Unique challenges for religious peace

by Frank Kaufmann, January 5, 2015

Page 1

Interfaith activists tend to focus on the inner makeup of faith and dialogue needed to work effectively
for interreligious peace.
This article however looks at context, namely the broader world of human relations where interfaith
efforts happen. There are many arenas where we have to learn to cooperate and overcome our
differences, interfaith activity is only one.
We constantly are faced with personal and cultural differences in life, from the smallest (inside a
family) to the greatest (worldwide). The simple fact is that people differ, and we have no other choice
but to relate even when its hard.
And we do. We find ways to rise above differences and work together. We do this in business, politics,
economics, arts, science, and all else. And we do it also in religion. The moms a Christian, her son in
law is a Buddhist. My building has elevators that spend all Saturday stopping on every single floor on
the way up, and every one on the way down. Put quite simply the world abounds with successful
interfaith achievements.
In every corner of life people are quite sure that we do things right, and they do them is wrong.
This is true in business and commerce, in how you sit, in what makes for beauty and so on. In short
differences are everywhere, and go on without cease. But somehow, in almost all cases people find a
way work out their differences and manage, sometimes even flourish. On the larger scale people with
strong, even irreconcilable differences find a way to cooperate when they can see clear benefit and gain
from doing so.

People
cooperate when
the benefits
from doing so
are clear. The
teen puts on
his Skull
Candy ear-buds
to listen to
Asphyx,
smiling at his folks across the living room listening to Bach, and everybodys happy. The Chinese find
a way to do business with Americans, both full of distrust for one another, and everybody gets rich.

Unique challenges for religious peace

by Frank Kaufmann, January 5, 2015
Page 2

When people see clear gain and benefit from cooperation, they find a way to transcend deep
differences, and even dislike. This is not to say cooperating is easy. Inscrutable and difficult things have
to be worked out. It constantly is a work in progress.
People understand that life and efforts for good are a work in progress. We understand that cooperation
has its ups and downs, that things go well sometimes and poorly at others. But so long as both parties
are interested in making effort we struggle through good times and bad, at times rejoicing, at times
pulling out our hair?
Why then is religion seen so differently from other parts of life, parts that also have natural difficulties
and challenges to get along? Why is the condition of religions struggling to cooperate condemned, but
the same religion-despisers simply shrug when one rapper murders another? Why is the time religions
need to grow and learn, and work together for progress seen as an embarrassment, when states and
nations shift allies almost daily, and perpetrate some form of war and aggression constantly, while
people presume this is a natural state of affairs.
There are several reasons for why religion and interfaith are viewed differently, which I will take up in
subsequent essays. Briefly, some of these reasons include the fact that all religions call for love,
sacrifice, and understanding, a call and expectation not presumed as guiding principles for bankers, TV
executives, university professors, or any other vested profession or calling. A second reason is that the
other-worldly subtext in many faiths occlude the lure of gain and mutual benefit that help people
transcend difference for the sake of the greater gain to be had through collaboration.
These and other elements are vital to examine, understand, and address if true and sustained progress in
the world of interfaith is to obtain.