As the Jewish community prepares for the High Holy Days (Shanah Tovah!), we are deeply disturbed by the distribution of antisemitic flyers in Novato. These appear to be the same flyers circulated earlier in the year in other parts of Marin and throughout the Bay Area. And while they are apparently not illegal, they are reprehensible 

MIC denounces hate in all its forms, including this latest expression of antisemitism, as well as the recent uptick in hate aimed at the Muslim and Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) communities. We invite you to join us in standing in solidarity with all communities under threat, and particularly with our Jewish friends at this moment given this week's incident.

Some resources you may find helpful:

• To report hate incidents in Novato call 415-897-4361 or to use the online reporting system, click here
• Jewish Community Relations Council
• ADL
• Not in Our Town
• Love Lives in Marin

Hate Is a Case of Mistaken Identity 

by Scott Quinn

Hate is a case of mistaken identity.

The hurt hand blames the other hand for its pain.

The anxious eye fears the heel just out of sight.

The ear focused on disharmony cannot hear the heart beat.

Hate requires a response.

And while the useful interventions are many,

The ultimate antidote to hate

Is a two-way mirror

Where the divine in you sees the divine in me

Sees the divine in you sees the divine in me

Until all that’s left is one seeing through many eyes.

By Sherna Deamer

When I think of Interfaith 3.0, I think of a bird representing our dual nature. We have a physical reality and a spiritual reality. If we use the bird as a metaphor, each wing represents one part of our reality and we need both to soar. 

Science is the body of knowledge which helps us explain the physical world in which we live, and religion is the body of knowledge which helps us understand how to live in that world. Continuing the metaphor of the bird, science is one wing and religion is the other. 

Each wing is covered with a number of feathers, and we could say that the wing of our spiritual reality is covered with the “feathers” of different religions. Which bird you are imagining now will depend on your own cultural background and personal experience and that’s fine. Diversity is part of the richness of our human experience. But all religions are on the same wing. 

Our modern world is focused largely on the material side of “the bird.”  This has brought many wonderful things, but has also brought a host of problems. A bird with a wing that has too much of the power, if you will, just flies around in circles. What the Interfaith community needs to do is work together to help bring society back into balance.

Interfaith 1.0, as I understand it, is about learning to respect the different religious traditions--and we still need that. Then Interfaith 2.0 is about working together on social issues of common concern.  For example, every religion has teachings about “acting with compassion for the downtrodden.” When we come together with an open mind and an open heart, we can learn from each other about the many sources of spiritual strength and power available to us. Perhaps we can learn practices that others use that are helpful to us. There may be language used in a religious tradition different from ours which helps us see our own religious teachings in a new light which we can use in our service to humanity. Wonderful. Different feathers on the same spiritual wing of the bird.

I believe that Interfaith 3.0 is bringing that learning into every social space in which we move. It is about bringing the universal divine principles to bear on the exigencies of the age. With the love and gentleness used by the founders of every great religion, we can question people’s assumptions, suggest alternative perspectives, expand their consciousness, and focus their energies in ways that are respectful and inclusive of all. 

For example, the fact that one in five residents in Marin is at risk of food insecurity is not because there is not enough food to go around. Homelessness in Marin is not because no one in the country knows how to build a house. These problems are the result of decisions we, as a society, are making about our allocation of resources. Interfaith 3.0 suggests that we should be the voice of moral authority that reminds those in our social spaces that these are choices and that we can change our priorities.

However, I would hope for more from the Interfaith community. I would hope that we learn how to support not just material needs, as important as they are, but also consider people’s spiritual needs. Every human being is a child of God—however you define that ultimate spiritual essence. For our society to soar, we need to remember that every man, woman, and child has special gifts and talents that should be identified and developed for the betterment of all.  

In November 2018, I attended the Parliament of the World's Religions in Toronto, and the following spring I attended the Spiritual Directors International Conference in Seattle. At those gatherings, I started to notice a new vision for what it means to practice “interfaith”. I call it “Interfaith 3.0”, and it bridges what often seems like an abyss between spirituality and social action. It moves us from the prayer rug and the meditation cushion into the secular world where we offer a better way of being human. Steeped in the Loving Essence of our faith traditions, we embody the way to heal polarization, systemic racism, and structural inequities.

Interfaith 3.0 implies there is an Interfaith 1.0 and Interfaith 2.0., which are the foundations upon which the new interfaith movement is emerging. Below is where I sense we have been, what might be emerging, and how it addresses the crises in which we find ourselves.

1. Interfaith 1.0. “Co-exist in peace.” Interfaith 1.0 asks: “Can we be in the same room together and let our full diversity hang out without harming each other"?” This initial interfaith movement draws together people of different faiths to ease tensions and eliminate violence rooted in religious zeal. We do this by meeting each other as fellow human beings and practicing loving curiosity. We do not meet “Judaism” or “Buddhism”, but a unique human being who practices a particular faith tradition (or none) and has their own experience of it. Where respectful dialog and a desire to connect are present, we can co-exist in peace.

2. Interfaith 2.0. “Cooperate in common concern". Interfaith 2.0 asks: How will we learn from each others’ faith traditions and from shared values promote the common good? This next phase builds on respectful relationships of co-existence as we collaborate to alleviate suffering. In the process of working together, we are nourished by the richness and wisdom of each other’s faith traditions. We also attend services, meditations, classes, and retreats hosted by other faith traditions, not only to promote understanding, but simply because we need it. The insights and spiritual juice of another faith tradition restores us for our shared justice work and deepens our appreciation of our own faith tradition.

