Siljander, Mark D. A Deadly Misunderstanding: A Congressman’s Quest to Bridge the Muslim/Christian Divide Harper-Collins 2008
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I learned about this book in a conversation with Rev. Donna Johnson as we were talking about what had inspired us in our own interfaith work. When our conversation moved in the direction of our perceptions about Islam and how we deal with its radical variants she told me about how profoundly this book by Mark Siljander had moved her and changed her understanding of the conflicts between the Abrahamic faiths. When I obtained the book and began to read it I at once saw that there were unique and radical notions here that were worth pursuing. Over the course of the next several days a read the book and began to make notes for this little review of it.

Siljander’s path to his understanding is both surprising and to my mind heroic. He came from a deeply committed evangelical perspective, believing the Koran to be the work of the devil and Islam to be an evil perversion of the traditions of Judaism and Christianity. There were catalytic events that caused extreme emotional reactions in him, which in turn prompted mentors of his to suggest ways in which to reconsider his attitudes and his understanding of the problem.

“This was not the path I set out to follow twenty-five years ago, as a conservative Republican congressman and Evangelical Christian just entering the world of Washington politics. At the time, I believed that Islam was a religion of violence, that the Qur’an preached the destruction of all non-Muslims, and that the Qur’an and Islam were of the devil, as godless as the great evil of communism whose defeat was then the defining purpose of American foreign policy. I believed that Islam and Christianity were contradictory at their core, that the Eastern Islamic and Western Judeo-Christian cultures were irretrievably opposed to one another, and that the only possible solution to this conflict was the conversion of “them” so they would come to think like “us.” My worldview could not have been clearer or simpler—or more myopic.”

Perhaps the most profound turning point was when one of his mentors suggested that he begin to study the Bible in Aramaic, the ancient language that Jesus had spoken when he walked this earth. Already an accomplished and natural linguist Siljander took readily to this new course of study and began to have pivotal insights which built on each other, and combined with later experiences looked at in this new light, ultimately resulted in the chief premise of this book A Deadly Misunderstanding. As an evangelical Christian Siljander regarded it as his highest duty to convert others to his Christian faith. Among his earliest and most important struggles was coming to terms with where this idea of conversion came from. He concluded after much conversation, debate and study that it had no real foundation in the teachings of Jesus. From this point forward he would introduce himself as a follower of Jesus as opposed to a Christian. This would serve him very well in opening conversations with Muslim and even Jewish individuals, for whom Christianity is inseparable from its history of warfare and genocide. It is worth noting how potent the image of “conversion by the sword” is in creating a demonic image of Islam, yet anyone who knows the history of the Crusades understands the irony of this.

The task of translation is fraught with peril and often requires choices which emphasizes an important aspect of what one is seeing and wanting to convey, yet often at the expense of the complete truth of what was said. This is a problem for the most scrupulously honest translator, but even more so in the work of someone with a political agenda. Thus it is the case that translations of Scripture are often very different from the original intent and meaning of the authors. There are many points of inflection that illustrate this in the history of the evolution of the Christian Bible. The Council of Nicaea, a council of Christian bishops convened in the Bithynian city of Nicaea by the Roman Emperor Constantine I in AD 325, being a prime example. In that case not only were there debates on the meanings of words and phrases based on the agenda of the individuals in that counsel, there were also debates about which books should be included in the canonical text. Some of that discussion was of course motivated by the difficulty of proving the origin of some of those works, and clearly in other cases the messages contained in those debated books were anathema to the dogma they were trying to sculpt. For another example consider the Protestant Council of Trent 4 April 1546, which declared which books were to be officially considered canonical. To look at some of these excluded works I suggest you obtain a Catholic version of the Bible which contains the Apocrypha, the collection of books excluded from Protestant Bibles.

Retreating back to the simpler problems of translation, and disregarding agendas, Siljander carefully outlines a number of words and key phrases that are at the heart of disagreement between the Abrahamic faiths. Siljander arrived at his understanding of the importance of the Aramaic language as the root of both Hebrew and Arabic through a number of discussions over a number of years with Islamic, Judaic and Christian scholars and holy men. In many cases the Mullah, Rabbi, Minister or priest exclaimed “this is revolutionary” after hearing Siljander’s arguments. The notion of “a deadly misunderstanding” becomes very clear and specific over the course of this book.

