Slaying the Monsters: How Interfaith Work Transforms "Enemies" into Friends

October 26, 2011 by Greg Garrett

Continued from Page 1

On October 18, the IID chapter in Houston, Texas dedicated a prayer garden intended for worship, learning, and conversation between those of all faiths. Local, state, and national elected officials joined representatives of many faith traditions in celebrating this vital new site of interfaith dialogue.

This weekend in Austin (Oct. 30), I'll attend the Austin IID's annual Friendship and Dialogue Dinner at the Austin Hilton. Jim Harrington, Director of the Texas Civil Rights Project, will be the keynote speaker, and this event, like the launch of the Prayer Garden, will attract religious leaders, elected officials, and people of good will from Muslim, Christian, and other religious traditions.

I don't claim that these local endeavors will cure the pervasive problems we have. But I do believe that the solutions to many problems start close to home—with ourselves. Whatever our disagreements with people of other faiths, cultures, or political persuasions, we have many more things in common. Each of our faiths calls us to treat others with justice and compassion, and all of us share the human desires to live meaningful lives, to do work that matters, to raise our children in safety.

When we learn about the lives and beliefs of those who differ from us, it is not because we want to make their beliefs our own. But if we want to stop bearing false witness against our neighbors, to avoid turning them into monsters, we must become informed, and local interfaith dialogue is one way we can make that happen.

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10/26/2011 4:00:00 AM

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Faithful Citizenship

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Fear

Friends

Interfaith Dialogue

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Christianity

Islam

Judaism

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About Greg Garrett

Greg Garrett is (according to BBC Radio) one of America's leading voices on religion and culture. He is the author or co-author of over twenty books of fiction, theology, cultural criticism, and spiritual autobiography. His most recent books are The Prodigal, written with the legendary Brennan Manning, Entertaining Judgment: The Afterlife in Popular Imagination, and My Church Is Not Dying: Episcopalians in the 21st Century. A contributor to Patheos since 2010, Greg also writes for the Huffington Post, Salon.com, OnFaith, The Tablet, Reform, and other web and print publications in the US and UK.

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