wfn.org | United Methodist board discusses relations with Buddhists, Jews

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April 13, 1999 News media contact: Linda Bloom*(212) 870-3803*New York
10-21-71B{200}

NOTE: This report may be used with UMNS #198.  

DENVER (UMNS) -- A United Methodist pastor, Roman Catholic nun and Buddhist
theologian have found a way to "share sacred space" by nurturing a
Buddhist/Christian community at St. Paul's United Methodist Church.

As the community notes in its purpose statement, "we remain rooted in our
own traditions without compulsion to force common ground; yet we risk
vulnerability to one another's teachings while hoping for mutual
enhancement."

The pastor, the Rev. Toni Cook, and the theologian, Jose Cabezon, a
professor at Iliff School of Theology, spoke about St. Paul's work in
Christian/Buddhist relations to members of the United Methodist Commission
on Christian Unity and Interreligious Concerns during the group's April 8-11
meeting.

The commission also discussed Christian-Jewish relations with Pamela
Eisenbaum, an assistant professor at Iliff, and Rabbi Stephen Foster, a
prominent Denver rabbi and recent recipient of Iliff's Alumnus of the Year
award.

Cabezon, who briefly outlined the basic concepts of Buddhism, told
commission members that the religion first surfaced in the United States at
the end of the 19th century. While a large portion of U.S. Buddhism today is
centered within Southeast Asian populations, it also has attracted Western
converts, he said.

In the past couple of decades, a group of Christian and Buddhist theologians
have met as the International Buddhist/Christian Theological Encounter.
Cabezon - who spent 10 years as a Buddhist monk, was once a translator for
the Dalai Lama and teaches "Buddhism and Comparative Thought" at Iliff -
said theological institutions are attempting to give pastors "a greater
understanding of the religiously pluralistic world in which they live."

At St. Paul's, according to Cook, the idea was to experiment with religious
pluralism by offering "a time and a place where those of differing faith
backgrounds could come together and share sacred space."

In fall 1995, Cook, Cabezon and Sister Mary Luke Tobin of the Loretto
Community initiated a lecture series that has since blossomed into a
continuing Sunday evening program. Besides St. Paul's, other sponsors are
Iliff, the Shambhala Center of Denver and the Thomas Merton Center for
Creative Exchange.

First Sundays are dedicated to readings and teachings from the Christian and
Buddhist traditions, followed by 20 minutes of meditation. On second
Sundays, a lecture series featuring different speakers is offered, and third
Sundays include interactive readings and lectures, both followed by
meditation. The brief readings on fourth Sundays precede 40 minutes of
silent meditation, broken by brief walking meditation.

Cook noted that the Buddhist/Christian Community at St. Paul's has not
created "a new universalism" but has offered a way to develop a deeper
appreciation of each other's theological teachings and sacred experiences.

Such appreciation also is the goal of Christian-Jewish relations, according
to Eisenbaum, who is Jewish and specializes in New Testament studies. She
warned, however, against "collapsing the distinctions" of the two religions
to put a positive face on such relations. 

"We're not all the same," she said. Having dialogue in a multi-faith setting
can help Christians "to see Judaism as another (religion) among the world
religions," she added.

At the other extreme is the depth of anti-Semitism and hatred against Jews
that Eisenbaum has uncovered on the Internet. World Wide Web sites denying
the Holocaust often will have a scholarly look to seem credible and may
attract readers "who don't necessarily have the critical skills to know what
they're looking at."

For example, one site stated that "The Diary of Anne Frank" is a forgery
because it was written in ballpoint pen, which was not available in the
1940s. While it is not true that the diary was written in ballpoint, readers
who buy into that starting premise may accept the rest of the site's
arguments, she said.

Many of the hate-directed Web sites - including anti-abortion sites --
consider Jews the enemy and the spawn of Satan and misquote the Bible to
prove the point. "Because they (Jews) are seen as devils and not human,
there's a lot of open encouragement of violence and the killing of Jews,"
Eisenbaum said.

A number are associated with the Christian Identity movement, which she
finds scarier than secular hate groups "because it is church-based and the
rhetoric comes from the pulpit." Many of the estimated 50,000 followers are
in churches within paramilitary compounds and are linked to the militia
movement, she added.

Although such groups remain on the fringe, Eisenbaum urged commission
members to become aware of these movements. "When you're aware, you're more
likely to resist and combat it," she said.

Such anti-Semitism over the centuries has led many Jews to work hard at
assimilating into the society of whatever country they live in, according to
Foster. But for the 5.5 million Jews in the United States - less than 3
percent of the total population - assimilation has led to an intermarriage
rate of more than 50 percent. Of those intermarried couples, only 15 to 20
percent will raise their children as Jews.

"It's a demographic disaster for us," the rabbi said. But the dilemma, he
added, is "we don't know what to do about it. We have never been a
converting group, unlike Christianity."

However, Reform, Reconstructionist and even some Conservative Jewish groups
are now pursuing the idea of conversion, Foster said, and are also accepting
children of non-Jewish mothers in an interfaith marriage if they are raised
as Jews.

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