I’ve recently come to identify an area of experience which I am here naming “interreligious angst.” It first came up last year, when I had my first experience of it, and since has recurred with increasing frequency, such that I am now able to observe a pattern of certain elements involved.

What happens is that, in a religiously diverse group, someone shares a “spiritual resource” such as an inspiring poem, meditation, or prayer with the group. The person selects an item uniquely from their own tradition (although there is no demand to do so), which requires belief in that theological system and a share of inspiration invested in that form of spirituality (a prayer of lamentation, for example). Sometimes the person hands this resource around to the group, and requests that they read along out loud as a group.

All is fine for me with this scenario up until this last act of imperial requisition of my participation (without asking in advance if I or others might like to participate or decline, and thereby offering us a gracious way out into a non-participatory but otherwise noble witnessing role).

In the cases where the resource is contrary to my own theology or spiritual comfort zone (let alone inspiration), I am then forced into a quandary. While the others eagerly enjoy the resource, I am at a stand-still, speedily asking myself:

• Do I just monkey along, like an actor in a Shakespearean play, mouthing the words while feeling conflicted by the idea of yielding to an imputed peer-pressure to conform while not feeling any sincere intent?
• What are the others thinking of me while I am not actively participating?
• Will I be penalized or judged negatively for my passive “participation”?
• Etc.

For this contemplative, it was nearly habitual to squelch this line of discursive questioning in such instances, and just close my eyes and sit back like listening to a poem. And yet, with a creeping, nagging suspicion that oneself might very well be the ONLY ONE taking a passive observer role (contrary to the invitation “instructions”), it is hard to renounce the  sense of a contrarian identity.

All sorts of questions can be raised about this kind of scenario.

I.e.,

• How many of us from minority religious traditions have had this kind of experience?
• Why don’t participants in such situations ever think to prepare material for religiously diverse contexts which is theologically more suitable to a religiously diverse audience?
• Is this what others understand to be genuine interreligious engagement? (no one ever said it was necessarily always going to be pleasant, afterall)

As a Buddhist clergy, I cannot fathom ever requesting Christians, Jews, and Moslems to recite a prayer addressed to the Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara, for example. A meditation on enlightened compassion, however, (which is what Avalokiteshvara represents), might be more palatable.

Yet it appears inconceivable, or besides the point, to some people  (who may otherwise consider themselves to be harbingers of interreligious harmony) that there may be those present in religiously diverse audiences who might not so exuberantly share their theological beliefs.

Of course, there are interfaith settings where spiritual resources expressly unique to diverse faith traditions are specifically requested, with all of their bells and whistles, etc. But that is not the context I am referring to here.

Therefore, I propose that when we who are concerned with interreligious engagement think about and work towards achieving measurable outcomes of interreligious competencies, that we think of specifics. One such prospective competency, as implied above, is having the ability (aka skill) to construct meaningful spiritual resources for religiously diverse audiences that do not presuppose theological beliefs unique to any one faith tradition.

Is this possible? Do you have your own pet-peeves of interreligious experience? As a preliminary investigation into this question, I here invite you to answer a few survey questions to (anonymously) share your thoughts! With you contributions, I might be able to identify shared concerns that can serve as the basis for future surveys and interreligious activity planning. Thereby, identifiable competency outcomes for interreligious engagement  activities might be more easily actualized!

Featured photo by Jenny Downing, via Flickr Creative Commons.