Another critical consideration that goes well beyond any discussion of the value of particular translations of Scripture is the fact that throughout the world the bulk of believers have never read their scriptures, instead they have relied upon teachers who inevitably present to them portions of Scripture which serve their agendas. Radical Islam is the product of two very potent forces, one: the fact that the vast majority of Muslims do not even speak Arabic, and it is a tenet of that faith that in order to understand Islam one must read the Koran in its original Arabic. This is doubly difficult in that even if you are from a country in which Arabic is the official language, reading the Koran is very much like an English speaker attempting to read the old English of Beowulf which looks much more like German than any English we learned in school. And two: the undeniable impact of decades of colonization, brutalization and the theft of natural resources by the Western world in those places where radical Islam finds its most fertile ground.

Well beyond any academic exercise, Siljander’s book is really an exciting and well written journal of a very long, complex and arduous journey towards understanding and bridge building. In an early trip to Syria within a period of 24 hours he was nearly shot by both Palestinian and Israeli forces. With over 30 years of work in government and civil service including six years in the US Congress and an appointment to the United Nations General Assembly, his journey has taken him all over the world. Some of those journeys took him, practically alone and without any US government sanction, into very hostile countries to meet with leaders who were open enemies of the United States. Also early in his career when he was rabidly anti-Islamic a contract was taken out on him by the Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, who would later be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize jointly with Israeli leader Yitzhak Rabin. Years later when Arafat was visiting Washington DC Siljander was asked to host a private party for him. And although he found this deeply disturbing he did in fact host this party and further found himself being asked to help Arafat craft a speech he was to give the following day. He wanted to include some references from the Koran about Isa, as Jesus is called in the Koran. It may surprise some Christians that there are many mentions of Isa/Jesus in the Koran and in fact one of the books is about him, and another about his mother Mary. Siljander gave him six quotes to choose from and to his surprise Arafat used all six in the talk that he gave.

Siljander met with many heads of state and high officials in all of the Abrahamic faiths. He pursued his unique path to peace in spite of the many on all sides who had enmity towards him. Perhaps the most difficult phase of his work came after 9/11. His advocacy for understanding and communication with representatives of Islam was considered practically treasonous by many of those around him. It was also much harder for him to gain the trust of Islamic leaders, nevertheless he worked very hard to support Islamic moderates and to educate Americans about the misunderstandings which he saw as the cause of all of this conflict.

I too believe that the scholarly understanding of the roots of the misunderstandings between the Abrahamic faiths could be revolutionary. What will determine whether it is or not, is whether or not enough people, a critical mass, become aware of these ideas. I encourage you to do as I have done, read it, talk about it, and buy extra copies to give away. To purchase this book click on the title credit at the top of this page to go to Amazon. It is available cheaply as a used book and is also available for Kindle.

UICC (Unified Interfaith Community Coalition of Beaufort) began in response to the Mother Emmanuel 9 assassination June 17, 2015. We work to ease tensions and promote harmony in the Beaufort County region of SC's Lowcountry. Founded by Rev. Jeannine Smalls, Pastor Grace AME Church, sister church to Mother Emmanuel. This is our third January/New Year celebration.

I traveled up to Columbia to participate in Interfaith Partners of South Carolina's sharing of Governor Henry McMaster’s formal proclamation naming January 2019 “South Carolina Interfaith Harmony Month.” This was a news conference at the State House lobby on Friday, December 28, 2018. Click HERE to see the video I produced of this 15 minute event. This is the sixth year that IPSC has worked with the Governor's office to obtain official endorsement for the importance of interfaith work.

There are a number of events around the state specifically aligned with this proclamation, for a listing to help you find one in your area visit this PAGE at the IPSC website. Here is a sampling of IPSC President Dr. Adrian Bird’s Remarks:

“We gather here today, as interfaith leaders from around South Carolina, to celebrate the Governor McMaster’s Proclamation of January, 2019 as Interfaith Harmony Month. We look forward to January (and to 2019), with great anticipation, as we continue to build relationships founded in dignity and respect across religious lines.

