True Interfaith Dialogue

This is my response to a public meeting of the Greater Hartford Interfaith Coalition for Equity and Justice, on October 30, 2003.

To Whom It May Concern:

I am a Witch. Call me a Pagan, Wiccan, Goddess-Worshipper, or general Spiritual Person. I was raised Jewish, and have studied a fair number of world religions. In 2001, I helped form my university’s Interfaith Coalition for Peace and Understanding. Our faculty advisor was Buddhist, and our members were Jewish, Muslim, Baha’i, Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Pagan, and several denominations of Christian. We had wonderful lunchtime meetings in the Peace Center of a Methodist church, where we shared our own faiths’ insights on conflict, politics, and personal action. We held silent vigils for peace with a Buddhist prayer gong and Catholic candles lit by the Goddess Brighid’s holy flame. We held rallies and educational campaigns on our campus to highlight the issues and worked with community groups to help the people in our neighborhoods. We put aside our differences and learned from each other.

Even outside of our coalition, in the university at large, interfaith sentiment was strong. A few days after 9-11, there was a campus-wide interfaith service, with over a thousand students and contributions from all campus religious groups. There were Bible readings, a Gospel music performance, Buddhist meditation, Baha’i poetry, Sikh reflections, and Catholic, Hindu, Muslim, and Jewish prayer and singing. Five women from my spiritual group led a Wiccan song celebrating unity, and I will never forget the overwhelming sense of harmony at seeing people of all faiths – including Christians – singing my sacred music, as I had sung theirs. We sang together out of profound respect for the greater power we all serve, with the understanding that we are all brothers and sisters beyond our different traditions.

Last Thursday, I was expecting a similar atmosphere of sharing and respect at the Greater Hartford Interfaith Coalition for Equity and Justice public meeting. I love hearing the perspectives of different religions, and working together to achieve progress for the good of all people. Instead, everything was Christian-oriented. Audience participation was expected in the reciting of Christian poetry and the singing of Christian songs, rather than finding poems and songs that were inclusive of all people, or at least giving voice to some of the many non-Christian religions. The program was an endless list of different Christian groups, and Connecticut’s Hindu, Buddhist, Sikh, Baha’i, Zoroastrian, Wiccan, Hare Krishna, Voudoun, and other religious communities were not even mentioned. We may be members of minority religions, but our voices are just as important as those of the mainstream Christian majority.

I felt extremely unwelcome at the meeting, even threatened. There was not a single symbol, image, idea, or scene that I could connect with or connect to other participants through. Even a small mention of a minority religion would have made me feel much more comfortable. Instead I felt as though I’d been hoodwinked into a Christian Revival, whose members were seeking to ignore me, convert me, or burn me at the stake.

Is this the kind of interfaith coalition you want to build? In the names of all traditions, I urge you to reach out to the minority religions of Connecticut, and to embrace all people in your work.

Sincerely,
Myshele Goldberg