I was trying to explain to a friend the beauty and facility of interfaith sharing but he didn't understand the concept very well. I was a student at San Diego State University for a few years and while there, and I was also a member of the Catholic Student Center on campus that called itself the Newman Center. Being a member of the Newman Center gave me close exposure to other faiths because once a month, one of the student religious groups would host a supper club for all of the faith groups. The task was lovingly shared among the Newman Center, the Jewish Student Center, the Methodist Center, The Islamic Students Center and the Hindu Students Center. It was even open to students of other faiths that didn't have formal faith groups on campus. I recall the fun and fellowship of sitting at a table of students from different faiths who could speak to each other and learn from each other in a non-threatening and respectful environment.
I made friends with students who explained aspects of their faiths that I formerly didn't understand, and I answered questions about the Catholic faith. I even attended some of the services from different faiths. As I contemplate the religious unrest in the world today, I see so many egos hard at work trying to be biggest and best when it seems to me that gentle and tolerant understanding is so much more productive. I personally love learning new things about different religions and faiths even if I don't always understand or agree with the tenets of a particular religion. I was raised in a strict Catholic household, but today follow a more Judao-Christian path. I have friends of various faiths and some who share two faiths across committed relationships, and I see it as being such a beautiful way in which to raise children, and world awareness that we are so much more alike than different.
I can recall once when I was on a retreat asking a Benedictine priest why there was so much strife today between Jewish and Catholic Americans if Jesus was King of the Jews and yet the centerpiece of Christianity? He didn't answer my question, he instead encouraged me to study the beginnings of both faiths and to come to my own conclusions based on their evolutions. In retrospect, that was the wisest answer of all since humans are as different as the interpretations they can come to believe through contemplative prayer and study. My own studies lead me to understand that people see things through their own eyes, their own pasts and their own experiences much more keenly than they do from any other perspectives. And as such, maybe we aren't always as open-minded as we could be.
I found out how hard interfaith sharing was from a personal perspective when I was a graduate student at UCLA, and I unknowingly fell in love with a beautiful, dark-haired Jewish girl, who was offended when I gave her a little silver cross for her birthday. Admittedly, I didn't quite understand what I had done that was so wrong, but after gentle explanations from a few friends, it was clear to me that I should have given her a Star of David for her birthday. The problem was, I didn't even know she was Jewish; I was just in love. I put myself through Jewish self awareness classes and took an undergraduate Sociology class called "Jewish in America", all for the love of someone who would never love me. But I got an "A" in the course and I did learn how to gently speak to people of the Jewish faith; and I eventually even converted to Reform Judaism. My conversion came too late to impress the dark-haired Jewish girl, but I feel much more centered in my own personal faith now, because I took the best aspects from two well-respected religions and made them a part of the unique person that I am today.
Since then, I've studied many faith-based systems and I can honestly say that I have more respect for the world religions than I could ever have disdain. I don't know if I could ever convince anyone else of the beauty of interfaith sharing unless they were pre-disposed to wanting to be open, tolerant and understanding of what other faiths have to offer their followers. But sharing words, ideas and understanding doesn't have to lead you further away from your own respective faith beliefs. In fact, sharing might strengthen your own faith and provide clarity for why others believe so strongly in their faiths. Or, as it did in my case, it could lead you to expand your ideas of faith and sharing. Either way, I feel stronger in my beliefs from my interaction with people of other faiths. It all began as a student member of a Newman Center. This is a message I wish I could share with the world, especially in light of all of the discord among people of different faiths.