Why is such a proclamation worth celebrating? Perhaps we might acknowledge with greater clarity the importance of interfaith harmony month by contrasting it with its opposite – let’s call it, ‘Interfaith disharmony month.’  What might an interfaith disharmony month look like?” To read the rest click HERE.

I had a number of video assignments while at the Parliament of the World's Religions this past November in Toronto. I did record some videos that were just for sharing through these pages and among them was this address by Dr. Karen Armstrong at the Plenary on Understanding at the 2018 Parliament of the World's Religions. To see this 15 minute video click here. She is the founder of Charter for Compassion. I have found her writing to be clear, succinct and full of insights.

 I had a number of video assignments while at the Parliament of the World's Religions this past November in Toronto. I did record some videos that were just for sharing through these pages and among them was this address by Rabbi David Rosen at the plenary on Understanding. To view the video click here. Rabbi  Rosen is AJC’s (the leading global Jewish advocacy organization) International Director of Interreligious Affairs, and has been advancing understanding and good relations between religious communities for more than forty years –  from the time he served as rabbi of the largest Orthodox Jewish congregation in South Africa, during his tenure as Chief Rabbi of Ireland; and throughout the last more than thirty years based in Jerusalem. This talk is inspiring and often funny and is a marvelous story of one person's interfaith journey.

Oh my, here it is the last day of November and I realize I haven’t posted anything on these pages since September. In my defense (as all those who feel guilt are compelled to say) it has been a very busy and otherwise productive time. Much of our work as Interfaith Advocate is in producing videos of events and interviews with people central to the interfaith work in our local areas. For us this is primarily IPSC (Interfaith Partners of South Carolina) and UICC (Unified Interfaith Community Coalition of Beaufort) although it often involves events at Unity and Unitarian congregations as well.

On September 9th there was a fabulous celebration of Unity of Charleston’s 35th anniversary with a special acknowledgment of its founder, Rev. Mary Ann Finch. As Rev. Finch also founded Unity of Myrtle Beach and Unity of Mount Pleasant there was a sizable contingent from those congregations including Rev. Margaret Hiller, senior minister at Unity of Myrtle Beach and Kimberly Renollet Heck, spiritual leader of Unity of Mount Pleasant. As it is also the case that Rev. Finch was very active in the Unity movement and served at the highest levels, the celebration was also attended and spoke to by Rev. Donna Johnson, CEO of Unity Ministries Worldwide. A very special presentation came from Charleston’s mayor, the Hon. John Teklenberg in the form of a proclamation naming that day as Charleston’s Rev. Mary Ann Finch day. The mayor than performed The President Sang Amazing Grace, a song by Zoe Mulford which had been recorded by Joan Baez and performed by her that previous June at the memorial for The Mother of a Emanuel Nine in Sumter Square. Follow this link to see the mayor’s performance.

Also in September was IPSC’s (Interfaith Partners of South Carolina) art competition event in Columbia, SC which was videoed in order to promote the art competition statewide. To see that promo follow this link. A fair amount of planning and preparation went into producing a Unity World Day of Prayer event which was to be held at Unity of Hilton Head which unfortunately was canceled due to a hurricane. On September 22nd a number of us traveled down to Atlanta, GA for the consecration of Bishop Jack L. Bomar at Dr. Barbara King’s Hillside International Truth Center. Co-consecrator with Dr. King was Bishop Carlton Pearson. I was deeply honored to be included in the Apostolic Spiritual Advisory Council, which included Unity CEO Jim Blake, and we participated in the laying on of hands blessing for Bishop Jack.

September 25th through September 28th was Unity Ministers of the Mid-Atlantic States (UMMAS) annual Kanuga retreat outside of Hendersonville, NC. This year our keynote speaker was the Rev. Margaret Hiller and Rev. Christy Snow performed and spoke as well. We were honored by the presence of Unity CEO Jim Blake and the Rev. Mark Fuss from Unity Village. Due to an extraordinary number of technical difficulties and other time pressures I have not yet produced videos from that retreat, although that will be a priority in the month of December. My primary responsibility for the Kanuga retreat is the production of a 2 to 3 minute promo video to be used the following year so my tardiness does not cause anyone the stress it’s causing me, LOL.

