In the fall of 2001, we created the Center for Jewish-Christian-Muslim Understanding to counter the violence, hate, terror and lack of respect for our diversity as children of God and of Abraham. We celebrate the political rights assured by the Constitution of the United States of America—freedom of speech and assembly, and the free exercise of religion. With Franklin D. Roosevelt we look forward to a world founded upon four essential human freedoms: freedom of speech and expression—everywhere in the world; freedom of every person to worship God in his or her own way—everywhere in the world; freedom from want, which will secure to every nation a healthy peacetime life for its inhabitants—everywhere in the world; freedom from fear—anywhere in the world.
As children of God and members of the Abrahamic faith communities, we condemn selective quotation from Scripture. We know that those who so choose always can find a quote to support racism, violence, and hypocrisy. We are aware of the manipulation, use and abuse of the printed word and media, cognizant of the blessings of liberty and of a free press as an important check on power, and are supportive of self-censorship and self-discipline.
While we know that there are very real differences in the ways in which our faith communities react to media satire and parody, we have been guided by our richly diverse faith traditions. We have learned from the teachings of Rabbi Levi Yitzhak of Berdichev in the Ukraine, who discovered the meaning of love from two friends sitting at a table toasting one another over and over and over again. Each was proclaimed how much he loved the other, when the one said to the other: "Friend, tell me what hurts me?" Replied the other, “How do I know what hurts you?" The answer was swift: "If you don't know what hurts me, how can you say you love me?"
Following the suggestion of Diana L. Eck, a Christian and professor at Harvard, in her book A New Religious America, we affirm that “we need to define our faith not by its borders but by its roots.” In a tense world, we must not be impotent but rather a part of the solution. We must begin wherever we live and enter into serious dialogue with others of faith.
With the Qur’an , we acknowledge that God could have made us as one people, but did not. "...We have ordained a law and assigned a path for each of you. Had God pleased, He could have made of you one community; but it is His wish to prove you by that which He has bestowed upon you. Vie with each other in good works, for to God shall you all return and He will resolve your differences for you" [Sura.5:48].
We have come to appreciate that to love another; we must know what hurts the other. We urge moderation in word and deed. We urge the creation of education materials that promote and are respectful of diversity, and we remain committed to an understanding of the similarities and differences between faith communities over media satire. Presently, we are engaged in developing and sharing such materials.
An early rabbinic midrash speaks of Father Abraham’s tent open on all four sides, offering him access to wayfarers to whom he could speak of the oneness of God. For us that tent speaks of our openness to God and to God’s word from whichever direction it comes.
