Diversity brings opportunity for spiritual growth
Now that Easter and Passover are almost over, we'll have no more religious holidays left to celebrate and our spiritual senses will take a nose dive.
But wait! On April 8, we can celebrate Buddha Day, the birthday of the Buddha, whose name was Siddhartha Gautama.
On April 14, we could celebrate Easter once again but this time with the Eastern Orthodox churches.
April 18 begins the Islamic month of Zul-Hajjah when hundreds of thousands of Muslims travel to Mecca in Saudi Arabia and complete the rituals of the Hajj. The Pilgrimage to Mecca is one of the five pillars of Islam.
Then on May 18, we could celebrate the Islamic New Year or the First of Muharran.
If you still have energy left, you can join western Christians for their celebration of Pentecost. Of course, there are many more.
One thing religious people like to do is celebrate with their rich and ancient rituals and as our nation becomes more diverse, we all become aware of the beauty and wisdom of those religions.
Today we live in a nation where 73 percent of the population is caucasion. Those statistics will be quite different in 50 years, when only just over half the population will be European American.
Demographers say the Hispanic population will experience the sharpest increase, from 10 percent to 25 percent. The Asian population will increase from 3.3 percent to 8.2 percent. African-Americans will increase from 12 percent to 13.8 percent.
Of course, those are educated guesses, but we all recognize that our world is changing and will continue to do so. For all of the hostile feelings about the United States, people want to come here to live.
I remember crossing the U.S. border from California into Mexico 10 years ago and seeing hundreds of Mexicans sitting on a hillside just waiting for the chance to cross over into the land of milk and honey. I remember thinking that I was a fortunate person to have been born in a land so powerful, wealthy and free.
So what is this demographic change, this rush into diversity, going to do to our neighborhoods, our workplaces, and our own personal faith?
Someday you may awaken to find that Muslims have purchased the old Lutheran church down the street. This may be a disquieting development in your mind, because you don't know much about Muslims.
So, the first thing a reasonable person would do, it seems to me, is to take the kids and head for the public library
to discover some things about Islam. A bit of history wouldn't hurt, and certainly you want to know something about their beliefs, holy days and the five pillars of Islam. Then you will be equipped to meet your new neighbors in an intelligent manner.
The next thing that may change is the culture in your workplace. When I first came to this newsroom some 14 years ago, most of the people were caucasian and mainline Christian. There was one practicing Jew. Now we have a bunch of Jews working here. We have evangelical Christians, Muslims, and Buddhists and a Hmong animist.
You can't stop these changes, and why would we stop them even if we could. I'll tell you, the conversations about religion here are fascinating. I predict that some workplaces will have meditation rooms someday, where you'll find Muslims kneeling on their prayer rugs doing their daily religious duty. You'll find Buddhists in the lotus position during coffee break trying to empty their minds. And you will find all kinds of people trying to reach serenity in the middle of a hectic day.
In terms of your personal faith, one thing I can guarantee is that you will grow spiritually. Your sensitivity to religious differences will be more finely honed, and you may add some practices from other religions to your daily religious regimen.
For instance, you will learn from your Buddhist friends that prayer does not have to be filled with words. It can be done in silence, in the emptiness of your own space, in the vapor of a serene mind.
Rather than dread the erosion of our Christian domination of America, we should welcome it and learn from it. Most of us were raised in such insulated neighborhoods and small towns that we knew nothing of other people's faiths. Now we have a beautiful opportunity to end our ignorance, expand our knowledge and enrich our spiritual lives.
Clark D. Morphew
4-6-96