October 7 was IPSC (Interfaith Partners of South Carolina) Peace in the Park event which was held at the University of South Carolina on their Columbia campus. It was a beautiful day and over 300 people attended. Our cohosts at the University were so impressed that they immediately committed to having the event again next year at the same location. For a short video on that event follow this link.

Much of October was taken up in planning and preparation for the Parliament of the World’s Religions which took place the first week in November in Toronto Canada. I was involved in The Association of Global New Thought (AGNT) planning for their dedicated space at the parliament as well as some video assignments I had from them, primary of which was the videoing of their panel discussion Global Justice through Racial and Religious Renaissance moderated by Dr. Michael Bernard Beckwith. The presenters were Bishop Joseph Tolton, Bishop Yvette Flunder, Rev. Erin McCabe, and Dr. Ken Gordon. This was a powerful and thought-provoking interchange between New Thought leaders and Metacostal (metaphysical Pentecostal) or Renaissance Pentecostal leaders. Follow this link to view that video.

I was granted press credentials by the parliament and other video assignments at the Parliament World’s Religions included a presentation by Dr. Barbara King, a panel discussion led by Trebbe Johnson, and a panel discussion led by Audrey Addison Williams. I’m working on the edits of those videos and will post them as I complete them. Each of them will warrant a separate blogpost so look for that. Of great personal importance to me at this Parliament was the pursuit of a certificate in Indigenous Cultural Awareness offered by First Nations Technical Institute (FNTI) through the parliament. The sessions and presentations at the parliament are divided into tracks and among those tracks was one on indigenous peoples. The certificate required eight hours from that track, and I completed around 11 hours. I’ll be writing a separate blog entry on that program and my experiences in it.

Part of the planning I was involved in in October included preparation for IPSC’s (Interfaith Partners of South Carolina) annual meeting November 11th, which was hosted by UICC (Unified Interfaith Community Coalition of Beaufort) and held at Bishop Bomar’s UNITED Church. Beaufort’s mayor, the Hon. Billy Keyserling welcomed us on behalf of the city of Beaufort. A highlight for me was the attendance of a chief from Oyotunji African Village outside of the Yemassee, SC. They are practitioners of the Yoruba religion indigenous to West Central Africa. You may view that meeting in its entirety here.

As I need to get back to my editing responsibilities, I’ll end with my best wishes for a happy and peaceful holiday season for all of you beloveds!

Thank you Reverend Therese Donlan Lee for entrusting me with assembling this program. Our guest speakers are each one pillars of faith in our wider community.

Thanks to my friend the Reverend Ed Kosak for hosting this at Unity of Charleston!

“Imagine an ocean moment: two waves converging in the same time and space. One is powerful but subsiding, the other just gathering momentum and presence but not yet cresting. At the moment of their meeting they are nearly equal in amplitude and influence. As they cross, who can say which is rising, which descending? In that moment only the chaos of wave interference exists. Now imagine modernity as a powerful wave of cultural values that crested half a century ago and is slowly beginning to subside. At the same time, a second wave of countervailing values rises equally slowly, building until its crest begins to rival the declining energy of the older wave”. This central image from James Kenney’s book offers a very clear and hopeful metaphor for the chaotic times in which we find ourselves.

I became aware of this important and timely book through the Association for Global New Thought’s online salon “New Thought on the News”, as the book’s central concept forms the basis of the dialogue as well as the lens through which each monthly topic is viewed. I have been involved in the Unity movement for a number of years now and Unity is one denomination of New Thought, along with Christian Science, Centers for Spiritual Living, Agape and others.  All New Thought affiliates place the importance of consciousness foremost in producing the changes we wish to manifest in our lives and in the world. At the extreme end of this understanding there are those who believe that it is best to just turn off the news, turn inward with prayer and meditation, forwarding the claim that ours is not to make the world right but to see it rightly. At the other end of the spectrum are those who are wanting to abandon this passive approach and get involved in direct action, perceiving evil in the world and picking up the gauntlet. There is a middle ground, where one remains engaged with the world, keeping up on current affairs and responding to a duty to “Stand Up, Speak Up, Show Up” in the words of Unity Minister Rev. Darlene Strickland. In this middle ground we do not pick arguments, promote confrontation nor assign blame, rather we look to find positive interpretations of the phenomena around us and to hold up a vision for self and others of the world towards which we are actively moving. AGNT’s New Thought on the News provides us with many tools holding this middle ground. We must stand in our truth and do so together.

