This past week I had the inspiring and gratifying opportunity to once again be a part of the One America Movement Annual Summit that took place this year for three days in Chicago. The One America Movement brings together Jewish, Christian, and Muslim Faith Leaders to give skills, support, and networking opportunities to address toxic polarization in our country by learning how to have difficult discussions across differences.
The experience was gratifying because I came aware with concrete skills on preaching on polarizing topics, insights into the physiological and psychological impact of real and perceived threats and how those impacts shape our ability to dialogue, and reflections on how the reality of artificial intelligence is beginning to influence our ability to make deep and authentic connections.
My time at the summit was inspiring because to be talking and having meals with faith leaders from different religious traditions who are committed to building bridges and bringing the spiritual realities of our common connection into all relationships gives me a deep hopefulness about our future. To have colleagues who are alive to the spiritual reality within their traditions and are courageously committed to manifesting this reality in their communities and across interfaith lines is truly inspiring.
I was moved by the closing prayer of the summit, given by Shaykha Hazel Gomez, a Muslim leader who shared so beautifully each multifaceted layer after layer of her identity and heritage and called upon all of us to refuse to let the deep light of our being and reality of God’s Presence be “flattened” into one or two dimensional labels that other people give us or we give ourselves.
The deepest truth I know about who we are is that we are expressions of the Most High, Most Deep, Most Holy, Infinite Presence and that this Divine Reality unfolds in each us through a multitude of experiences, identities, motivations, callings, and relationships (to name a few..). We are all of those elements and we are also part of the transcendent Holy One that is beyond those elements. In the Book of Exodus, God reveals God’s self to Moses with the name Ehyeh asher Ehyeh, which is commonly mistranslated as “I am what I am.” The translation of this Divine name literally means “I am becoming what I am becoming.” Each one of us, as an expression of the Divine image is continually becoming, infinitely unfolding, defying labels and categories, even as much as others or ourselves want to say that we are this or that.
The desire to “flatten” – to collapse the infinitely deep and multifaceted nature of our being into certain roles, concepts, or ideas about who we are or who others are is ultimately part of the survival mechanism we have as human beings. One of the presenters at the summit, Michael Niconchuk brought the science based insight that at the heart of every conflict is the need for safety and security. I believe that this same need is behind the dynamic of flattening. In regard to ourselves, we gain a sense of security and control by knowing “who we are” as certain roles or identities. Through believing that our sense of self is static with its own boundaries, we can move through the world with a certain confidence. But when life challenges those limited beliefs about ourselves and who we are, we can feel a sense of crisis and loss of control and with support can hopefully embrace a deeper sense of who we are – one who is in the process of becoming.
We apply the same dynamic of flattening to other people. Viewing people through a filter of labels, identities, or ideas about who they are makes dialogue and connection difficult. Unless we can put preconceived ideas aside and be open to the infinitely becoming person in front of us, we don’t allow them the experience of being seen in their fullness and we don’t have the opportunity to learn from the way that the Divine Presence unfolds in them. When we approach others with an openness to their infinite depth, then their roles and identities shine through as threads in their beautiful ever changing tapestry, not curtains that conceal their light.
For me, this was Shaykha Hazel’s invitation: Refusing to flatten and be flattened is really about embracing the reality of God in the world and in each other. From my perspective, this is the ultimate purpose of our faith communities – to always see through the mind’s attempt to flatten, and to open the heart to the infinite depth of one another.