<h2>Why It All Matters</h2>
Over the next couple of weeks I am going to be posting a series of interviews with religious leaders and congregants of different religions from the metro Detroit area.

Why? Well, that’s a complicated answer.

I’ve been trying to pin down when I first became interested in interfaith relations. I can look back to a couple of years ago picking up a book of poetry by the Sufi poet Rumi. The way he spoke of God was so beautiful and different from what I had heard before.
<blockquote>This lion of God
watches over me,
I sing as he roars.</blockquote>
(From “I’ve Got You Now” from <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Hush-Dont-Say-Anything-God/dp/0875730841/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1332704201&amp;sr=8-1"><em>Hush, Don’t Say Anything to God: Passionate Poems by Rumi</em></a>.)
<h2>Missing the Guts</h2>
I took a World Religion class a few semesters ago. I inhaled it. However, it was missing the <em>guts</em>. What I mean is that I got all the textbook facts and explanations of the different world religions, but it was missing what it's like to be a Buddhist in the world today. It was missing how it feels to be a young Muslim in Detroit. It was missing how it feels to be a Sikh living in the Midwest. I loved the textbook stuff, but I wanted to hear the stories for myself.

I grew up completely in the dark about other religions. They were this kind of scary blob out there somewhere in the distance. I didn't know anyone of other religons, let alone other sects, but I was told very early on that they were dangerous. So, when I grew up and moved out of my beginnings, I started to meet new people around me. They weren't Christian, but spoke of faith and god the same way I did. It still meant a lot to them, they still went to worship, and they still had things they could or couldn't do because of their convictions.

They were just like me.
<h2>Why It Matters to Me</h2>
<a href="http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/guy-sunset_flickr_macisaguy.jpg"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-5639" title="guy-sunset_flickr_macisaguy" src="http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/guy-sunset_flickr_macisaguy-300x150.jpg" alt="" width="186" height="93" /></a>I grew up in was very isolated from and very ignorant to other religions. At the end of high school I had my own journey with disillusionment/migration from one church to another and I started to see how hurtful my previous views of other religions had been. I know how important, devastating, crucial, life-changing and transformational religion had been in my life, and people of other faiths feel that way about theirs, so how could I be so callous to brush theirs off?

The things that I have learned about other religions do not weaken my faith but they <em>enhance it</em>. The more I know about other religions, the more it gives me new perspectives about belief, discipline, love, peace, and faith. How would my faith be stronger if I prayed five times a day? If I committed to not harming other beings? If I stuck to a strong stance of non-violence? These are all principles that are in other religions, but they could be used as tools to understand my own faith better if applied to my own God and faith.

We are living in a crucial point in history. Whether we like it or not, we have to share the space on this planet with others. If we cannot learn to live together, we will rip this planet to shreds.
<h2>You Shall Be Free, Indeed</h2>
What I found from doing these interviews is that it liberated me. Why?

<strong>It liberated me because... I can offer dignity to the people I had taken it away from.</strong>

I have said hateful things to people of other religions in my former life. I am not proud of them and I wish I could take them back because I know how misinformed I was. I know now how hurtful I was. So now, I get the chance to show the people around me where I was wrong, and how we can all move forward in a more compassionate, loving way.

<strong>It liberated me because... I can be the bearer of truth.</strong>

Nope, not everyone wearing something on their head is a terrorist. Catholics do not worship Mary. No, they don't have mushy beliefs. Nope, they don't advocate murder. No, they don't do blood offerings.

If you know the truth about other people, about your global neighbors, about the people in your community, you will be able to communicate that to your friends and family. You can correct the conversation, right the injustice, and wipe away the discrimination. If you know the truth, you have the power to change the conversation and bring light back into the room.

This is about the golden rule. If someone said some blind accusation about you that was clearly false, wouldn't you want that cleared up? Wouldn't you wish they had taken an extra minute to learn <em>why</em> you do the things you do? Why then shouldn't we extend that to other people?

<strong>It liberated me because... I have learned to appreciate diversity.</strong>

I don't remember who said this to me recent, but they said that people are like a garden. If we were all one flower of the same color, the garden would be pretty but wouldn't be significant. But if we are a garden of different flowers, of different shapes, colors, scents, and functions, the garden comes to life. We are beautiful because of our diversity.

<strong>It liberated me because... I don't have to be afraid anymore.</strong>

This is the piece that has truely changed my life. If you find out that your coworker has a different faith and you get context to what they believe, you start to care about them. They stop being these scary people on the news. They stop being these people you have to clutch your purse closer when you walk by. They stop being unknown.

They come to life. They start becoming human.

They believe just like I do. They care about life, love, and their families just like I do. They aren't an Other. They are my neighbor and I care about them now because they aren't something in the distance. They have a face, a personality, a name, an accent and a story. Instead of being able to insult something in the darkness, I melt in the gaze of their eyes because I know them.

You may never get the chance or desire to meet a Druid from Plymouth, Michigan. But now that you can connect a face to a story, to a faith, to a religion, you hopefully will be slower to paint hateful things about them or any other member of faith with your words. I wanted to do this series to bring <em>you</em> the stories. I wanted <em>you</em> to hear it straight from the horse's mouth.
<h2>Live Together, Die Alone</h2>
We don't have to agree and we don't have to convert. But we do need to inform ourselves so we don't spread lies about our neighbors and we need to learn how to share this space safely and kindly.

If you haven’t watched the TV series LOST, there's a point where after enough division, the main character, Jack, gives this beautiful speech and says "We either live together, or die alone." It's not a perfect analogy, but if we start are able to start seeing each other as people seeking love as a humans first, there is a lot more we have in common. We’ll have a lot more to appreciate, a lot more to learn, and a lot more to express and explore with each other.

If we can learn about each other and hear each other’s stories we won’t have to be afraid anymore. We’ll be able to see each other as neighbors, as doctors, as teachers, as friends, as real estate agents, and not as terrorists, liars, or aliens. We’ll be able to see each other as God sees us: his beautiful creation.

The point of this series is to call out what is good in each of these faith perspectives because at the core of all of them is <em>love</em>. I want to find the expressions of their journeys that bring meaning to our journeys. This allows us to give more grace, redemption and honor to each other as humans without having to agree on logistics or trying to get everyone to believe in one faith.

After all, everyone is created and born long before they have a religious affiliation. If we start to view each other as humans <em>first</em>, it takes the teeth of those heated, damaging religious conversations and redeems us all.

<em><strong>First up, we'll hear from Carl Marshall, a Bahá’í gentleman from Detroit.</strong></em>

<em>Photo credit: Flickr / <a href="Why It All Matters" target="_blank">macisaguy</a></em>