Last week I attended Florida Gulf Coast University‘s annual Interfaith Clergy Seminar, which is organized by the university’s Center for Judaic, Holocaust, and Human Rights Studies. I have had the pleasure of attending this event three of the first four years it has been held. Each year I appreciate the intentional interaction with clergy of other faiths more than the previous year.
While there has been a highly regarded speaker at each seminar, this was the first year that the presenter explicitly spoke about interfaith relationships. Rabbi James Rudin, a widely recognized international leader in interreligious relations, presented two lectures based on his new book Christians & Jews – Faith to Faith: Tragic History, Promising Present, Fragile Future (my review provides more information about both the book and its author).
A day later an article he wrote for Religion News Service appeared on the Huffington Post. In the article, Rudin reflects on his experience in the 1960s as an Air Force chaplain assigned to visit the Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission (ABCC) facilities in Hiroshima and Nagasaki and his thoughts following the recent nuclear incident in Japan. He suggests:
If wars are too important to be left to generals, then nuclear policy is too important to be left to politicians, utility company executives and technicians. Maybe it’s time for religious leaders to publicly declare there are certain things human beings are incapable of achieving — like building the biblical tower of Babel or safely harnessing atomic energy.
So What?
While I typically offer additional perspective and a series of questions designed to help my readers struggle with a topic, today I will refrain from doing so to allow Rudin’s powerful words to stand on their own. Please make the time to struggle with and respond to them.