Defenders of Faith?
If you take a British coin out of your pocket and look around its rim you will probably find the letters FD or ‘ Fid Def’ engraved on it – abbreviated forms of the Latin words Fidei Defensor. Fidei Defensor is a title given to Henry VIII way back in 1521 by the Pope. The pope also conferred this honourable title on Henry’s then wife Catherine of Aragon. What happened next is the stuff of childhood history lessons – suffice to say good old Henry bade both the pope and Catherine farewell but kept that title – Defender of the Faith – and it has been used by English monarchs ever since to mark their position as head of the Church of England. That is the faith they are defending – Anglicanism. Back in 1994 Prince Charles, who has quietly done a great deal to promote inter-faith dialogue, Prince Charles commented, “I personally would rather see [my future role] as Defender of Faith, not the Faith.”
I wonder if any of you ever find yourselves defending faith in some way?
A friend who is a GP and I were comparing the merits of our jobs. We both spoke of what we called the party phenomena when complete strangers on hearing of your particular line of work embark on in-depth discussions that you’d rather avoid. Jim gets the ‘Oh doctor, I’ve had this in-growing toe nail for ages’ sort of line or this ‘strange pain in my left buttock’. I get the ‘oh what a fascinating job – so what do you think happens after death or what’s your take on the virgin birth?’ And sometimes I am on the receiving end of people’s rage about religion – be it from the militant atheist stand point – the ‘how can you be so deluded when there’s not a shred of evidence?’ or the ‘world would be alright if it wasn’t for religions – they cause all the wars’ – or sometimes I am cornered by the religious enthusiast.
A while back I was button holed at a party by someone who complained vigorously to me about the growth of religious pluralism in this country. She had picked the wrong person if she was hoping to convince me of her view point. So far as I’m concerned ‘it’s a done deal’ as they say. We live in a multi-cultural society and that brings with it multiple religions. We are living in a multi-faith world. In Britain we are religiously diverse and I believe that fact strengthens British society rather than weakens it – which is not to say that the religiously diverse path is always an easy one to walk. But my party conversation reminded me of how words can be used and misused. Religious pluralism would generally be defined as an acceptance of religious diversity but it also has come to refer to inter-religious dialogue – the bringing together of people from different faiths – not to convert one another but to hear what each other has to say with the aim of understanding one another better. Religious pluralism is used by some to mean that all religions have validity and worth – a view often held by Unitarians. A sort of institutional level version of ‘there is something of God in everyone’ that we have happily borrowed from the Society of Friends. And it is this view that the woman I met at the party was passionately arguing against – ‘no no no’ she said – for her, her faith was true and therefore others were false.
Furthermore she held it as a god given duty to assist people like me in accepting her truth and turning away from falsehood. She wanted to save my soul. Would it be intolerant of me to suggest that all parties should have detectors placed at the door that would beep if anyone with these sorts of views was about to enter? These kinds of discussions are not fun – it’s hard to say politely to someone – ‘no thanks – if saving my soul means I’ll end up as tedious a party guest as you – well I’ll chose eternal damnation any day’!
I’m telling you the funny side of this but when I did a google search on the computer for religious pluralism – within two minutes of searching I found this quotation from an American evangelist Randall Terry:
“I want you to just let a wave of intolerance wash over you. I want you to let a wave of hatred wash over you. Yes, hate is good…Our goal is a Christian nation. We have a Biblical duty, we are called by God, to conquer this country. We don’t want equal time. We don’t want pluralism.”
That’s not quite so funny.
But maybe Randall Terry is not to blame. Both Christianity and Islam contain within their sacred texts clear teachings that they are the only true faith, and that their followers have a duty to encourage non-believers to turn to their faith. This is saving souls.
But in Britain today the imperative seems to me to be less about saving souls for the future life and more about building harmonious communities for now and for that kind of building work interfaith dialogue seems vital. This week in November has been designated Inter Faith Week by the Inter Faith Network and there are many events taking place to celebrate the connections between faith groups.
The Inter Faith Network for the UK was founded in 1987 to promote good relations between people of different faiths in this country. Its member organisations include representative bodies from the Baha’i; Buddhist; Christian; Hindu; Jain; Jewish; Muslim; Sikh; and Zoroastrian communities; national and local inter faith bodies; and academic institutions and educational bodies concerned with inter faith issues. The Network works with its member bodies to help make the UK a place marked by mutual understanding and respect between religions where all can practise their faith with integrity. The Network’s way of working is firmly based on the principle that dialogue and cooperation can only prosper if they are rooted in respectful relationships which do not blur or undermine the distinctiveness of different religious traditions.
Unitarians around the country play their part in organisations such as this. At a local level here in Kensington and Chelsea we have a Forum of Faiths supported by the borough with the aim of bringing faith communities into dialogue with one another. This kind of dialogue between faiths does not seem a big deal to us today but if we take ourselves back to the Victorian era then faiths other than Christianity were regarded with suspicion and there was considerable ignorance of their beliefs and practices, even amongst scholars.
This is not the time to embark on lengthy descriptions but perhaps some brief snapshots might help to show ways in which Unitarians made a considerable contribution to the development of awareness of other faiths. I have ministerial colleague Vernon Marshall to thank for some of this information. Vernon has written about the work of Sir William Jones a judge in Bengal and later Unitarian who was the first European to study Indian sacred literature back in the late 1700s. James Freeman Clarke, professor of theology at Harvard University in the late 1800s, was the first academic in the world to offer a course in what was called Comparative Religions. Here in Britain Joseph Estlin Carpenter, again a Unitarian, taught Comparative Religions at Oxford University and did much to bring an awareness of Buddhism’s teachings to the west.
In 1893 the first Parliament of the World’s Religions met in Chicago with much effort on the part of Unitarians – and still meets every five years to this day.
Unitarians helped to found and continue to be involved with a number of world wide inter-faith organisations including the IARF – International Association for Religious Freedom and the WCF – the World Congress of Faiths that is organising the Karen Armstrong lecture some of us will be attending in December.
As Unitarians we are only a tiny little group of religious liberals. But when I look back at the history of inter-faith dialogue and study I can see the considerable contribution we have made over the centuries. A bit like Cen Llwyd’s reading we heard earlier on when he described the importance of all the minor tributaries that lead into the River Teifi – we can be those small streams that nonetheless make a profound difference. I think many us share an awareness of Jung’s living waters image that was the basis for our meditation today – we believe that the waters of the spirit are one and that all the rich variety of the world’s religions are human manifestations of something much deeper. We humans are so very diverse no wonder our religions reflect that diversity. But beneath all the outer trappings of faith there is surely a oneness that our faith reflects. Not for nothing does our name start with Uni – united in the oneness of all that is.
We live at a time when much that is wrong about religion is painfully obvious. Religion can clearly bring out the best and worst in us humans. But I don’t think the answer is to imagine a blissful happy-ever-after life without religion – which is the simplistic message of some vocal atheists. Get rid of religion and all will be well? I don’t think so. Because of course the problem is not religion it’s us, us humans. For we are both the potential trouble makers and the potential peace makers. We are the ones who have a choice.
We are the ones who have a choice and we are the ones who have a voice. And I want us to use our voices to be defenders of faith. I think it’s one of the things we do well here at Essex Church – we create spaces in which we can become more articulate about our own faith and allow one another chance to explore beliefs in a safe space. We practice here so that perhaps, when we get trapped in a corner at a party, we can be utterly persuasive in our role as defenders of faith. It’s a part of human existence that I think is worth defending. Amen
Rev. Sarah Tinker
Sermon – 20th November 2011