Voices of faith at the Parliament of Religions

A couple of days ago I returned from Australia, where I attended the 2009 Parliament of World Religions. The event was held in Melbourne from December 3-10.

I spent those last couple of days trying to think how to describe the Parliament to those not there. I explained the experience to a few friends and a few folks from Patheos -- and each time it came out quite differently.

How could it not? We flew 15,000 miles to spend 7 days in a massive building with 5,000 people representing over 200 faiths. We saw a few of the 1,000 presentations and panel discussions, wandered the halls where the costumes of countless traditions and the languages of countless nations could be experienced in large, greedy gulps. And we heard the ideas and opinions of lots and lots of folks. That is pretty hard to describe.

Within the context of the overall Parliament, I had the chance to talk to a lot of people. A dozen of them I talked to on camera -- and I asked them the same 4 questions each:

- What does it mean to be a in today's world?
- With the "shrinking" of the world through technology, how does that impact you and your tradition?
- When you interact with others, from different traditions, what aspects of your tradition do they find it easiest to understand or accept -- and what aspects to they find it more difficult to understand or accept?
- What do you hope comes out of gatherings like this one in Melbourne?

I asked that of some of the traditions we DON'T hear as much about -- even at Patheos so far. The Patheos team of regular contributors includes people that are Christian (Catholic, Mainline Protestant, Evangelical Protestant, and Mormon), Buddhist, Jewish, Muslim, Atheist and "Non-Affiliated". So I specifically sought out other voices, and interviewed a Jain, a Soka Gakkai, a Scientologist, a Quaker, a Hindu, a Baha'i, a Sikh, a Gnostic, a Zoroastrian, a Wiccan, a Hare Krishna, and a Unitarian-Universalist.

Their video interviews are here.

To be fair, these aren't random adherents (although, at the Parliament, you always get people who have a pretty active role in their traditions) -- they are instead teachers or spokespeople for their tradition.

As you watch the videos, you start to notice some things. The voices and accents and garb and cultural heritage of the speakers varies wildly. The context of their tradition colors their answers.

But beyond all of that, the utter sameness of so much of what they are saying starts to sink in. That they are proud of their tradition. That they think at the core it is about a few fundamental human truths. That they believe their is a lot of good that their tradition can do in the world. That they are trying to do some real, practical good. And that you don't have to be a member of that tradition to join with them to help make it a better place.

Some of you will notice that and will be surprised, and some of you will notice that and not be surprised. But notice it, either way.

There are some huge problems out there in the world. And although it is clear that the solutions to these problems must involve the world's religious traditions, it isn't clear that many of the religious institutions will be able to get out of their own way in order to do so. I'll have a lot to say about some of those things in upcoming blogs.

By Leo Brunnick  |  December 15, 2009; 3:30 AM ET Save & Share:                 
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