Can Christians, Jews and Muslims ever get on together?

“There is seldom a difficulty with religion where there is friendship.”
(Sebastian Barry, Irish novelist and playwright.)

In a world wracked with religious wars, can there ever be a time and place where people of different faiths can work together, to rebuild a community after a devastation of one kind or another?

In Pasadena, California, the community was devastated by the fires which swept through the region in February, burning homes and businesses, leaving a trail of absolute devastation. People lost all they possessed. Even places of worship could not be saved. One church remained. Untouched by the flames and the fury of that fire. The Methodist Episcopal Church.

The space, the church building and its various ancillary places are now a busy hub, a centre where all people are welcomed.

The church already functioned as a satellite worship location for Islamic Centre members, hosting Friday midday Jumma services, a communal prayer gathering.

Friday evening now hosts Shabbat services, the Jewish celebration of the Sabbath, the day of rest starting at sunset each Friday, followed by Sabbath services on Saturday.

Sunday mornings the Methodist Episcopal service is conducted for the Christian community.

The church, at 500 East Colorado Boulevard, Pasadena, is described as an island of grace where all three Abrahamic faiths now gather for worship under one roof.

I was pretty impressed by this when I read the article in the Guardian the other day. So impressed that I thought I should share it with my nemesis.

He was not impressed.

His comment was ‘You don’t get it do you’.

I wonder what it is that I don’t get. So I asked him to explain. I am still waiting for his answer.

It really bothers me that we as humans cannot accept each other when we do not share the same beliefs. That we claim particular measures of grace, of righteousness, of some kind of entitlement, through a belief system we have either been born into or have assumed later in life, and use that to lord it over those who do not share our faith.

But then, reading history, and particularly imperial and colonial history, that sense of specialness, entitlement comes through repeatedly. The sense of superiority of the conquering invader, as far back as we can remember, or find recorded history of, with the over-run or captured populations made subservient to the conquering invaders.

Demanding certain rights of religion, the claim that the land was not for the Romans to take, the rebellion of the Jews against the Romans in the first century CE saw those religious leaders expelled, cast out and their temple destroyed.

The expelled Jews, mainly the rabbis and priests, were united in spreading their religion where ever their exile took them. Teaching and preaching the creed that they are god’s chosen people, proselytising through Asia Minor and into Europe, converting unbelievers to be people under their god’s authority. Preaching a set of laws and rules in obedience to god’s word which they brought with them.

Another group claiming a special relationship with that same god emerged, Christianity and with the acceptance of that faith as the faith of the Roman Empire when the emperor Constantine the Great converted to Christianity and adopted the cross as the battle insignias for his forces, claiming the power of god as he waged his various wars. (The first battles ‘with god on our side’ but not included in the Bob Dylan song.)

Christianity and Judaism have been at loggerheads since that time.

And then came Islam.

The prophet Muhammad from about 610CE heard the voice of the arch angel Gabriel, dictating what became the Holy Quran. For 23 years the voice motivated the prophet to write the words which became the foundational document of the Islamic religion. It set out laws, Sharia Law, defining the interactions between people and god, marriage laws, laws regarding property. Obedience to Allah, another name for Abraham’s god, Jehovah or Yahweh is most common in Judaism, although it is not good to actually call god by name, so the term HaShem, or The Name is used. In Christianity, that is God the Father.

Same god, just different names and different means of observing homage.

Another major distinction which separates the faiths is the role of Jesus and the Holy Spirit. The Christian god is a triune god, three in one god, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

But neither Judaism or Islam recognise that trinity. To the Jews, the Messiah (Jesus to Christians) is still to come, to the Muslims, Jesus was just another prophet to fit into the pantheon of the Old Testament prophets.

Trouble was on the horizon, as the religions strove to spread their beliefs far and wide, proselytising, spreading their word of their god, and at times bribing populations for membership. Non muslims, living under Islamic rule paid an extra tax, Jizya, as well as the taxes that Muslims paid, an obligatory charity tax, Zakat, and Kharaj, a land tax. So lots of people voted for between their financial well being and converted to avoid the extra tax.

The spread of Islam throughout the Middle East saw Jerusalem, the founding city of Judaism and Christianity taken by the Muslims which led to several attempts to take the city back for Jesus. The Crusades (1095CE to 1291CE) were religious wars between Christians and Muslims over the ownership of what both considered sacred sites.

The Muslims won that round and the Christians retreated but cooked up grandiose plans to rule the rest of the world, to demonstrate their god given specialness that entitled them to rule the world, seeking wealth through spices and exotic foods from the far east, from India and Indonesia, The Philippines, and further into South East Asia.

Conflict between Spain and Portugal saw the Pope draw a line of a map of the known world dividing the east between the two nations.

And then came Christopher Columbus and the beginnings of colonising the Caribbean and the Americas. God’s people ruled, and indigenous peoples were either enslaved or exterminated in the quest for unimagined wealth. People who were not ‘god’s people’ were dehumanised, reduced to being beasts of burden as the land was raped of its mineral wealth and converted into plantations to feed the ever increasing culinary demands of wealthy European Christians.

Some Muslims had managed to find a toehold in Europe, parts of the east, Turkey and what became the Ottoman Empire and in Spain, the Basque region.

And so the conflict between Muslim and Christianity continued and as time rolled on and oil became an important commodity, the Christian west invaded or took over what was the Ottoman Empire, carved up the territory to extract the wealth that oil would provide, but the populations kept very much under control. The attempt at having democracy in Iran was quashed, fancy the people thinking their oil reserves were for the common good, the democratically elected government was overthrown in 1953 and the Shah, lapdog to western capitalism, ruled until the Ayatollahs took over in 1979.

And today we see the conflict between the Abrahamic religions claiming the biblical lands of Israel, pushing the Arab, Palestinian population out. Judaism under its political guise, supported by Christian Zionists continuing the fight for religious supremacy.

For over 2000 years, there has been conflict between Judaism and Christianity, and for about 1600 years between Islam, Judaism and Christianity.

And in a corner of America, in the Californian city of Pasadena, a Christian Church has opened its worship centre to both Jews and Muslims.

Friendship and community building across the faiths is happening, people are recognising that humanity makes us very much the same, we share the same needs, we need homes to live in, we need communal spaces where we can worship which ever god we choose to worship, we are essentially the same, differentiated by interpretations of faith which goes back to an ancient mythical father.

In trying to understand that it is the love of humanity, the recognition that if I demand the freedom to practice my faith, or even lack of faith, that surely that same freedom must be extended to others who practice another faith. It is a basic human right, it is called freedom of religion, enshrined in the US Constitution and reiterated in the UN Declaration of Human Rights.

In reading about this church in Pasadena, I was moved to see such an act of love, of compassion, of a coming together despite the differences, I really did wonder about the question my nemesis posed.

What is that I don’t get?

Or could it be, what is it that he does not get?

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