Interfaith work for social action often brings our communities of faith and spiritual practice into partnerships with unfamiliar groups.
Click here to read the rest of this post on the new SAM blog at socialactionma.wordpress.com.
Thursday, February 3, 2011
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3 comments:
As an Atheist/Humanist, I'm glad you're looking to build these bridges, and am curious if any of your readers have managed to successfully work with atheist communities.
Throughout history, atheists have been persecuted by religious majorities and excluded from power. Even in today's America, our politicians must pass a litmus test of faith in order to win election. As a natural response to being in the blasphemous minority, Humanists and atheists have built a lot of walls.
Many atheists see people of faith as credulous children whose spiritual security blanket continually entangles human progress. It’s not right, but it’s typical of any group of people. “We’re right. They’re wrong, and stupid, and probably evil too.” Many Christians believe that any non-Christian can and should suffer an eternity of hellfire and brimstone, and a number of notable wars have been fought on the subject. Despite those differences, it’s clear that many in the religious community have found ways to work with people of other faiths.
My question for those who have worked with atheist communities is: did the same techniques that bridge gaps between two faiths work between believers and nonbelievers?
I ask because, at some level, a Christian and a Muslim share a language and a first principal of faith. A believer and and a non-believer don't have that common ground.
Thanks for your comment, Josh! You make an important point about common ground—interfaith social action work requires that people with differing beliefs, traditions and practices have enough common ground to be able to join together to pursue a common end—in SAM’s case, ending homelessness. People with different religious backgrounds may not be able to point to the same reasons—scriptural, theological or otherwise—for their commitment to ending homelessness, but they often share a basic conviction in the human dignity of every person. Do you think this belief in human dignity may be that common ground between those who identify as religious as those who do not?
-Caitlin Golden, SAM Coordinator
Thanks for this lovely post, Lee! I think this is a very important topic and that you've introduced it quite well; I'm thrilled that you've agreed to let me repost this on NonProphet Status soon. (I also hope it will direct more traffic to this site!)
P.S. @Josh -- As someone who is an atheist / Humanist and who has done interfaith work for a number of years, I have a lot I could say on this. I welcome you to get in touch if you like: nonprophetstatus[at]gmail[dot]com.
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