In order to understand both Mr. Kenney’s passion and unique qualifications for writing about these topics it is useful to note some of the ways in which he has served. In 1988, he became a founding trustee of the Council for a Parliament of the World’s Religions and served as global director through the 1999 Parliament in Cape Town, South Africa. He is the Founder and Executive Director, Interreligious Engagement Project, and Co-founder, Executive Director, Common Ground, and Founding Trustee, International Committee for the Peace Council  and currently Project Coordinator; bringing together some of the world’s most revered and influential religious and spiritual leaders in service to world peace. He also serves as Co-Editor, Interreligious Insight: a Journal of Dialogue and Engagement.

Providing greater detail on these waves Mr. Kenney writes “In Western culture the modern wave has long been dominant. Deeply rooted in classical antiquity and European history, the modern wave has profoundly shaped every culture in the world. In our own time, however, we have begun to sense the weakening of its influence and to recognize the growing strength of a challenging newer value wave. This younger wave represents positive change. It is the wave of future possibility in the present, the advent of a cultural evolutionary transformation.”

Here I’ll quote him at length:
“As the long-dominant older wave loses amplitude and the newer one surges, we cross the threshold into an interesting time. The cultural critique—of patriarchy, the legitimacy of war, ecological exploitation and pollution, racism, injustice, religious exclusivism, and imperialism—has arguably never been more pronounced. At the same time, we’ve begun to explore and even embrace emerging values including non-violent conflict resolution, universal human rights, social and economic justice, ecological sustainability, and interreligious harmony. But the passage is anything but straightforward. The interference of two culture waves unleashes both apparent chaos and emerging order. This dynamic creates the signature turbulence of a sea-change : a profound alteration of cultural values toward a better fit with current realities. Sea-changes are rare—in this book, I identify only four since human prehistory. They are daunting but richly creative periods, with at least three recognizable benchmarks:
•          a dramatic increase in cultural complexity;
•          a growing awareness of the interdependence of all with all; and
•          a variety of new multiperspectival approaches to knowledge and action.
Never easy transitions, such evolutionary shifts in values produce profound inspiration and originality and, at the same time, cultural confusion and identity crisis. And, of course, the widespread emergence of new values and new ways of thinking always threatens established structures of power, thus adding a dangerous intensity to an already-volatile cultural mix.

These values form the nucleus of an emerging consensus that opposes globalization from the top down—the creeping Westernization and Americanization of the planet. The younger wave clearly represents a very different global order, a sort of globalization from the bottom up. Around the world, there is a noticeable shift from ethnocentric to world-centric values.

Each failing cultural dynamic of the older wave—sexism, racism, intolerance, fundamentalism, injustice, eco-abuse, imperialism, or materialism—manifests the essential blindness of ethnocentrism. That pathology is nurtured by the conviction that one’s own group, gender, race, class, nation, species, or way of living is somehow inherently superior to every other.”

For me one of the most useful understandings that come out of this model and his development of it is what he refers to as eddies, very fitting for the water metaphor of waves and for the trauma and danger that eddies present. We are living in a time of great cultural upheaval and social disorientation, we are witnessing a great deal of retrograde motion, with many pining for the way things were in a desire “to make X great again”. Driven by fear and identity politics there is a great deal of backlash, overturning of settled law and all kinds of violence precipitated by fear and outrage. These are some of the eddies of which he speaks. When one can take a drone’s view of the river and its inevitable downstream motion, these eddies are seen for what they are, temporary retrograde motion against the current that is ultimately futile. When actually in such a river one does all that one can to avoid being drawn into these eddies for the danger of such maelstroms include broken limbs and drowning. They certainly need to be regarded with caution and respect, but in the grand scheme of things the river moves on.

