What has been your experience speaking with others of different faiths? Barbara Brown Taylor gives useful tips on healthy dialogue between neighbors of different traditions in a 3-minute video on Respecting Other Faiths.Barbara Brown Taylor is a professor of religion at Piedmont College in northeast Georgia. For fifteen years she served in parish ministry as an Episcopal priest, and Newsweek named her as one of the country's leading preachers. Her book Leaving Church, which I reviewed last year, tells the story of her decision to depart parish ministry and enter into full-time academic work. She remains a priest in good standing in the Episcopal Diocese of Atlanta.
My best friend is Jewish and I was brought up Catholic. We each respect the other's views and both believe that we share one religion and that is the religion of kindness.
ReplyDeleteOn her daughter's Bat Mitzvah, my daughter took Leah to the mall and Leah had her picture taken on Santa's lap. That photo is in her Bat Mitzvah album!
I have friends who are of other faiths, one agnostic friend (who believes there's a higher power but just isn't sure how to name it) and a few friends who have given up on God. It doesn't change how I feel about them; I love them no matter what. But, I hate to think of anyone living without the comfort of a higher power. I can't live without God, myself.
ReplyDeleteI have dial-up internet, so unfortunately, I wasn't able to see the video. But I read Leaving Church last year and loved it. I remember one line she quoted from The Book of Common Prayer that really struck me. The minister asks the congregation: "Will you seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving your neighbor as yourself?" I love that--to seek to find Christ in every soul and to serve the Christ in that soul. And to recognize that we are all the children of God.
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