Tolerance Would Be Blessing

A thousand years ago, people lived in far greater isolation from one another than they do today. Ethnic and religious groups were, generally speaking, separated geographically. Although there were places where peoples mixed, many could go their entire lives without ever encountering a person of a different ethnicity or religion. It was easy, in such a world, to divide the world into “us and them.” Easy to condemn “those people over there” who did not look right, act right or worship right.

As a consequence, the fault lines of civilization, those places where disparate groups touched, were places of conflict. Humanity repeatedly suffered the horror of ethnic and religious wars. The Crusades, for example, were not noble and honorable endeavors as they so often have been portrayed. Rather they were horrific exercises of human greed and carnage which served the needs of the powerful and resulted in the slaughter of Jews, Muslims and other Christians by Christian armies.

Animosities and hostilities between groups have not ended, but there are some hopeful signs that religious hostilities may be abating. As we begin 2000, we live in a world of syncretism, a world in which ethnic, cultural and religious identities are becoming increasingly blurred--a world in which our principles of tolerance will be tested.

Today, although many sharp divisions remain, few people can make claim to living in anything remotely approaching a homogeneous society--particularly in Southern California. There are few, if any, ethnic or religious groups unrepresented here and it appears this trend will continue. We are the model of the world to come. Trade and transportation will, increasingly, lead to a blended world in which specific citizenship and particular religious belief is of less and less consequence to the larger society.

Increasingly, we are moving toward a society in which generalized spirituality is more the norm than specific religiosity. For many people, faith is no longer tied to a specific belief system that must be espoused in order to live a spiritually healthy life. Some view this trend as nothing less than a disaster that denies God and threatens the very fabric of human society--but it is the new reality.

The question is, how will religious groups respond to this challenge?

Those of us who are Christian have a biblical example that informs our response. Jesus’ world was a mixture of Jew and Greek, Roman, Phoenician, Egyptian, Cretan, Samaritan and dozens of other ethnic and religious groups. Specific groups were divided by clan and village in a rigid social and economic hierarchy. Jesus’ response to the divisions of his world was to gather peoples together and persuade them not only to be at peace with one another but also to share in a common meal. In Jesus’ day to share a meal with others was to make them part of your family with all the attendant responsibilities. Jesus declared us to be one family, one community under one God. Jesus did not ask the crowds who gathered to hear him to which religion they owed allegiance, nor did he ask if they were of this group or that. He simply accepted all as they were.

Today there is no higher Christian ideal than demonstrating the love of God for all persons regardless of their origin or particularity of belief.

We cannot know what the world will be like in the next millennium. There may be a plethora of religions like we have today or, perhaps, one of today’s religions will become ubiquitous. We may have a new religion arise that will sweep around our world. Certainly there will be new ideas and, unlike ages gone by, there is no possibility today for sealing off people from the influence of new ideas in order to maintain orthodoxy.

Of one thing we can be certain: Humanity must learn to live with diversity. Even if one religion were to become predominant, we can be sure there would be varying opinions about how that religion should be understood and practiced. We simply must, therefore, learn to live peaceably and respectfully with all.

Hopefully, humanity’s long, sad age of intolerance is ending. For this blessing all persons of faith should give thanks and begin working together for a world worthy of the finest tenets of all our religions.