3. Interfaith 3.0. “Change consciousness; Change the world.” Interfaith 3.0 asks: “How can every interfaith activity have the explicit purpose of changing consciousness in order to change the world?” Interfaith 3.0 builds on and includes Interfaith 1.0 and 2.0, which are ongoing and essential work. Yet the urgency of climate change, unbearable inequity, systemic racism, hate speech and many other crises requires a new level of interfaith engagement. Utilizing the full, diverse wisdom and energy of our faith traditions, we intend to evolve the way people think, feel, and behave. At their root, these crises are not about policies and systems. We reframe the crises we face as essentially spiritual matters. Systemic racism, climate change, etc. are really about who we are as human beings, what our place is in the cosmos, how we treat each other, and how we relate to all life on the planet…spiritual questions. This is what we uniquely have to offer in our community, our intentional, spiritually-grounded, ever awakening presence. This is the heart of Interfaith 3.0 and is what this moments asks of us.

Interfaith 3.0 refocuses our human eyes to view “what is” from a spiritual perspective where we see every being as sister and brother in one interdependent and connected Web of Being. We see through the veneers of fear, unfettered materialism, and scapegoating and view all life with pure cherishing. For ultimately, there is only one Life, and we are it! We invite others of any or no faith to join us as we recreate a world of greater peace, equity, and inclusion where all life can thrive.

One image that describes Interfaith 3.0 is a thread. What is the common thread that runs through all of our faith traditions and that courses in the core of every human being? Whether we call this God, Buddhahood, Ground of Being, or any other name for the Sacred Mystery, this is who we really are. It is also the thread running through all justice work that makes it both sustainable and transformative. Poet William Stafford spoke of this thread in his poem “The Way It Is”:

There’s a thread you follow. It goes among things that change. But it doesn’t change. People wonder about what you are pursuing. You have to explain about the thread. But it is hard for others to see. While you hold it you can’t get lost. Tragedies happen; people get hurt or die; and you suffer and get old. Nothing you do can stop time’s unfolding. You don’t ever let go of the thread.

Interfaith 3.0 is to hold on to the thread and weave it through prayer and meditation, through city council and school board meetings, and through conversations on race and privilege. The awareness of the thread is the most precious gift we have to give our world right now. It is how we, in our own corner of the world, help transform the collective trajectory of humanity. No small task!

The thread weaves together Transcendent Reality and the world as it is - with all its injustices and suffering. Awareness of the thread shifts every public meeting we attend and conversation we have. Our presence as the thread mirrors the “thread” residing in others so that they recognize it within themselves and all life. As “people of the thread”, we practice humility, radical compassion and self-compassion, for we are all imperfect and in process.

This thread alone changes hearts and minds, and thus policies and norms. To be strands of Hope and Healing is what this moment asks of us. We never let go of the thread.

One Shared Life; One Shared Happiness

April 8, 2020 by Scott Quinn

We just watched the series finale of Schitt’s Creek, a comedy about a wealthy New York City family forced to live in a small, rural town after their financial empire collapses. What sets this amazing show apart is the evolution of the family members. The residents of the small town are never the butt of the joke, but rather the condescending and often neurotic, self-important arrivals from the Big Apple become the punchline.

Who are they now that their former identities no longer matter? How might their mild trauma and undesirable situation become an opportunity for transformation? Over the course of the series, the simple, open-hearted townspeople crack open the hearts of the self-absorbed city folk, who discover and embrace a richness of humanity within and all around them.

During the Coronavirus pandemic, we have been evicted from our places of familiarity, routine, and safety. We find ourselves in unfamiliar, uncertain, often frightening territory. Right now, our immediate focus is and must be survival. How will we care for ourselves and those we love? How will we respond to the needs in our community and support one another?

We also face questions of identity: Will we allow ourselves to be cracked open, personally and collectively, during this pandemic and beyond? Will we discover a depth of love and compassion that transforms who we are, what we value, and how we live as a species on this planet?

This week our faith traditions offer stories to help hold such questions. Christians observe the suffering, death, and resurrection of Jesus: Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter Sunday (Holy Week). Jews observe Passover, when the angel of death “passed over” houses marked with the blood of a lamb, after which they leave slavery in Egypt for a promised land.

The point of these stories is not that there’s a personal escape hatch for trouble. All around us, families are dealing with suffering (physical, emotional, and economic) and even with death, which has not passed over their homes.

These stories tell us that the way of salvation is simultaneously personal and collective, internal and external. We recognize midst our physical distancing an innate solidarity with all life. We open our eyes to see the resurrected Christ everywhere in every face. We resolve that during this suffering and on the other side of whatever resurrection might come, we will remember our common vulnerability and our common Sacredness.

Midst my daytime pondering on these things, I had a dream last night. In the dream, I am with a chaplain colleague and his spouse. We look out over the landscape of where we live: desolation everywhere. Barren. Dry. We talk about another colleague who has had to move a ridiculously distance away to somewhere even more desolate.

Midst the despair, a woman appears. She is thin and middle-aged. She projects a sense of calm strength. She makes large circles in the air. With the first circle she says, “One Shared Life”. With the other circle she says, “One Shared Happiness”.

I begin to feel a new sense of hope. I feel an innate connection with everyone, with all life. I am not in this alone, and it’s not all about me. I am one part of the shared life. I can relax into that truth and not take desolation so personally. I ease into what is and into my own skin. I trust a deep joy that can never be extinguished.

As we enter the days ahead, may we be willing to be broken open and our hearts resurrected so that when this trouble passes over, we are different and know ourselves to be One Shared Life. So that, even midst our personal and communal pain, we know the One Shared Happiness holds, and that holds us.

MIC’s Executive Director Rev. Scott Quinn was interviewed on KWMR radio’s “Pieces of Peace” show by host Susan Santiago.

Pieces of Peace is an eclectic approach comprised of interviews with local, national, and international individuals and representatives of organizations that, in some way and to some degree, are influencing peace in our world.

To listen to the interview, click HERE.