This is your place to publicly comment on the topics and issues addressed in Speaking of Faith programs. React in a personal way, and put into words what this program meant to you.
Submit Your Reflection about "Religion and Violence."
Looking to Buddhist Teachings for Peace (August 22, 2005)
I just want to say THANK YOU for the excellent way in which you lay out the record of your programs, including the music heard and references. This is the ultimate in good resources for those of us who always have another question or search frantically for a pencil and paper when something strikes us well. Hurrah! Please continue the good work you do to enlighten America!
Debra Shrader
Rolling Hills, CA (KPCC, 89.3 FM)
Looking to Buddhist Teachings for Peace (August 7, 2005)
I am going to the Thich Nhat Hanh retreat this coming week in Massachusetts. I am going because especially at this time I am focused on peaceful interactions between people and my own inner peace — and I think that Thich Nhat Hanh's teachings will help me in my quest. How great it was to hear Miroslav Volf on your show today and to think that he works out of my city at Yale Divinity School. I also found it interesting when you asked him about who had a difficult time forgiving and he mentioned his experience in his native country — how he was questioned because of his beliefs, how he was watched and documented, how he was interrogated, and how he had no representation — and I cannot help myself from seeing the parallel to Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo, Cuba so clearly I have an issue with my government for which i must find some peace.
Barbara Banquer
New Haven, CT (WPKT, 90.5 FM)
Corresponding Stages (August 5, 2005)
The "thin" and "thick" versions of religion your summary of Volf's view refers to, correspond to "Stage 2" and "Stage 4" of Scott Peck's "Stages of Spiritual Development." A short (6-page) examination of this week's topic of your show, called "When Religions Kill," incorporates not only Scott Peck's stages, but also political, historical, economic, and psychological aspects of religion that lead to violence (or, by contrast, successfully prevent violence). In addition to the three major monotheistic religions, this 6-page paper draws lessons fruitfully from Eastern religions such as Buddhism, and from maverick departures of the central monotheisistic faiths, especially Quakerism — because both Quakerism and Buddhism have succeeded at preventing their followers from resorting to violence. Your shows are excellent.
Paul Bernstein
Chelsea, MA (Listens via Web Audio)
Practicing to Forgive (February 18, 2004)
In speaking with Miroslav Volf after the taping about "forgetting" as the last stage of forgiveness, I gave him a metaphor that occurred to me as he was speaking: "Forgetting" occurs when an injury to the body has healed completely from inside out and the scab finally falls off…no longer needed for protection…eventually leaving no mark. He liked it and asked whether he could use it, and I said sure—it was a gift. And since then, it occurs to me that the metaphor can be extended: healthy remembering is like tending the wound, cleansing it, changing the dressing, assisting time's natural healing process. Unhealthy remembering picks at the scab, re-injuring the site, leaving a scar.
I also found myself contemplating the question posed during your discussion of how one finds the will to embrace those who hurt us, and the experience of parenting for almost 20 years leads me to an answer: practice. Isn't it interesting that we speak of "practicing our faith?" It has a double meaning, I think. Think of all the hard things we ask children to learn to do: share, read, imagine how Johnny feels, understand the difference between secrets and surprises, say "sorry."
Think of how we learn the practice of extending hospitality, of sharing our homes. Most of us are taught this as a clear human "good"—both in the abstract and in hundreds of little examples as we grow. We watch our parents, try it ourselves, fail, say sorry, and try it again. With each iteration, we gain experience: we get a little better at the skill, receive praise, and, no less important, we begin to experience the benefits and pleasures of being good at it. Perhaps as little children our sharing is "thin" and formulaic, merely going through the motions. But as we try it over and over, we have the increasing thrill of mastery. We also begin to experience what it is like to have others share with us and to connect those feelings with our own acts of sharing. Our attitudes and practice of sharing become deeper, more three-dimensional with each experience, and we make it ours…adapt it to each situation and our own style. As we repeatedly extend hospitality, we experience the delights of new intimacies with former strangers. As we practice over and over approaching the unknown world and strangers in it with curiosity rather than judgment, we find ourselves increasingly being invited to dinner.
In other words: it occurs to me that we can learn to forgive (and to ask ourselves to do the work and take the risk of forgiving) much as we learn other complex skills—by practicing. Perhaps we should begin to think of learning to forgive not as a sudden departure from our typical ways of being, but as part of the natural trajectory of human development—baby steps leading over time to the 4-minute mile.
As a parent and as a striving student of life myself, this gives me MUCH to think about. Thank you for leading me in such a rich and very practical direction! It occurs to me we need to consciously practice embracing "the others" and forgiving the little things from the time we are children and throughout our lives. If we haven't practiced our forgiving as we practice our math (counting>arithmetic>algebra>calculus>differential equations)…and gotten very, very good at it…we will be lost on September 11.
Marty Stansell-Gamm
Washington D.C. (WETA, 90.9 FM)
Leap of Faith (March 15, 2004)
I was very interested in your program on Christianity and Violence. While I found Mr. Volf's ideas very compelling, I would have to agree with Krista that they are impossible. He starts from the assumption that devotees can open their minds enough to the possibility that they alone do not have the corner on absolute truth. Unfortunately, this will never happen. Far too many religious people in the world share the simple-minded sentiment of General William Boyken when he said "My God can beat up your God." As long as religious groups continue to reinforce the illusion of the "evil other" they will always seek to oppress and destroy their enemies and the world will never be a peaceful place.
Jim Goodwin
Woodland Hills, CA (KPCC, 89.3 FM)
Scars Resurrected (March 16, 2004)
When we look back at history, often we think that things happened the way they did because it was the only way it could have happened. Jesus Christ could have resurrected from the dead perfectly healed — but he didn't. He still had the scars of the crucifixion on him, and it was through those scars that Thomas and others recognized him. As a Protestant, I do not believe that the scars hurt Christ anymore but rather they glorify God. The scars are a reminder to all Christians that our savior suffered injustice, violence and death and that we can expect the same. By our scars — both physical and emotional — we will be recognized and through understanding and the gift of forgiveness, we can use those scars to glorify God and enjoy him forever.
Yvonne Younis
Philadelphia, PA (WHYY 91.0-FM)
Narrow versus Broad (March 14, 2004)
I think what Volf was saying is better reflected by the terms "narrow" versus "broad" views instead of thin and thick. A prime example of this narrow view is found in the words of Paul in his first letter to the Corinthians 15 where he tells his audience that without belief in the resurrection their faith is in vain. Ignoring the strong social justice and peace component of Jesus' message he pins everything to belief in the crucifixion and resurrection.
With this comes a glorification of the unjust death (crucifixion) of an innocent man (Jesus) for "the sins of the guilty," an inherently unjust concept, leading to the mentality of the Bin Laden's of Christianity, Falwell and Pat Robertson etc. that support the Jews based on their violent rapture belief where most of them will be killed.
Their's of course is a "narrow" (thin) view of Christian theology that ignores the words of Jesus and lays emphasis on the "religion" of Christianity that evolved much after Jesus and is totally alien to his words, his social justice and kingdom of God message.
Muhammed Asadi
Detroit, MI (WUOM, 91.7 FM)
