Eboo Patel at UMSF

I was honored to be a music resource person at the United Methodist Student Forum several weeks ago. The theme was all about Breaking Barriers; Building Bridges. Dr. Eboo Patel of Interfaith Youth Core was the speaker at one of the services. If you haven’t heard of him you should check him out http://www.ifyc.org/about_core/staff.

Many of his statements really hit home for me, but one more than any other. He told us that many of his colleagues in the work of promoting peace through interfaith service and dialogue pray for his soul, which they believe is going to hell. They work with him side-by-side to serve their community and world, but cannot see his Islamic faith as a means of doing God’s will. He said that it was perfectly OK with him, as long as their common goal is to promote peace and serve the world.

Eboo (he reprimanded us when we called him Dr. Patel during his Q & A) said “Muslims aren’t terrorists; extremists are terrorists.” I have thought about this a lot since I heard him speak. Who are Christian extremists? Are the people who work with Eboo and then go home to pray for his hell-bound soul extremists?

Certainly the theology of my childhood follows in line with this thinking, minus the “serve anyway” portion of the program. The church of my youth was utterly unconcerned about the state of our earth and its peoples; our minds should be fixed on heavenly and Godly things and our actions should follow suit. If we are not proselytizing to Eboo in order to save his soul, we ought to steer clear for fear of poisoning our minds with his heathen ways. To me, that is Christian extremist thinking.

We “other” each other into nonexistence when we refuse to reach across religious lines to work with our neighbors. Unfortunately, when we fail to recognize another’s existence, we ignore Jesus’ command to love our neighbors and our enemies and everyone else.

Barriers were, indeed, broken at that event. Eboo pointed out that it is difficult to worship God in interfaith ceremonies, but it is surprisingly simple to worship God in interfaith action. At their cores, our religions share many values and ethics. Help those who are in need. Care for the person who is unable to care for himself or herself.

So obey God, however you may name Him or Her. Break a barrier and build a bridge in the name of God, Allah, Christ, YHWH, Laksmi, Almighty Mother, Nurturing Abba – whatever! The point is: don’t sit around disagreeing about what or whom God may be; disagree while doing the work God calls you to do, together.

We need more peace in this world. How about creating some of that?