Dialogue among people of different faiths fosters solidarity and helps promote the Golden Rule, encouraging mutual respect and understanding. This dialogue emphasizes the importance of seeing each other as equals and working together for the common good, rather than focusing on our differences.
How does dialogue empower us to live by the Golden Rule?
By Emilia Strozak
Text to Self
I believe that I have done this form of dialogue through my daily encounters with those around me.
For example, I do this dialogue all the time when I open up to my friends. This is usually at school, or in my neighbourhood with local friends. I do not discriminate those around me for their religion, and instead embrace it and make myself vulnerable to them. This is so that I can seek comfort or advice from them, while building a strong bond. Even with strangers, when I interact with them, I do not shy away or make rude remarks if they are wearing religious clothing, or not taking part/eating something due to religion. Instead, I recognize that it is part of their faith, and it does not need to impede me coming closer to others
Text to World
I see this example of dialogue everywhere in the world. Whether it's daily interactions I witness, or inspiring news stories that I read about. For example, I often see news stories of religious leaders interacting and showing kindness to each other. There is no tension between them, and instead they treat each other with the utmost of respect and recognition. One very good example of this is Pope Francis, and all his work in encouraging dialogue between religions and faiths.
Many new articles also post articles on the topic of inter religious dialogue, stating how important that it is encouraged in our daily lives. CJN wrote an article, stating that 'Interfaith dialogue has been largely forgotten by our community'. It goes on to speak about fostering and understanding of and between different religious communities. It shares examples and insights on dialogue of everyday life, and gives pointers on how we can implement it into our everyday lives on a local scale, but also on a global scale as well.
http://www.cjnews.com/perspectives/opinions/its-time-to-resurrect-interfaith-dialogue
Pope Francis appealed for more intensive dialogue with Islam, stating that inter religious dialogue, especially with Islam, is critical, and he was grateful that “so many civil and religious leaders from the Islamic world” had attended his installation Mass.
Article on Pope Francis exemplifying Everyday Life, and Religious dialogue with British Muslim Leaders, and takes place at the Vatican on April 7, 2017. He stated, '“I like to think that the most important work that we must do among us today, in humanity, is the work ‘of the ear:’ to listen to each other, without rushing to answer.', a quote we should al implement when taking part in inter religious dialogue.
Text to Text
The artifact that I saw the dialogue of Action the most was the Seeds of Peace assignment, since the camp promotes exactly that.
A great source is this video about the Seeds of Peace Camp: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxlCabfaY9w
It includes the story of Tamar and Suma, who became close through interreligious dialogue of everyday life. They share their story of sharing their feelings and opinions, opening up to the opposing side, and seeing the person underneath the preconception.
This is also an example of the dialogue since the organization continued to work with those who graduated from the program even after it ended. They provided year-round programs that would continue to teach the teenagers to initiate dialogue of their own within their area, and eventually with the opposing territory. The kids would bring this knowledge to their families, which will then educate the population to initiate dialogue with their 'enemy', inspiring them to embrace their differences, and instead of going to war, work towards uniting as one human family, and help improve God's creation - the world around them.
By learning about the conflict in Israel and Palestine from the slideshow, and then studying what the Seeds of Peace program was doing to help, I saw that the camp promotes dialogue between the teenagers of the feuding areas, and encourages them to understand and respect each person's religion. This relates to the Ground Rules of Living, since the teenagers learn to respect the faith and religion of others, realize everyone has a certain perspective on faith, understand that each religion holds a sacred truth for its followers, and accept the importance of religion. This is a form of the Dialogue of Action since the camp encouraged the teenagers from feuding areas to work with each other, and taught them to guard the happiness and peace of others. It was achieved by having the kids eat, sleep, play, and talk with each other throughout the three weeks, and even after the camp ended.
Text to Faith
Dialogue of Everyday Life
Christians are encouraged to work with people of other religions for the well-being of humanity. We are called to work together in order to protect the rights, happiness, and peace of the people and the world around us, while learning about each other and building meaningful relationships. We must show solidarity with those that fall victim to injustice, and work towards a kinder, just world.
Another way this dialogue helps us fulfill the Church's call is through the solidarity we achieve when we put our differences aside and see each other as equals. This also relates to the Golden Rule, since when we see each other as equals, the 'playing field' is equal, and it's up to us how we treat those around us. We are reminded to treat others as we would like to be treated, and we no longer feel the need to put others down or discriminate against them for being different.
As we learned in class, solidarity means that we are one human family, no matter our differences, and we learn that 'loving your neighbour' has global dimension in an independent world. When we stop feuding over our differences, and we see that we just like one another, we focus our energy towards something positive. By accepting and including each other, we can prevent wars and hurting each other, and instead promote peace and kindness.
The Dialogue of Everyday Life among youth fulfills the Church's call to share the Gospel message in our community by calling us to work together despite our differences for a better world. For example, Nostra Aetate is the declaration of the relation of the Church to non-Christian religions, and promotes understanding and cooperation between religions, which is achieved when we interact with each other. This applies to the Dialogue of Everyday Life, since when we interact with each other and set aside our differences, we can combine our abilities and work together for the well being of humanity. We stop rejecting those that are different from us, and are able to truly interact and understand them. This is when the Church is united with non-Christian religions.
