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United Methodist group to promote dialogue with Muslims

 


United Methodist group to promote dialogue with Muslims

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Given the current climate of terrorism and religious violence, "the way in which Christians and Muslims relate is significant," says the Rev. Larry Pickens.

April 26, 2005

By Linda Bloom*

NEW YORK (UMNS)—United Methodists hope to initiate a dialogue with Muslims through the denomination’s interfaith agency.

Members of the Commission on Christian Unity and Interreligious Concerns voted during the April 21-24 spring meeting to pursue such a dialogue, either through the National Council of Churches or on their own.

Given the current climate of terrorism and religious violence, “the way in which Christians and Muslims related is significant,” the Rev. Larry Pickens, the commission’s chief executive, pointed out in his address to members.

As an example, he cited the debate in Europe regarding Turkey’s application to the European Union, with the backdrop of Europe’s secularization and the growing influence of Islam there.

“The situation in the United States is not as stark as it is in Europe, but our reality calls for dialogue and interaction with Muslim communities,” Pickens said.

The United Methodist General Conference, the denomination’s top legislative body, encourages such dialogues. A resolution on “Our Muslim Neighbors” urges all denominational agencies “to initiate conversations, programs and dialogues leading to the understanding of both Islam and Christianity, and appreciation of their particular gifts, while discovering commonalities and differences and seeking areas of mutual cooperation.”

Soon after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the commission met with Muslims in southern California in an effort to promote understanding and conversation.

Jim Fleming, director of the Biblical Resources Study Center in Israel, talked with commission members about fostering interfaith dialogue.

Whether Christian, Muslim or Jewish, religious fundamentalists share four things in common, he said. They are “hyper-fundamentalist,” being intolerant of other religions and taking a literal view of scripture “with one interpretation only;” do not accept a woman in a place of religious authority over a man; accept the authoritarian, unquestioned male rule of a pastor or priest, iman or rabbi; and have no interest in interreligious understanding.

This lack of interest in understanding other religions—or the feeling that “any tradition not my own – they’re all of the devil”—is the most tragic characteristic of fundamentalists, according to Fleming.

It is the characteristic that defined the 19 men who undertook the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, he noted. “For the hyper-fundamentalists, my enemies are God’s enemies.”

The commission’s task, Fleming said, is to help church members drop judgmental attitudes toward people of other faiths and not compare “the good points of your religion to the bad points of other religions.”

The first principle of interfaith dialogue is being able to agree that what is important to one faith also is acknowledged as important to the other. As an example, he compared when and for how long Christians, Jews and Muslims each were the majority population in the Holy Land.

The majority faith, whichever it is, must follow several guidelines in dealing with the minority, according to Fleming. Those guidelines include cultivating respect, standing for balance and fair play, and empathizing toward an attitude of reconciliation.

Interfaith goals also must be demonstrated, both through policies and attitudes, he said.

Christianity itself is changing, Pickens pointed out in his address, which means a reconfiguration of the ecumenical movement as a whole.

“It is clear that in terms of church growth and vitality, the locus of Christianity is in Africa and Latin America,” he said. “This is creating a changing dynamic within the United Methodist Church as well as for our ecumenical partners. With this dynamic comes the need for developing a strong partnership between the West and Christians in Latin America and Africa.”

*Bloom is a United Methodist News Service news writer based in New York.

News media contact: Linda Bloom, New York, (646) 369-3759 or newsdesk@umcom.org.

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