TEXAS, March 2, 2012 (My West Texas): Leaders of five different religious backgrounds gathered Tuesday night to discuss how they understand and confront contemporary issues through their various faith traditions. The interfaith event, which was hosted at First Baptist Church, aimed to promote dialogue and understanding among different faiths, organizers and participants said.
“We’re trying to foster more tolerance, and one of the ways to do that is to interact,” said Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami of Kauai’s Hindu Monastery in Hawaii, who was also a panel member at the first interfaith event held last year at St. Stephen’s Catholic Church. Other speakers Tuesday night were the Rev. Randel Everett of First Baptist Church in Midland, Rabbi Holly Cohn of Temple Beth El in Odessa, Imam Wazir Ali of the Houston Masjid of Al-Islam and Masjid Al-Qur’an and Monsignor James Bridges of St. Stephen’s Catholic Church in Midland. Russell Meyers, CEO of Midland Memorial Hospital, moderated the event for the second year in a row, and the event was orchestrated by Padmaja Patel of the Hindu Association of West Texas.
Questions used during the forum were written by the panelists and shared with the speakers before the event so they could prepare answers. After each question, the religious officials each were given four minutes to share their perspective. Topics ranged from the role of women across faith traditions; beliefs on capital punishment; and the central, non-negotiable truth on which different faith traditions are built.
Veylanswami explained the idea central to Hinduism that though God exists outside of earthly beings in heavenly realms, his omnipresent consciousness exists within each individual. While holding up a rosary, he imagined that every person was a bead, but the string that goes through the center of each bead — God’s consciousness — permeated all of them. If individuals look deeply inside themselves, he contended, they will experience their oneness with God. Until realizing their oneness with God, they will continue to be reborn or experience reincarnation, he said.
Everett made the caveat in some of his responses that Baptist churches are largely autonomous by deciding on their own how to deal with issues like the role of women in the church. “If you get three Baptists together, there are four opinions, usually,” Everett said.
Cohn, who came to the Permian Basin in July 2011, said she was excited to add diversity to the panel not only as a Jew but as a woman.
In the Catholic church, women cannot be ordained as priests, but many in that faith tradition look to Jesus’ mother Mary as an example of how to devote their lives to God, Bridges said. “We use her as a tremendous example that we too can be good at saying yes to what God wants us to do,” he said.
Ali, respresenting Islam, told the audience that he used to come to Midland while playing high school football and hoped his familiarity with the area would help others celebrate the diversity around them. “There have been Muslims among you all the time,” he said. “I was just as Muslim then as I am now, though I wasn’t as open about it. I’m teaching it now.”