Correcting misinformation about other faiths…… is this really an indicator that your own religion/worldview is open to question?
Recently, I was trying to challenge a fellow Pagan’s comments about a specific faith community as the points being presented were from a misinformed perspective and could potentially feed into religious hatred. As a result, the fellow Pagan questioned if I was really a Pagan. That’s not new territory for me. At least 20 years ago, I was accused of being a plastic Pagan, possibly even an infiltrator into the Pagan community because I was actively engaged in dialogue with Christians. I’ve continued to engage in dialogue with Christians and with people from a wide variety of faiths, feeling the results of that work may speak for themselves.
For some time, I have felt that a possible gap in Interfaith work is with interfaith participants failing to share the knowledge and understanding they gain from their work with others in their community, particularly with regard to correcting misinformation. One of the reasons I got involved with Interfaith work was a desire to correct misinformation about Pagans that may be held as truth by people in other faith communities. But in the process of that, it became clear that Pagans aren’t the only ones who experience the consequences of misinformation. Ideally, I’d hope that we’d all be open to a society where there is an accepted platform or norm for people to engage with difference and to have a desire to learn about others and correct any misunderstandings they may have absorbed into their prior understanding. That will take a societal shift where we feel equipped to discuss religion (and politics, the other ‘don’t talk about’ topic) in constructive ways with a spirit of enquiry. As a society, we’re not entirely there, yet. But part of the process of getting there is helping others to recognise where their understanding of each other may be incomplete or inaccurate. To shine a light on a more accurate understanding of ‘the other’. This is one reason why I post a monthly list of faiths festivals, and also why I often reference imagery, symbolism and focus from other faiths and their similarities or parallels with aspects of Pagan beliefs and practices in my monthly Interfaith blogs. I truly believe the Pagan community is stronger and better able to relate to others in society if we improve our understanding of their religion/worldview and how that is reflected in their lives. I also truly believe that communities of people from other religions/worldviews are stronger and better able to relate to Pagans in society if they improve our understanding of our religion/worldview and how that is reflected in our lives.
While I would love us all to get involved with organised Interfaith activities in our local areas, I appreciate that people live busy lives and interfaith connections may be isolated to informal connections with people in work, study or local businesses we may frequent. Having the confidence to do that is helped by gaining some prior knowledge, and also being open to the idea that what we have gained in knowledge may have included inaccuracies that would welcome correction.
Between 8th and 15th November of this year in England and Wales, groups around the country will be marking Interfaith week, sharing some of the work they have been doing to encourage greater understanding, build friendships between people from different faiths and perhaps try something new to those ends. The theme for this years Interfaith week is ‘Lighting the way for a shared future’. Many of the activities taking place during the week have been listed here: https://www.interfaithweek.org/events/programme If you feel inclined to attend an event in your local area, please do check the events programme and the events map: https://www.interfaithweek.org/events/map
Mike Stygal
Belief and Education Officer
Contact Mike here