First Parish Unitarian UniversalistAll Religions are True, said Gandhi
A sermon preached by the Reverend Diane Teichert
First Parish Unitarian Universalist-Canton, MA
October 26, 2003
To continue the morning’s reading for another thirty seconds, Piscine’s older brother, Ravi, “had a field day of it when he found out [about his family’s fractious encounter in the esplanade with-- all at once-- the Catholic priest, the Muslim imam and the Hindu pandit and learned that his brother feels himself to be a practitioner of all three religions].
‘So, Swami Jesus, will you go on the hajj this year?’ he said, bringing the palms of his hands together in front of his face in a reverent namaskar. ‘Does Mecca beckon?’ He crossed himself. ‘Or will it be to Rome for your coronation as the next Pope Pius?’ He drew in the air a Greek letter, making clear the spelling of his mockery. ‘Have you found time yet to get [circumcised]… and become a Jew? At the rate you’re going, if you go to temple on Thursday, mosque on Friday, synagogue on Saturday and church on Sunday, you only need to convert to three more religions to be on holiday for the rest of your life.’” (Life of Pi by Yann Martel, p. 70.)
Poor Piscine, all he wanted to do was love God.
The story of Pi’s spiritual journey raises at least two important questions for us as Unitarian Universalists.
One. What is our role in interfaith dialogue, such as the encounter in the esplanade? Given who we are today, with our historic roots in the Judeo-Christian heritage but our branches now including a wide variety of paths to moral and religious truths, when we find ourselves in an intense interfaith conversation—fractious or not—what’s our part, as Unitarian Universalists?
And two. Is it possible to be—as Piscine wanted to be—a Hindu, a Christian and a Muslim, all at once? Some would accuse Unitarian Universalism in much the same way as Piscine’s brother taunted him: they say that UU’s beg, borrow and steal from all religions, and end up with very little but confusion to call their own.
Let’s take the first question first.
Had you or I been walking with Piscine’s family that day, when the three clergy men fought over Piscine’s allegiance and argued about whose religion was best? What might we have said? The father’s line was pretty good, “I suppose that’s what we’re all trying to do—love God.”
[This past week, a public controversy swirled in response to statements made by U.S. Army Lt. Gen. William G. Boykin during several speeches at evangelical Christian churches, several of which he gave in uniform. CBS News reported that Boykin said the enemy in the war on terrorism was Satan, that God had put President George W. Bush in the White House and said of a 1993 battle with a Muslim militia leader in Somalia: "I knew that my God was bigger than his. I knew that my God was a real God, and his was an idol."
This week CBS News and other sources reported that Boykin issued a Pentagon-approved statement apologizing to those who were offended and saying he did not mean to insult Islam. He also stated, "My references to Judeo-Christian roots in America or our nation as a Christian nation are historically undeniable." Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld would not say why the Pentagon approved his statement that the United States is a "Christian nation." (CBS News.com, “General Seeks 'Satan' Speech Probe, “ Oct. 21, 2003).
Muslim and other religious groups and civil liberties organizations assailed his statements. The Interfaith Alliance, a national organization of which I am a member, dedicated to raising a religious voice to counter that of the Religious Right, issued a statement saying that “we affirm the right of all Americans to speak publicly about their religious beliefs, but also believe it is offensive and audacious [for someone] to critique or define another's deity or tradition, especially when their leadership role calls for working with people of different faiths...’
This incident raised an intense interfaith conversation in the media. Let’s join it, or let’s join the conversation on the esplanade, what shall we say, as Unitarian Universalists?]
We could say, with Gandhi, “All religions are true.” We could say to the imam, the priest and pandit, and the rabbi as well, [and to General Boykin and his Somalian opponent], “each of your religions is true for those who love it and live it, but it is not the only truth.”
In that way, our role in interfaith dialogue is to facilitate listening.
In part, this is because our living tradition draws not from common creed but from our own direct experience. That’s where we begin, as we say in our statement about the Sources from which we draw (which happens to be printed on the back of your order of service, next to the Principles and Purposes), the first of which is “direct experience of that transcending mystery and wonder…which moves us to a renewal of the spirit and an openness to the forces which create and uphold life.”
