Hendrix Professor Examines Roadblocks Along Path
Lord's Prayer, Improvisational Jazz Illustrate Way World Could Be
Last updated Friday, November 11, 2005 11:17 PM CST in Religion
By Heidi Stambuck
The Morning News
FAYETTEVILLE -- Jay McDaniel described peace on earth by comparing it to the Lord's Prayer and to improvisational jazz.
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McDaniel is writing a book called "The Listening Side of Love" about the implications for Christian mission in an age of religious diversity. His talk Sunday drew on his last book, "Gandi's Hope: Learning from Other Religions as a Path to Peace" (Orbis Books, $15, 2005). McDaniel also spoke Sunday evening.
McDaniel opened with a question: "Can the world's religions be vessels for peace in our world?"
He followed it with further questions: "What is peace anyway? If we had it, would we want it?"
Most people think of peace as the absence of violence, McDaniel said, and the human heart finds at least some forms of violence -- think of football and other sports -- intoxicating and addictive. He quoted from the Lord's Prayer to describe peace as the will of God done on earth as it is in heaven.
"Would we want that?" he asked. "Would it be fun? Would it be boring?"
In looking for analogies to creative, adventuresome and exciting peace, McDaniel found improvisational jazz. The musicians play different instruments, listening and responding to each other. They are open to surprise, they appreciate both silences and sounds, they are forgiving of each other, they build on mistakes and they hang together.
"I think that is what peace feels like," McDaniel said. "It includes conflict, dissonance and tension. It might include football."
People
Christians make up one-third of the world's population, McDaniel said, with half of those people living in Asia, Africa and Latin America. Christianity is growing the fastest in Africa, he said, with the Pentecostal tradition the fastest-growing denomination.
Twenty percent of the world's population is Muslim, with 20 percent of those being of Arabic descent, McDaniel said. The largest Muslim countries -- Indonesia and Pakistan -- are not Arabic.
"We need to expel the stereotype that Muslims are all one type of person," he said.
One person in the room would be Jewish if the group were representative of the world, McDaniel said.
"Everybody's future depends on whether Christians and Muslims can learn to be partners," he said.
Challenges
McDaniel gave his views on five challenges to world peace.
• To live compassionately. The Dalai Lama, high priest of a form of Buddhism, consistently says when writing or being interviewed that he does not want people to convert to Buddhism. The Dalai Lama is more concerned that people show kindness to others than what religion they practice.
"The bottom line is to be kind and to care about the suffering of others," McDaniel said. "Even mean people want to be happy, and you do, too."
Muslims, Christians and Jews should lift up compassion as a defining characteristic, which might sound like a no-brainer, but some people think it is more important to be right, obedient and pure.
• To live self-critically. Acknowledge religious teachings and practices that, under certain circumstances, encourage violence, arrogance, prejudice and ignorance.
"Our religion is an ongoing process, and we have the freedom to repent," McDaniel said. "We can step forward into a new future and add new chapters even if there is no precedence for them.
"We assume we have such good news that everybody on this planet needs to internalize it. And they don't have good news for us or not half as good as we have for them."• To live simply. Consumerism has become a dominant religion practiced by one-fifth of the world's population and desired by the other four-fifths. Rather than being made whole by salvation, people let the pursuit of affluence, appearance and marketable achievements rule them. The religion of consumerism promotes a creation doctrine of the Earth as real estate, advertising as evangelism and the shopping mall as church.
Karon Reese of Fayetteville asked McDaniel to "point out the obvious," elaborate on ways to avoid falling into this trap.
"Some of us can't see beyond our SUVs and tall fences," she said.
On a global level, McDaniel advocated some form of income redistribution and the creation of more environmentally benign jobs.
"Learn to live simply, so that others can simply live," he said. "The dilemma I face is my family. I have 15- and 17-year-old sons, and, even if I don't want to keep up with the Joneses, they sure do, and I want to give them joy."
Reese asked how to make a simple life attractive to teens. A person in the audience responded: "Turn off the TV."
McDaniel suggested parents be a model for their children of someone who can be happy living with less.
Reese said she believes consumerism drives the other four challenges McDaniel discussed.
"If we all look at what we really need and what we consume, it is far from balanced," she said.
• To live ecologically. Make peace not just with other people but with other creatures on Earth and the Earth itself.
"This is way past stewardship," McDaniel said. "It goes to kinship, finding richness in a wider community of life."
• To welcome religious diversity.
"Can I as a Christian accept the fact that I am one among many, not over many?" McDaniel asked. "I am glad you are here, and I am not going to try to eliminate you or replace you with me."
McDaniel answered another question, saying he did not propose an end to all missionary work but encouraged people to listen to others first, making that more important than passing along what they believe.
"Listen without having the last word," he said.
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