Friends and Other Religions
By Sallie B. King, for the Christian and Interfaith Relations Committee
In this time when we constantly interact with people of other cultures and nationalities, the Christian and Interfaith Relations Committee (CIRC) of FGC invites Friends to consider the challenges and opportunities inherent in a world in which the many religions confront each other daily. Religious differences play a role in many contemporary wars. Religion is too often used as a weapon to frighten or a tool to incite violence and hatred. Friends must demonstrate a different way.
Friends recognize the living Spirit of God as a Reality that transcends all names and forms. Our avoidance of creeds and simple manner of worship testify to this. Our form of worship is open and unstructured because we recognize that the Spirit cannot be contained! We cannot therefore dismiss the possibility that the Reality we worship is present under a name and form that is unfamiliar to us and present in other religions.
The end of words (even of Christ's own directions in the days of His flesh) is to turn men to the holy life and power from whence the words came.1
—Isaac Penington
Friends readily acknowledge the presence of the divine Light within all, the living spirit of God present within all persons, in all times and places.
There is a principle which is pure, placed in the human mind, which in different places and ages hath had different names. It is, however, pure and proceeds from God. It is deep and inward, confined to no forms of religion nor excluded from any, where the heart stands in perfect sincerity. In whomsoever this takes root and grows, of what nation soever they become brethren in the best sense of the expression.2
--- John Woolman
Since the Light is within all, we must suppose that it is reflected in others' religions. This gives us a basis for deep spiritual sharing with persons of other religions.
Love was the first motion, and thence a concern arose to spend some time
with the Indians, that I might feel and understand their life and the spirit
they live in, if haply I might receive some instruction from them, or they
be in any degree helped forward by my following the leadings of truth among
them.3
--- John Woolman
This is not to say that all religions are one. The religions are indeed different. While Friends avoid creeds, our Testimonies---Truth, Nonviolence, Equality, Simplicity---are clear and not to be compromised, as is our practice of submitting to the guidance of the Spirit. These give us the guidance we need in our relating to other religions.
Yet we know the presence of the Spirit by its fruits. Where we see unconditional love, saintly lives, care for the needy, courageous defense of Truth, selflessness, submission to the guidance of the Spirit, etc., we may be sure that the Spirit is at work. There is no religion without some evidence of these.
The humble, meek, merciful, just, pious and devout souls are everywhere of one religion; and when death has taken off the mask they will know one another though the divers liveries they wear here makes them strangers.4
— William Penn
The Religious Society of Friends has at its roots an illumination that is simultaneously Christian and Universalist. Our affirmation of the Light within is an affirmation of a universal divine reality. Our language, imagery and inspiration, however, is Christian. How are our Universalism and our Christianity two sides of the same coin?
Friends have always identified the Inner Light with the living Christ. Christ, in Quaker theology, is the Light. . . . In the final analysis, the Quaker doctrine of the Inner Light is really a radically Universalist interpretation of the Christian doctrine of the Holy Spirit.5
—Samuel D. Caldwell
I owe all to God in Jesus Christ and say so to all sorts of people, but if someone says he finds the same in Ram or Buddha, what right have I to say he does not? . . . "Where love is, God is;" where the fruits of the spirit are displayed, there the spirit must be---the Eternal Christ, the loving caringness of God expressed in time and in human form, but not to be equated only with the Carpenter of Nazareth.6
—Mary Barr, Quaker from about 1934, co-worker with Gandhi from 1932
We are called as Friends to lead lives that "take away the occasion of all wars." In today's shrinking and pluralistic world this surely includes reaching out in friendship to members of other religions. For the many whose faith is an important part of their lives, this requires us to take a sincere interest in their religion.
CIRC recommends:
- a. Friendly discussions with members of other religions, held in a spirit of mutual respect and open mindedness.
- b. Mutual visitation in which Friends meetings may well want to take the initiative in inviting other faith groups to visit one's own Friends meeting or asking permission to visit others' religious services.
- c. Outreach to other religions in one's local community for joint engagement in service projects.
- d. Joint youth events, especially if relations are estranged in local schools.
- e. Vigilance in ensuring that local community events are welcoming to and inclusive of all religious, ethnic and cultural groups in the community.
One of the greatest fruits of such sharing is often one's own spiritual growth. Douglas Steere urges Friends to engage in a practice of
mutual irradiation in which each is willing to expose [him or herself] with great openness to the inward message of the other, as well as to share its own experience, and to trust that whatever is the truth in each experience will irradiate and deepen the experience of the other.7
We don't own the Spirit. The Spirit owns us, and all others. It is vast and great beyond our imagining. Though, as Friends, we acknowledge this, still we are accustomed to conceiving the Spirit, and too often even experiencing it, from our own inevitably limited perspective. Our experience, however cherished, cannot be but a glimpse of something infinite and infinitely beautiful. Deep listening and experiential sharing with members of other religions holds the possibility of deepening our experience of the Spirit by awakening us to aspects of that same Spirit that so far remain outside our awareness. This is a treasure we should not neglect.
At the same time, Friends are right to feel that we likewise have gems of great value in our own tradition and experience to share with others. We join with, and extend, George Fox's invitation to Friends to "walk cheerfully over the world, [listening to] and answering that of God in every one."
Notes:
1. Faith and Practice of New England Yearly Meeting of Friends, Worcester, MA: New England Yearly Meeting of Friends, 1985, p. 54.
2. Ibid., p. 91.
3. Ibid., pp. 91–92.
4. Ibid., p. 91.
5. Samuel D. Caldwell, The Inward Light: How Quakersim Unites Universalism and Christianity, Philadelphia, PA: Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, 1997, pp. 10-11.
6 Mary Barr, Friends and Other Faiths, by Margot Tennyson, London: Quaker Home Service, 1992, pp. 46–47.
7. Douglas V. Steere, Mutual Irradiation: A Quaker View Of Ecumenism, Wallingford, PA: Pendle Hill Publications, Pamphlet No. 175, 1971, p. 8.
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