistent and disloyal: proclamations
of belief and allegiance can be difficult to evidence, can be fluid, and can be
recanted or overturned. In contrast, whilst
tribal affiliations can occasionally be hidden, disguised, or refuted, 1’s
ancestry tends to be involuntarily constant and undeniable. And my mixed ethnicity experience very much
provides me with the fortitude to continue to readily (and even defiantly) proclaim
my interreligious spirituality.
Over the past decade, as I become increasingly
involved within our global InterFaith Movement, I also become increasingly
involved within our global Mixed Movement.
This past November, I am able to present a workshop at the most recent Critical
Mixed Race Studies Conference on the topic of “Mixed Ethnicity And
Spirituality.” Whilst I am precluded
from presenting a workshop on this topic at the Parliament, I would like to
share some lessons that I draw from my experience at our CMRS conferences.
Firstly, the whole of our current Mixed
Movement, much like the Realms of “multiculturalism” and “diversity,” are
steeped within Secularism. Whilst there
is tremendous representation of many different religious traditions within this
conversation, the topics of religion and spirituality are historically taboo. Much of this may be attributed to the general
Secular nature of public discourse within the United States and additional
nations. And Mixed Ethnicity people
often identify with a nationalist culture as a means for maintaining a psychic
cohesion amongst the different ethnic/tribal heritages/affiliations that Mixed
Ethnicity people respectively maintain.
So religion and spirituality are topics that are just beginning to be
explicitly and intentionally discussed within our Mixed Movement.
However, as it is confirmed by my workshop,
many Mixed Ethnicity people have a rather astute understanding of, and
proficiency with, the intricate diplomacy of interreligious cooperation. This is because many inter-ethnic marriages
are also often inter-religious marriages.
So whilst intrinsically reconciling the inter-tribal dissonance of a
pluralistic heritage, many Mixed Ethnicity people also intrinsically reconcile
the inter-religious dissonance of these pluralistic heritages as well.
Within the Mixed Ethnicity experience, there is
an involuntary allegiance to communities across different divides. It is a difficult experience, but it is also
an inspirational and transcendent experience.
And it provides tremendous insight for individuals who are reconciling an
inter-religious experience. It is
beneficial for our InterFaith Movement to reach out towards our Mixed Movement
and cultivate bridges of communication and understanding. The lessons learned from this reconciling
inter-religious experience provide tremendous insight for our global InterFaith
Movement and our entire humanity and Universe.
Within our global InterFaith Movement, there
are many Mixed Ethnicity and Mono-Ethnicity people who revere religious teachers
from multiple traditions; who maintain
beliefs and practise rituals from multiple traditions. Whilst I abstain from soliciting everyone
converting into an interreligious spirituality, our InterFaith Movement needs
to embrace this experience and make room at our table for our interreligious
adherents, whilst continuing to respect and maintain the traditional boundaries
of our respective religious traditions.
It is an arduous balance of diplomacy, and here
are some suggestions on how to do this:
1.) Acknowledgment
And Acceptance. Let’s acknowledge
this phenomenon and accept this as normal.
Let’s include categories such as “interreligious” or “multi-religious”
as a religious identifier on forms and as working presumptions for dialogue and
meetings.
2.) Support
And Showcase. Let’s share the
stories and progression of individuals who find a spiritual home in multiple
traditions. Let’s ardently “discover”
these individuals and provide these individuals with a spotlight through
articles, interviews, and additionally.
Let’s educate our general constituencies.
3.) Programmes. Let’s provide opportunities for individuals
to share these experiences and lessons through speaking events, workshops,
social media events, and additionally.
4.) Relationships
And Development. Let’s support the
support groups of these experiences and facilitate socialising and
community-building amongst these individuals.
5.) Awareness
Of Mysticism. Let’s provide
education (classes, webinars, speakers, retreats) on the respective Mystic traditions
of the many religions of humanity, emphasising the similarities, teachers, and
principles of Universal Truth.
Whilst such initiatives may appear as
proselytising inter-religious beliefs, it is essentially simply advocating the
interreligious experience much like our InterFaith Movement advocates the Hindu
experience, the Jewish experience, the Buddhist experience, the Christian experience,
the Muslim experience, the Sikh experience, the Baha’i experience, the Native
experience and additionally. The
difference is that the interreligious experience is lesser known and hereto
underrepresented. We can do better. And as we do better, our InterFaith Movement
increasingly gains from our Mixed Ethnicity experiences and our interreligious
experiences.
Love And Peace.
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