So Many Religions, So Little Time

Years ago, when a classmate of mine at Bread Loaf was trying to explain his reason for not having a paper ready, he said something to the professor like “The air traffic controllers’ strike really bums me out.”  I wish I had as creative an excuse; mine has more to do with the mundanity of getting in grades, prepping a house for a showing, and taking a son on a road trip.  Just the usual, really.

But amidst it all I’ve been noticing that there sure are a lot of religions swirling around out there these days.   If we’re not hearing about Muslim extremists (and when aren’t we?) or Israel’s worry about Iran, we’re getting more information about Mitt Romney’s Mormonism or listening to the VP candidates talk about what their Catholicism means to them.

As my mother would have said, “It all makes the head spin.”

One of the most salient things about being a clergy spouse, I think, is that being fully steeped in one religion means that you become more aware of all the other  religions.  For me, having not had a childhood of being immersed in any faith beyond an occasional visit to my grandmother’s Quaker meetinghouse, it looks sometimes like a kaleidoscope out there – with a whole spectrum of colorful designs and reflections.   Episcopalianism is the most “front and center” – for obvious reasons – but the more I find out about it, the more curious I become about other ways of seeing and believing, too.  I’ve also learned from my husband that a person of faith, through one tradition, can resonate with a person of faith in another tradition simply because of their common, well, faith.

So if this is true on an individual level, then why isn’t it true when whole groups of people are involved?  Why so much clashing?

The fact is that even though it’s the clashing that makes the news all over the world (and it can’t be denied that there is plenty of it) there is also a whole lot of peaceful co-existence among religions.

Take my neighborhood, for instance.  Each and every time our family made its way down to the church on a Sunday morning (the rector leaving well ahead of the rest of us, naturally), we would pass not only the Jewish Community and the First Congregational Church – with the Unitarians, the Catholics, the Baptists, the Lutherans, the Muslims, the Methodists and the African Methodist Episcopals not far away – but also, right on our own road, a branch of the International Society of Khmer Buddhist Monks, noticeable with their multi- colored buildings through the trees.    That’s quite a ride, don’t you think?

A couple of years ago, I went with a friend to the 25^th anniversary celebration of the New England Peace Pagoda, just in the next town over.  I had heard about this place – built in a tradition stretching back a mere 2,500 years to the first relics of Buddha -during the whole decade since we’d moved to the region, and I had often intended to go, but life being what it was, the expedition just didn’t rise to the top of the “to do” list.

But on this particular sparkling October day, there couldn’t have been a more thrilling-to-the-senses experience anywhere around.

The pagoda itself shone brilliantly in its milky whiteness against a deep blue sky.   (Looking at it, you knew it wasn’t the Taj Mahal and wasn’t really anything like the Taj Mahal but somehow you in your New England-ishness still felt completely transported).   The program included presentations, of a congratulatory nature, by people of a rainbow of faith traditions as well as live drumming and dancing performances by Native Americans from (now) Massachusetts tribes.   A huge buffet of food was served on long tables, and people from near and far mingled:  monks, with heads shaved, in their orange robes stood side by side, no doubt, with people who rarely went to any religious service but wanted to be part of a collective dedication to peace.  It was really spectacular.

Recently someone, a Presbyterian minister I think, wrote a letter about religious pluralism to The New York Times which in part recommended that Comparative Religion courses be taught more widely in high schools.  From what I can tell, many private schools have been doing this for some time, some folding it in to a whole Humanities division .  And I just visited one school where students can choose from about 20 far-ranging electives including “Christianities,” “Faith and Doubt,” “Mysticism,” and “Religion and Popular Culture.”  I haven’t done any research on this, but I’m guessing that many public school districts may still be wary of the whole subject and the controversy that it might bring.  But students are hungry to talk about the “big questions” – groping, as they are for meaning, for finding any signposts as they chart their paths ahead.  And they wonder what other people believe, and why.

Somewhere in one of these packed boxes around here, we have a book that gives a good overview of world religions, intended for older children.  I love these books, the ones that really lay things out so they’re understandable.  Since I couldn’t find it, I went down to our library and found something similar, with a comforting title:  Religions Explained: A Beginner’s Guide to World Faiths, by Anita Ganeri.  I plan to dip in and out of it for a while this fall, just to keep some contact with different parts of the world and different ways of identifying virtues.  It may be elementary, but especially at certain times of the day, it suits me just fine.