A rabbi, an imam and a pastor walk onto a stage...

How three men of different beliefs are advocating religious tolerance

AFTER nearly 17 years on the road, the Interfaith Amigos are a trio (an imam, a rabbi and a Christian pastor, to be precise) well versed in America’s religious scene. Based in Seattle, they have given hundreds of presentations to audiences across the country, and a few in Canada, Japan and the Middle East. With a mixture of exhortation, mild provocation and humour, they urge people to think differently about religions, both their own and those of others.

It started in the aftermath of the 9/11 terror attacks, when Rabbi Ted Falcon invited Jamal Rahman, an imam who practises Sufism, to join a Jewish Shabbat service, “because people had to see a different face of Islam.” Then they were joined by the Reverend Don MacKenzie, a Protestant minister, and they became a kind of travelling troika.

In between fooling around on stage with his old friends and exchanging wisecracks about whitening hair, the rabbi notices several, almost contradictory trends in religious America. On one hand, the general mood of nationalism and nativism seems to have triggered a rise in anti-Jewish and anti-Muslim sentiment; at a minimum, followers of those faiths feel more nervous about being stigmatised for their beliefs. On the other hand, the emergence of “spiritual but not religious” as an ever more popular metaphysical stance means that lots of people now admit to not knowing much about any of the Abrahamic faiths, either their differences or commonalities.

In their more serious moments, the trio try to suggest new ways of looking at holy texts and traditions, including the parts which appear to enjoin violence or intolerance. As Rabbi Falcon puts it, sacred writ contains passages of universal, eternal importance as well as statements that responded to particular historical circumstances, like the needs of a nomadic people in the distant past. People have to be helped to make that distinction. That may be a commonplace of liberal academic theology, but putting it over snappily to a non-specialist audience needs practice.

Without being too sombre, the three speakers also set out to hone their listeners’ sensitivities, by challenging them to remember times when they felt close to the divine, and encouraging them to use simple spiritual exercises. It does not convince everybody. During one presentation at Western Washington University, a fundamentalist Christian wagged his finger at Imam Rahman and said the Koran gave people permission, in some circumstances, to lie. (Although the Koran has a lot to say against lying, there is a verse—16:106—which is read to mean that believers will not be condemned if they hide their faith under duress.) But free-wheeling religious debate can take unexpected turns. A Jewish listener also stood up and asked a rhetorical question. Imagine living in Nazi Germany in a home where Jews were being secretly sheltered: how would you answer a question about their presence in the house? His point drew loud applause.

The trio (with a second pastor, Dave Brown, sometimes standing in for Mr MacKenzie) like to start their presentation with the simple statement that “life is difficult”. That is the opening line of a classic work of self-help, “The Road Less Travelled,” and it enables the author, Scott Peck, to explain that many people either underestimate or overestimate the challenges of daily existence according to their own neuroses. For Seattle’s monotheistic threesome, Peck’s homely adage leads into a chat about how negotiating problems (including those caused by religious rivalries) is a path to spiritual growth.

In some ways, life in Donald Trump’s America is getting even more difficult for people such as the Interfaith Amigos who try to tackle religious difference with sophistication and humour. But the number of invitations they receive is on the rise. Imam Rahman thinks this could reflect some people’s feeling that “we have no choice but to co-operate and collaborate because it is now a matter of our survival.” One of his favourite lines on stage is: “We are cousins, [part of] the same Abrahamic family…but a very very dysfunctional Abrahamic family.”