Curious Christian

Reflections on culture, nature, and spirituality from a Christian perspective

Can we coexist?

Published by

Matt Stone

2008-11-29

Can we coexist? With the recent spate of terrorist attacks in India and the questioning, by some, of whether coexistance should even be a goal, I would like to invite you to declare your support for coexistance, for freedom of religion and irreligion.

The flip side is that is that, as part of this, I invite Christians to denounce Christian militancy, for Hindus to denounce Hindu militancy, for Muslims to denounce Islamic militancy, for Buddhists to renounce Buddhist militancy, for Jews to denounce Jewish militancy, for Atheists to denounce Atheist militancy … you get the picture … for it to be honest there needs to be an element of self criticism.

It is not necessary that we agree with one another, only that we renounce violence and aggression towards each other and hate and demonization of each other as valid options. I may disagree with your path, but I respect you right to choose it; I may disagree with your ideas, but I respect you as a person. That is the path of love. If you are a person of love I invite you to think seriously about this.

Also, if you are are blogger who is interested in interfaith dialogue, I would be interested in expressions of interest for joining an interfaith synchoblog network. Pagans, Atheists, Satanists, anyone is welcome who is committed to mutual respect and coexistance.

Tags Peace

8 responses to “Can we coexist?”

Josh Hudson

2008-11-30

Hey Matt. I cottoned onto the Coexist movement/idea about a year ago. The T Shirt’s looking a bit faded now. The idea probably faded a fair bit with it – as in I don’t see much of it about. Now with everything that’s going on in Mumbai etc. It’s a good time to reignite the passion. I love your renounce violence/aggression of your faith idea. I think a lot of folks are cottoning on to the idea of standing for non violence especially since the Emergent push. We can’t be sitting on the sidelines condoning or justifying war anymore but some folks need a push (see my last post on Retro Vision).

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John W. Morehead

2008-11-30

Sign me up for this, Matt. I’m on board. I’ve seen the bumper sticker for this on the bumpers of Pagans and I share in these desires. But they do need to be qualified in that this also involves a commitment to genuine understanding, and the right to vigorously disagree without resort to charges of bigotry or violence. I’m committed to this as a Christian and hope others from my religious pathway and others will join me.

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Matt Stone

2008-12-01

Totally agree John

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Steve Hayes

2008-12-01

Well we started the interfaith synchroblog network a couple of months ago, remember?
Anyone is welcome to join, and you can find more information about on the Religionrap forum.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/religionrap/

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jonathan

2008-12-02

find me some Buddhist militancy, and I’ll denounce it.

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Matt Stone

2008-12-03

The Sinhalese-Tamil (Buddhist-Hindu) civil war in Sri Lanka comes to mind most immediately, though I could also throw the guerilla / terrorist group the Democratic Kayin Buddhist Army (DKBA) into the picture. Historically we can also consider the rape of Nanking and the war crimes committed by Japanese Zen Buddhists in WWII. My purpose is not to denigrate Buddhism mind you. I have great respect for the tradition. I merely acknowledge that every path has had self-professed adherants who’ve been less than stellar examples of the way of peace.
For more background on Buddhist violence and militancy you might want to browse some of the examples listed here.
http://www.iivs.de/~iivs01311/EN/links.htm
The site is hostile, so it does not represent how I would present similar information, but it seems to have one of the more comprehensive lists. I trust you can look past the rhetoric to see the deeper issues it raises.
More balanced is this book review on “Buddhist Fundamentalism and Minority Identities in Sri Lanka”
http://www.buddhistethics.org/6/fenn991.html
In 1942, during the period of Japanese aggression, Zen master Sawaki Kodo (1880–1965) did not hesitate to write:
“It is just to punish those who disturb the public order. Whether one
kills or does not kill, the precept forbidding killing [is preserved]. It is
the precept forbidding killing that wields the sword. It is the precept
that throws the bomb.”
I think that prompts reflection

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Matt Stone

2008-12-03

Ta for posting the synchroblog link Steve

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Pseudonym

2008-12-06

And while we’re on the topic, a quick plug for the Charter for Compassion. The URL is in the header of the comment.

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