Cartoon by Rob Woodrum - All Rights reserved

The Flight of Air God #21 –Where’s the plane of faith taking us in the 21^st century?

In the recently released film I Am Legend, actor Will Smith screams, “God didn’t do this Anna! We did!”

God has been stirring my heart — again — It started over two years ago when a 17 year old Muslim high school student became a member of our family. Mustafa and I have spent countless hours over the past two years ruminating about God, faith, religion, politics, people, change, growth, learning, unlearning, compassion, collaboration — and love. Mustafa continues to live with us along with another male, Muslim, high school student, Sahin.

We have been participants and eyewitnesses to misconceptions and misunderstandings melt in our living room, replaced by love, understanding, respect and the dialog of the possible. Hope for a better future among people of different faith persuasions has been born in our home…and in our hearts.

The question that Mustafa, Sahin, my wife and I continue to wrestle with is; “Why can’t Jews, Christians and Muslims collaborate, cooperate and create a way of living together that is contrary to the violence and hatred that inhabits the airwaves, brings joy to the heart of God, and peace to this planet?” As Bruce Feiler writes in Abraham – A Journey To The Heart of Three Faiths:

“You can connect with God only if you understand what it means to connect with one another…So the question is not whether God can bring peace into the world. The question is: Can we?“[i]

What must we learn/unlearn as people who claim to be descendants of the God of Abraham in the 21^st century? Where is the plane of faith taking us in the 21^st century?

Sometimes, I feel like a helpless, powerless, passenger on an airplane, strapped in my seat as our world is tumbling through yet another episode of life-threatening turbulence created by the voices, actions, sound bites, video and images of those who claim to act and speak on behalf of God.

My fellow passengers, you know exactly what I’m talking about. I see the concern on your faces and hear the angst in your voices everyday, as you share your reaction with me over the most recent episode that has caused the overhead bins above our lives to pop open unexpectedly, spilling the contents in the aisles, disrupting the safety and sanctity of our journey. Let’s get honest with one another: We’re all victims of this upheaval today. Nobody’s exempt or immune from this phenomenon.

Despite the clear blue sky appearance of the heavens, one cannot possibly forecast what our flight in life might entail today. Frankly, we have come to expect our daily lives to be slammed by the hurricane force winds of terror attacks, wars, conflicts grounded in theology, and a new outbreak of genocide or ethnic cleansing. Cyclones seem to come out of nowhere, routinely spawning new, hateful acts perpetrated in the name of some supernatural authority. The down-drafts of religiously justifiable anger regularly plunge humanity into acts on unconscionable revenge against one another, legitimized by human interpretations of a purported holy book. The hot-air of charismatic fundamentalists lifts their followers from postures of belief and belonging to behaviors that betray the sensibilities of the human soul to comprehend the carnage they commit. Winds whipped by greed generate new efforts to further marginalize others whose existence, appearance, beliefs or religious practices diverge from their own. Ethnic groups, neighborhoods, communities, tribes and countries live in heightened states of vigilance, seemingly on the lookout for the first threat of wind shear that may be arising from a place and a people different from themselves. Fear permeates the air-ways.  Children, the homeless, the hungry, the sick, the refugees and the disadvantaged are blown out of the way by the gusts from the religious self-righteous. What appear to be inconsequential and subtle breezes provide the perfect atmosphere for those, professing to speak for God, to prey upon others who become unwitting puppets, perpetrators and casualties, blown to bits as the end-result of a hail storm they never imagined they would be in the midst of.

My question is: How has the atmosphere of faith become so tumultuous, intrusive and disruptive that the daily existence of each and every passenger on this planet is now affected by these conditions? Is it possible that we’ve now become unwitting victims of spiritual climate change that negatively impacts our present day travels and has serious implications for the generations who will follow us?   Perhaps it’s time to confront this unholy truth…together.

It has been said that:

“God and his ways are not what most of us think. Most of what we are told about God and his ways by our friends on the street, or read about him in the papers, or view on television, or think up on our own, is simply wrong. Maybe not dead wrong, but wrong enough to mess up the way we live.” (emphasis is mine) [ii]

I’ve had airplane flights that resulted in a great deal of joy when we landed. I’m sure you have too. On those flights where we encountered all kinds of unsettling turbulence, I just wanted the flight to be over. During the turbulence, I asked myself all sorts of questions like, “Who’s flying this thing? Did the pilot make a navigational mistake or are these conditions something that simply couldn’t be avoided? You mean, I really paid for this ride?

When we awaken to the conscious appreciation that we are buckled up in our seat in life, there’s no getting out, and this is going to be one, loooong flight, complicated further by chaotic conditions in the atmospheres of faith, well we’re in for a ride aren’t we?

Welcome to Air God Flight # 21. Buckle up and stow your carry-ons securely underneath the seat in front of you, or in an overhead bin.  Sit back and enjoy the journey. Destination? Exploring where the plane of faith is taking us in the 21^st century?

By design, Air God Flight 21 is  a “pilgrimage — a way to let go of concepts and theologies that do not help us become more compassionate, loving and surrendered people .” [iii]

Why? Why is this issue so important? Listen to Rabbi Harold Kushner:

“Human beings are the only creatures capable of recognizing the gap between what they are and what they can be expected to be, and of being embarrassed by that gap.” [iv] We have the opportunity and responsibility to encourage and lead people of all faith persuasions to become all they can be, particularly as it relates to interaction among persons of different faith affiliations.

We, the people who claim the name of God, are responsible for changing the flight path of the plane of faith in the 21^st century. With God, we can do this…we must do this…together. We can no longer sit back, buckled in our assigned seats, with our backsides glued to the seat of apathy or the prospect that somebody else will step up and somehow, make this conundrum go away. Enough! A movement must begin with us, the passengers, whose lives are rocked on a daily basis by the turbulence created by those who shame the name of God, by steering the plane of faith at an angle, and toward a destination, that breeds new forms of conflict, bigotry, prejudice, misunderstanding, sorrow, mistrust and fear for all aboard.

Yes, “We have to save each other. It’s the only way to save ourselves.”[v]

What is your take on this issue. What shall we do? Together…individually,,,,corporately???

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[i] Feiler, Bruce Abraham – A Journey To The Heart of Three Faiths, William Morrow-An Imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers. Copyright © 2002 by Bruce Feiler, p.14.

[ii] Peterson, Eugene H. Eat This Book – A conversation in the art of spiritual reading, William B. Eerdsman Publishing Co., Grand Rapids, MI Copyright © 2006 by Eugene H. Peterson. Pp. 34-35.

[iii] Chittister,Joan Murshid Saadi Shakur Chishti, and Rabbi Arthur Waskow.  Excerpt from Karen Armstrong – Foreword to The Tent of Abraham – Stories of Hope and Peace for Jews, Christians and Muslims – Beacon Press, Boston Copyright © 2006 by Benetvision, Neil Douglas Klotz, Arthur Waskow.

[iv] Kushner, Harold S.  How Good Do We Have To Be – A New Understanding of Guilt and Forgiveness, Little, Brown and Company Boston, MA Ó Copyright 1996 by Harold S. Kushner. P.35.

[v] Patel, Eboo Acts of Faith – The Story of an American Muslim, and the Struggle for the Soul of a Generation, Beacon Press, Boston, MA Copyright © 2007 by Eboo Patel, p. 180.