This practice of drawing on our own experience of the meaning of life, of the transforming power of love, of the mystery of the universe, of God, or of that which is greater than all and yet present in each—whatever words we might each use to express what is essentially ineffable, indescribable, this practice positions us to know that others in the interfaith conversation dialogue will have something to say if we ask, “what is your experience?” The helpful question to pose is not, what do you believe? It’s ”tell us about your experience of your religion. Why do you love it, what does it do for you?” We can facilitate a deep listening, the kind that will help us all learn that our commonalities are as real as our differences.
Besides facilitator, another role for which we may be uniquely prepared is that of interpreter. Because we draw from our own experience, we are practiced at finding words that are experiential rather than creedal. This can be a gift to others, because it may open up for them fresh ways of understanding their faith. They can hear new meanings for old traditional language and be strengthened in their faith as a result.
I remember this especially happening when I served as a chaplaincy intern at Mass General Hospital. I encountered many patients who had grown up in religions that they learned by rote. For many, only the sounds of the words were of any comfort to them in their time of need. The words themselves were without meaning, totally disconnected from the person’s real life experience. It sometimes struck me as ironic, and at the same time awesome, that I, an outsider to Catholicism or Judaism or evangelical Christianity, could use contemporary language that helped others find new meaning in their creeds.
The roles of facilitator and interpreter are useful in interfaith dialogue, but I think we have even more to offer. And that is that we can speak from the position of inclusivity that Unitarian Universalism is embracing. We don’t think ours is the only way. We have no illusions that we are the chosen people as the Jews are viewed in the Hebrew Scriptures. We don’t believe that the only way to God, or to salvation, is through Jesus as is proclaimed in the Christian scriptures. We don’t believe that Mohammed is the last prophet as is stated in the Qu’ran.
Rather, we model an inclusive vision, which says there is truth in each of the religions, but not exclusively so. We affirm that all peoples are inherently worthy and intimately connected not only with each other but also with the natural world in which we live. So, no chosen people.
We affirm that there are many ways to God or to the truth and meaning in life based on individual experience of that transcending mystery and wonder…which moves us to a renewal of the spirit and an openness to the forces which create and uphold life. So, no one way through Jesus.
We affirm that revelation is never over. We believe each person has a right (dare I say a responsibility?) to the search for truth and meaning in our own lives, and to reveal the divine, the ethical in how we live. So, no last prophet.
We can get to the second question, about Piscine’s desire to be Muslim, Christian and Hindu all at once, by thinking about the present convergence of religiously important observances. Yesterday was Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights and Ramadan, the month of fasting during daylight hours in Islam, begins tomorrow. Not only that, but next weekend, many in the Christian tradition celebrate All Saints and All Souls Days, the one honoring the saints, known and unknown, who inspire the followers of the faith even today and the other set aside for intercessions for the deceased. Being Muslim, Christian and Hindu all at once, Piscine would be overwhelmed by rituals and festivities right now!
If, as his brother taunted, he also wanted to be a Jew, well then, last weekend, he would have celebrated the festival of Simchat Torah, honoring with festivities the end of the annual reading cycle of the Torah! And, what about being a Bahai? They celebrated the birth of Bab, one of the twin founders of Bahai last Monday! Piscine would be one tired boy from all that partying!
And, we’d be one frenetic congregation if we honored all those holidays! But, over time, I hope we do. We already know that, in learning about other religions we can be inspired and deeply moved. Our forebear Ralph Waldo Emerson was one of the first American thinkers to read the Bhagavad-Gita and other Hindu scriptures and Buddhist texts, leading him to the ideas that became known as Transcendentalism that still influence Unitarian Universalism today.
But, please note that I did not say that I hope we celebrate all these holidays; I said I hope we honor them. There’s an important difference. Religious observances do not work for those outside the tradition in the same way they work for those within. Those outside can honor and explore and even interpret religious observances, but we cannot celebrate them. It would be presumptuous to think we could.
As we think about our possible roles in interfaith dialogue and how we as Unitarian Universalists have been enriched and inspired by other religions, what are our goals? We want to increase interfaith understanding by facilitating and interpreting as best we can. We want to show that it is possible to be bound together in religious community while allowing that other religions are as real and true as ours.
Our goal is not to declare that all religions are inherently the same, or that they all share some universal principle as if we (or anyone) are in a position to judge. Rather, I think, our goal is to say, with Mahatma Gandhi, with Bapu Gandhi, that “all religions are true, all religions have some error in them, and all religions are almost as dear to us as our own, in as much as all human beings should be as dear to us as our own close relatives.”
These were the closing words of his 1962 “Declaration of My Faith” and the world needs to hear them loud and clear today.
Amen.