Bridge Building Can Be Tough
In our local Presbyterian church one Sunday a few weeks ago, Dr. Mustansir Mir, new Coordinator of the Pluralistic Project at Youngstown State University, spoke to the Contemporary Issues class on Muslims. It was a healthy, balanced presentation. In dosing he suggested that speaking to one another one-to-one or in small fellowship groups was the best way to bridge the chasm between Christians and Muslims. I agree that this is a good place to begin.
I was to lead a follow-up discussion the next Sunday. I crammed, learning the best I could about the Muslim faith. By the time Sunday came, I felt reasonably confident that I could handle it. I asked for responses. One of my dear friends turned out to be a "loose cannon," something I did not expect. He expounded on the rapid spread of the Muslim faith in all countries including our own. He talked about their violence, their totalitarian ways, and their persecution of Christians as well as people of other faiths. We were reeling. I wondered, "How in heaven's name are we going to talk about healthful ways of establishing a pluralistic relationship with our Muslim friends?" Somehow we were able to listen to our friend and to move the discussion to a more constructive point.
I do have some second thoughts. I don't believe in acting primarily out of fear, but I realized that many in our country feel the same things my friend expressed. So-called enlightened folks like myself want to hush up the discords. But the more I thought about our prejudices, I realized that the barriers will remain if we dare not talk about things which really bother us. Sometimes it is easier to be nice then to gather the courage to express the hard things. Jesus himself couldn't transcend the barriers. He had to descend and that meant the cross.
I'm glad my friend spoke up. I hope he's wrong about the outcome — his pessimism about building bridges between Muslims and Christians. But as Ann Dillard in Teaching a Stone to Talk put it: "If you ride these monsters (our fears)... you find what our sciences cannot locate or name. The substrate... which gives goodness its power for good, and evil its power for evil, the unified field: our complex and inexplicable caring for one another, and for our life together here. This is given" (95-96).