Building tunnels

Looking round the world, it isn't hard to see evidence of the horrors done in the name of religion - in the name of gods or prophets or other ideas that violent extremists demand "respect" for. Whether it's lazy Christian whingers in the UK in a tizzy about having to comply with very basic and non-restrictive equality legislation, or Islamist extremists bombing and beheading their way through Iraq (or Paris), or Jewish price-tag terror attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank, or Palestinian rockets from Gaza, it doesn't take a genius to figure out that we humans have real problems in just treating each other with basic decency. I may think your belief in God as a "real thing" harks back to a primitive view of religion that many people are moving beyond, but hey, we have to share this planet and its lands and seas.

I am very likely not ever going to convince my theist-inclined friends that God is at best a metaphor, and that atheism is a valid form of Christianity, but then they're hardly going to convince me that God actually really exists when every single apologetic argument is demonstrably false - and that Jesus himself didn't engage in apologetics.

But the core issue is wider than Christianity itself - we need to find forms of communal expression in which we Christian Atheists *can* express our heritage and culture, while being welcoming and inclusive and *facilitative* (not just "tolerant") of Theistic Christians, Jews and Muslims and Hindus and whatever. Indeed, I think we should (as the Apostle Paul - not one of my favourite chappies, but that's another argument - sort-of suggested) be able to become as Jews or Muslims as the situation demands. When in a mosque, behave in an appropriate way, and join with the worshippers. Similarly in a synagogue or temple. There is no need to stand aloof. Get in there and feel what your fellow humans feel - maybe you'll learn to understand them just a little better.

This was brought home to me when I was last in Nazareth - a place very close to my heart. One of the Nazareth Hospital doctors was giving us a guided tour through Old Nazareth; some of the places were familiar from my previous forays, others were new to me. I had never been inside the White Mosque, but our group were kindly allowed inside, and the imam showed us into pretty much every nook and cranny of the place - including the entrance to the Nazareth tunnels. Sadly the chap with the key was off for lunch so we didn't get inside, but these little-known old tunnels link the Christian and Muslim places of worship, as well as other centres in the town, so that if Nazareth was ever attacked (as it often was over the centuries), the entire population could join together and mount a joint defence. I later joined an Evangelical Christian friend on the floor of the mosque, and we both "prayed" in our own ways towards Mecca.

Maybe we all need to build these tunnels, and learn to stand together despite our differences. Learn to dig beneath the superstructures to our core shared humanity, deep in the earth. The differences will not go away, and represent different places where we are on our respective journeys.

Next time, I'm going to wait for the keyholder to get back from his lunch.


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