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Children of Abraham Peace Essay Contest 2005-2006
Third place – Zachary Eaton Zachary Eaton is a senior at Montgomery Blair High School in Maryland. He divides his time between rigorous academics and participating in community theatre. He directs and acts for The Pine Players, a wholly student initiated and run theatrical organization based in Takoma Park, MD, which raises money for Bread for the City. He hopes to one day study European History and English Literature at Amherst College. Plan for Peace: by Zachary Eaton It is one of the greatest tragedies of all time that religion, a force that has such great capacity to bring people together in love and harmony, has been used time and time again as the tool of demagogues and tyrants to divide people and to justify some of the most heinous atrocities in human history. Especially tragic is the rift that exists between three of the worlds largest and most influential religions, all of which can trace their origins back to a single root; the patriarch Abraham. Christianity, Islam, and Judaism, while each has its own unique traditions and practices, have far more in common than most people recognize. It is in part because of this ignorance to their common heritage that many of these three religion’s followers have allowed themselves to be pitted against each other in vicious and bloody conflict. The atrocious actions throughout history of a few of Christianity, Judaism, and Islam’s fanatics have helped sully the name of a triumvirate of faiths all of which have deeply entrenched traditions of love and peace at their very cores. The work of these extremist zealots has in some people’s minds become representative of these religions, this has cause many of these people to become intensely alienated by religions that they see as causing nothing but violence, social strife, and war. It is time for the adherents of these faiths to come together and recognize all they have in common and to show the world that they do not promote violence or hate, but harmony and unity between all of their followers. Something that is essential for people to understand, and far too many do not, is that Christianity, Islam, and Judaism all worship the same god. Far too often I meet people who believe that Christians and Jews worship the same ‘God’, while Muslims worship some deity called ‘Allah’. The sheer ignorance such a statement suggests is staggering. ‘Allah’ is the Arabic word for God, the same god that Jews and Christians around the world worship. All three religions grew out of the teaching of the Patriarch Abraham of a single omnipotent god. Believing they are different is akin to saying that English speaking Christians worship God, French speaking Christians worship Dieu, Spanish speaking Christians worship Dios, and so on. In America the media has a habit of neglecting to translate Allah, leading to the proliferation of the idea that the Jewish and Christian God is different than that Islamic Allah. This simple issue of translation has helped many of the uneducated followers of Judaism and Christianity to believe that Muslims worship a different god them they do. Even people who really should know better have made this mistake. Lt. Gen. William G. "Jerry" Boykin, the deputy undersecretary of Defense for intelligence and a devout evangelical Christian, was quoted as saying, in reference to his fight against a Muslim warlord in Somalia, “I knew my God was bigger than his. I knew that my God was a real God and his was an idol.” 1 Statements such as this, especially coming from a high ranking government official, a person who should be better educated, vividly illustrate the level of ignorance in American society towards the history of the Abrahamic faiths. The erroneous idea that a discrepancy exists between the god of Christianity and Judaism and the god of Islam has only helped ostracize Muslims from Jews and Christians who are unaware of the common roots shared by all three religions. For reconciliation between the now divided factions of these faiths to ever be possible, people need better education as to the commonalities between these faiths. Beyond the basic confusion over whose god is whose, there are almost innumerable similarities between Islam, Judaism, and Christianity that remain unknown to the general public. Each religion was built on the foundation of the teachings of Abraham and on the elaborations made by the religion that predated it. Judaism came first, after which Christianity incorporated the Jewish holy book, the Torah, into the bible as the Old Testament while adding on the New Testament teachings of Christ. Finally, six centuries after Christianity, Islam appeared and the Koran, which consisted of parts of the Torah and Bible with the additional new revelations of Muhammad, was compiled. It is because each religion was built on the foundation laid by its predecessor that the Abrahamic faiths have so much in common. Especially prominent is the highly stressed importance of peace within each religion. As Jesus said during his Sermon on the Mount, “Blessed are the peace makers, for they shall be called the sons of God.”2 This is a message that is highly prevalent though out both the Bible and the Koran. As Muslim scholar Imam Sulayman S. Nyang of Howard University in Washington, D.C. puts it, “The Koran is saying to humans, this is the final guidance from your Creator, for the specific purpose of worshipping him and creating a civil society where you can live in peace with one another.”3 Many of those living in Western society today have come to see the preaching of radical Islamic demagogues and the atrocities committed by their followers as representative of Islam as a whole. This assumption is contrary to the teachings of peace found in numerous locations throughout the Koran. The time has come for the common traditions of peace to be sought out by Christians, Jews, and Muslims everywhere. If these ideals can be revived in the hearts and minds of the disciples of these faiths, perhaps the history of violence between these religions that have so much in common may finally come to an end. My community, the extremely left-leaning, highly secular Maryland suburb of Takoma Park, is a stark contrast against the war-torn Middle East, a place being ripped asunder by religiously fueled hate. Here there are no open pitched battles between contesting faiths. But there is a form of discontent that, while non-violent, is deeply upsetting in nature. In Takoma Park there is no hostility between different faiths, but there is some friction between those with a religion, and those without one. I have heard my peers refer to themselves as ‘antichristian’ or as ‘radical atheists.’ Now, I would describe myself as an atheist, but while I do not believe in a god, I wholly respect others right to do so. Unfortunately, many of my peers do not have the same respect. They have become hostile towards religion, especially Christianity, attributing conflicts and wars worldwide to it. In part, I believe, this enmity toward religion is many of these teens chosen form of adolescent rebellion. They see the consequences of religious war every night on the news as images from Iraq and Palestine flicker before their impressionable faces. Some have come to see these religions as nothing more than a way to justify horrendous violence and bloodshed, and as a result have rebelled against the ecclesiastical establishment and everything for which it stands. I once listened to a friend of mine, while referring to a mutual acquaintance, voice an attitude toward religion that I personally found quite disturbing. Both of us had recently met this young man and both of us had liked him. We both said as much, but then my friend, with a look of apprehension, said “I’ve heard he’s really religious.’ She said this in a hushed voice, as if she were telling me something unfortunate or disappointing about this boy. I was unpleasantly surprised by my friend, who seemed to view people with faith with a certain disdain, or contempt. It is because of unenlightened views on religion like this that I hope to implement a project that might help my peers become more tolerant and understanding of religion. Many of them associate Christianity with the brutality of the Crusades and connect Islam with terrorists in Gaza and the West Bank. There is a need in my community for increased understanding of these ancient religions that have such a long a vibrant tradition of teaching peace. The concept behind my project is quite simple. The teens in my community are so hostile towards religion because they have only a minimal exposure to it. They have formulated harsh opinions based on what they see in the media, not on what they have learned of the core values of the Abrahamic faiths. To remedy this, I propose organize a series of trips, spread out over two weekend, to different religious locations, preferably a mosque, a synagogue, and a Christian church. These trips would be open to anyone interested who lives in the D.C. Metropolitan area. Each trip would coincide with a religious service in the case of the synagogue and church, and Morning Prayer in the case of the mosque. This way, the tourists will be able to witness firsthand a religious community coming together. This will demonstrate the unity and togetherness that faith can bring. At each location I would like to also organize a tour of the building, each building’s tour would led by a holy man or woman of its respective faith. This tour guide would be led by a religious leader of its respective faith, able to explain not only the unique significance of each building to its religion, but also give a brief history of their faith. The guides would then field any questions that they participants might have. As a follow-up to these tours, the next part of this project would be a workshop that would take place the following weekend. This workshop would be held at a non-denominational building, perhaps a school, to ensure that there is no perceived bias toward one religion over another. The workshop would be headed by six people. The first three of these leaders will be a priest, a rabbi, and an imam, to represent each Abrahamic faith. The next three will be scholars, each an expert in one of the Abrahamic religions. These three non-religious leaders are an important part of the project. Some of the teens who may take part in this workshop are naturally distrustful towards religious figures, which is why it is crucial to have secular academics to give opinions that the participants will view as unbiased and fair. The workshop would begin with a more in depth history of the three faiths than the participants received during their tours of the places of worships. As many of the participants my be highly ignorant to the history of these religions, the leaders will start by explaining the origins of the Abrahamic faiths, starting with Abraham, Jesus, and Muhammad, and their evolution over time into the state they are in today. The history will mainly be given by the academics to ensure that the audience we rely on it as impartial and true. The religious figures will then proceed to go into some depth about the teachings of each faith, especially stressing the traditions of peace and tolerance in all three. With the participants thus educated, the next phase of the project would begin. Over the next three weeks, the participants would spend one weekend volunteering for, in turn, a Muslim, Christian, and Jewish charity. Each charity would have to be local, this being necessary to ensure that an optimal number of participants are able to reach it. These charities would have to be carefully selected. The beneficiaries of each charity’s efforts have to be non-religion specific. In other words, the Christian charity that is selected should aid anyone, not just Christians, the same should respectively hold true for the Muslim and Jewish charity. This exercise would help the participants clearly see the benefits of a religious community. It will open their eyes to the positive effect a religion can have as they see faith motivated people striving to improve the lives of all people, regardless of their personal belief system. The project would then come to a close with a final gathering where the participants might share what they have learned from the experience and how their opinions of the Abrahamic faiths changed over the course of the project. This project would be lengthy, and it would take some work to get people, especially teens, to put aside six weekends to participate. But I believe that the end result would justify the time it would take. This project would expose the participants, not only to the rich and vibrant history of the Abrahamic faiths, but to the positive impact that their teachings have today. They will have seen Jews, Muslims, and Christians all working for a better tomorrow for everyone, not just those belonging to their personal religion. I hope that this activity might convince some of my pessimistic peers to become more open minded and tolerant towards religion and the benefits I can have. The negative image these teens have of religion is unfortunate, and hopefully, with the right tools, can be changed. It is impossible to strive for better relations between people with different systems of belief unless people understand these other belief systems. The tendency among my peers to vilify religion is somewhat upsetting. I hope that through better education a time may come where all the people of my community are united by the tradition of tolerance. So whatever your system of belief or faith may be, you will be accepted and respected for what you believe. The Abrahamic faiths each have their own long and unique history, but they also have a myriad of traits in common. It is these similarities that we must stress in hope that the followers of these faiths might recognize the many parallels between their religions. If they can become familiar with these common roots then perhaps reconciliation can take place between three religions that share so much history. These three groups are similar in more ways than one can imagine. While each retains its own distinctive characteristics, they all have a single common ancestor in the Patriarch Abraham. It is time for Muslims, Jews, and Christians around the world to celebrate this ancestor by coming together in peace and unity, and stopping the violence that has raged between them for centuries. Works Cited 1) “Rumsfeld defends general who commented on war and Satan” CNN 17 Oct. 2003. http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/10/16/rumsfeld.boykin.ap. 2) Matthew 5:9. The Holy Bible. Michigan: Zondervan Publishing House, 1984. 3) Standring, Peter. “Koran a Book of Peace, Not War, Scholars Say” National Geographic News. http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2001/09/0925_TVkoran.html (25 Sept. 2001). |
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