Let's Talk About God: A Call to Interfaith Dialogue

August 26, 2011 by R. Kirby Godsey

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Finally, within all our faiths, sometimes half-hidden, is an affirmation that letting go of our self-centered ways and embracing a path of compassion is primary to what it means to follow God. Our interfaith conversations, if they are to be fruitful, must spring from genuine compassion. Thoughtful listening increases our capacity to care. We have to care enough to meet one another as children created in the image of God. Only compassion will provide the grace to listen and to embrace another person, not because they agree with us or we with them, but because we believe that they are as much the creation of God as we. Because they too are children of God, our neighbors of our faiths deserve compassion, kindness and respect. Jesus said, "I give a new commandment that you love one another." Jesus did not add unless a person happens to be a Hindu or a Buddhist or a Jew. The boundaries of God's love can be drawn only by God and we should resist the temptation to make judgments or to draw boundaries on God's behalf. If we are willing to reach out to another as mutual children of God, we can begin the long journey back from faiths that degenerate into ugliness and evil into faiths that will be instruments of grace and peace in the world.

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8/26/2011 4:00:00 AM

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