Multifaith, Shmultifaith

Multifaith, Shmultifaith
(c) Melina Magdalena (2012)

I write as an outsider, unaffiliated in any official, paid-up sense, though my informal affiliations and associations doubtlessly play their part in building my perspective and will add weight to what I have to say. However, I speak as an individual, not having sought representation or agreement from anyone else. I hope you will read my words with respect, and due consideration. My aim is neither to stir up trouble, nor add to troubles already ensuing. I support multifaith activity, and I support a venture that seeks to honour and assist asylum seekers.

I am writing about the “Multifaith service to Honour perished asylum seekers”, this Sunday July 1^st, 2012, at Pilgrim Church. I first learned of this event from an email on Wednesday afternoon thanks to an email sent to me by a fellow JAFL (Jewish Adelaide Feminist Lesbians), who had received it from Sharon and Bob Setton, who disseminate information through “the” Adelaide Jewish community (notwithstanding many of us who are not on their list).

Excited by the opportunity to join with others on such a grave and important occasion, and by the chance to do something that could make me feel I have some voice and power to help change the situation for survivors, by working and praying together with others, I immediately forwarded the information to the school where I have been teaching for several years, to be distributed via an “AllStaff” email. I knew that many of my colleagues would be interested in this event, as we run an Intensive English Language Centre (IELC; formerly known as New Arrivals Program). I also forwarded the email to my partner, who works in another IELC. I then copied the information and loaded it onto my Facebook page as my status update.

I noted that Rabbi Shoshana Kaminsky was listed as the media contact, so I included that information for anyone who has links to the media, or who needed more information. I noted that the event was not endorsed or organized by Multifaith SA, and although I wondered about that, I also noted that “the service has been developed by an informal multifaith group which has included representation from the Christian, Jewish, Baha’i and Muslim faiths”. That sounded kosher.

Only two of my Facebook friends ‘liked’ and ‘shared’ the information. My partner also responded by sending the information out via an “AllStaff” email at her school.

This morning I discovered with some chagrin, that a new streamlined flyer had been developed to promote the event, which limits the information to just the venue (Pilgrim Church) and bears the logo of the Uniting Church. By neglecting to mention of the Rabbi or the Beit Shalom Synagogue, this version significantly waters down the credibility of the event as a multifaith venture.  

Late last year I was approached by a Christian lesbian, who was interested in organising a multifaith lesbian group. I was happy to discuss it, because in principle I support such an idea. However, I also cringed, reacting from past experience where a majority, in trying to include a (or some) minorities, automatically privileges itself, thus causing the inevitable sidelining and eventual exclusion of those minorities. When that happens, those who represent the minorities often experience it as tokenism. It is a matter of concern, because the process, that seems to occur without anyone sanctioning or planning it, is so destructive to the cause.

The value of multifaith events is in breaking down prejudices and building commonalities and connections between people of different faith traditions. Usually, those who embrace these opportunities are already not the mainstream practitioners of their faiths. Usually, these people are engaged, do practice their faith and regard it as important in their lives. These are the courageous people whose minds are open to the idea that different does not mean evil, and that different can also mean the same. These people have the chance through their lives, to build more links, to break down more prejudices and to engage with others, in order to create a more peaceful world.

However, it is only through deliberate and fair representation of diversity that a multifaith event can be understood to be truly multifaith, and not simply a Christian church service that that pays lip service to other religions and denominations but fails to actually connect with and include people of other faiths.

It needs to be said that many people who are not Christian find the idea of attending a church for a religious service to be an enormous obstacle, which can only be overcome through explicit, repeated, exerted effort on the part of the Christians who attend that church, as well as from those allies of other faiths who have already broken down their fears around entering and praying in a church environment. What is normal for Christians is not normal for people of other faiths. No matter how friendly, non-threatening and welcoming Christians may believe their setting to be, it is still always intrinsically different from what outsiders may have experienced before, or what they have been led to expect.

There are many links, similarities, aha! moments and interconnections between faiths and the way that they are practised, but unless people of other faiths are actively seeking to make those connections, whilst visiting churches, they are actually busily trying to bolster their own sense of normality and rightness, and to reconstruct for themselves, in a foreign church environment, a space where they feel safe and comfortable to worship. You cannot assume that people of other faiths will know how not to offend, what is expected, where to sit, how to sit, what hand gestures and utterances are appropriate, whether to sing, and so on, in a foreign church environment. It might not matter to you, as a friendly Christian, but an outsider might well respond to such a notion that it doesn’t matter, with something like “What? You don’t respect your own faith enough to demand that certain proprieties be followed? How can it not matter?”

I know from personal experience how difficult it can be to find a person or people or single family or representative of one denomination who is willing to engage with representatives of other denominations, let alone other faiths, and I respect the desire to not use individuals as tokens, in the absence of sustained interest in an event or group. The multifaith path is not an easy one. 

I will mention here that like multifaith, multiculturalism has traditionally ignored Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander input, thereby neatly excising and excluding Indigenous Australians from being included as part of the amorphous whole, that is diverse Australia. Yet the idea of seeking input of a spiritual nature from “Indigenous Australia” causes people to cringe because, as with any group, the multifarious versions of spirituality sometimes include, sometimes exclude, are regarded as so private as to be secret, and we do not wish to offend. It is no different for people of any minority faith and tradition.

Part of the problem that I have picked up on, through my experiences as part of multifaith and multicultural events, is the difficulty caused by denominations. It’s all well and good to want to have a group that, for the sake of an example, includes one Christian, one Jew, one Muslim, one Hindu, one Baha’i, one Pagan, one Buddhist, and so on, but in a mainstream Australian context, which Christian do you choose?

We can safely assume that the Christians who want nothing to do with such a venture can be ignored for these purposes, but how do you avoid privileging one Christian over another? How do you determine which is the most deserving Christian, the most well-meaning Christian, the most powerful Christian, the Christian least likely to offend or seek to convert? And what do you do with the other irate, outspoken, angry Christians who were excluded, who don’t believe they are being accurately represented, and who want a say as well? What of the other friendly Christians who desperately want to participate? 

A group that includes 8 Christians of 8 different denominations is already multifaith. Do you need to have a group that includes 5 Jews of 5 different denominations, 4 Muslims of 4 different denominations, and so on, as well? I am betraying my ignorance here, but I think you will understand the point that I am trying to make. And being the lone Jew in a group that consists of a lone Muslim, a lone Hindu, a lone Buddhist, a lone Baha'i and 8 different Christians feels like being invisible, particularly when those friendly Christians persist in telling that lone Jew that they have always been fascinated by the Old Testament, want the low-down on why Jews haven’t accepted Jesus, and fish for an invitation to the next Seder or Shabbat.

Back to the point: promotional material for a multifaith event that bears a single logo to represent a single faith is not promoting that event in a multifaith way. It is exclusionary and downright offensive. It almost makes me want to not go to the church at all. I just hope that other people either haven’t seen that flyer, or are big enough to set the offense aside, in the name of the cause.

I note with some dismay that I have not issued any words that relate directly to the fact that asylum seeking men, women and children have been shipwrecked and drowned this week, in the name of a democratic Australia. Some will accuse me of wallowing in first world problems, encourage me to grow up and see the wood for the trees. I’ve lived with that kind of accusation since I was 16 years old, joined my first peace group “S.A.N.I.T.Y.”, and was upset when other members began to bag Israel (and Jews, and by extension – Me!) for the mistreatment of Palestinians. I am 42 now, with a wealth of experiences – mostly disillusioning, some bewildering and a few enlightening – and I still say this is important enough for you to pay attention to.