Mr. Kenney writes “as the influence of the older wave declines in the rise of the next sea-change becomes more evident, eddies form... As older certainties face new evolutionary energies, eddies appear — the vortices of resistance to change. Some of the most disturbing cultural patterns of our age belong neither to the older or the newer wave. Fundamentalism, fascism, greed, and hegemony, for example, are eddies — manifestations of the turbulent interaction of the two value waves.”

Seeing this larger, much larger view we can let go of some of the fear rising in us as we witness abhorrent behaviors and trends as well as the highly polarized and strident voices competing for attention. Indeed it does appear often enough that the hard won gains of the last sixty years in racial equality, environmental protection and economic justice are eroded. Divisive language and tactics result in a nasty identity politics and while the last presidential election was as partisan as any since the days of the Vietnam War, almost as many people did not vote as did.

Mr. Kenney proposes that “… this is one of those rare times in world history where old values and beliefs give way to new values and beliefs; that we are in the midst of what I call a sea-change . To understand this premise, let’s examine its four foundations: interdependence, paradigm shift, cultural evolution, and the emerging global consensus of values.” Further illuminating this idea he entertains the question “Just Changing . . . or Evolving?” and provides this answer “The sea-change lens offers us a panoramic view of the schizophrenic character of rapidly changing modern life. It reveals that cultures do indeed evolve and generates powerful new insights into the whys and hows of that evolution. Cultural evolution refers to a progressive movement of key human values toward a better fit with observed reality. Human observation of reality becomes more accurate and insightful. As a result, our conscious experience of the world grows clearer and our values tend to change accordingly. Cultural evolution is usually slow and fairly steady, but not always. Exceedingly rare periods—separated by intervals of several thousand to several hundred years—are marked by explosive growth in human understanding. Such world-shaking spans witness astonishing transformations of the value complexes that shape civilization.”

Mr. Kenney goes into great detail about what he has designated as “cultural sea-changes” and emphasizes that these major turning points are indeed rare, and as he sees it there are only four up to and including the one we are witnessing now. First there was the rise of agriculture with its establishment of permanent settlements, higher levels of complexity both in terms of social cooperation and the technical tasks involved in supporting these developments. Then there is what is termed the “axial age”, a period of around 100 years centering on the sixth century BC. In this relatively short period of time most of the world’s major religions were born or significantly altered through the agency of major spiritual teachers. Richard Tarnas author of Cosmos and Psyche makes this observation about the Axial Age: "This was the age of Buddha, bringing the birth of Buddhism in India; of Mahavira and the birth of Jainism in India; of Lao-Tzu and the birth of Taoism in China, which was followed a decade later by the birth of Confucius, Lao-Tzu’s younger contemporary. This same epoch coincided with that sudden wave of major prophets in ancient Israel—Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and the Second Isaiah...n this same era the Hebrew Scriptures were first compiled and redacted. The traditional dating for the immensely influential Zoroaster and the birth of Zoroastrianism in Persia. In Greece, the period... coincided with the birth of Greek philosophy itself, as the first Greek philosophers, Thales and Anaximander, flourished during these decades of the 580s through the 560s, and Pythagoras, towering figure in the history of both Western philosophy and science, was born. In Greek religion, Orphism was emerging and the oracle of Delphi was at the height of its influence."

Mr. Kenney refers to the third sea-change  as “Copernicus’s Planetquake” and points out that “the three most familiar manifestations of the last sea-change  prior to our own were the Renaissance, the Protestant Reformation, and the Scientific Revolution. But we often associate the entire crossing with the vision of a single man. In 1543 Nicolaus Copernicus published his masterwork, De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium, and the world was about to change. The emergence of a sun centered model of the cosmos was profound, literally revolutionary and indeed a dangerous position to advocate.”

In discussing this third sea-change  Mr. Kenney makes extensive references to T. S. Kuhn’s seminal work The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, and in particular to Kuhn’s understanding of the role of anomalies in generating alternative explanations to the models that no longer fit reality as we understand it. This is one of those areas where I was tempted to give you much more detail than is appropriate in a book review because this Kuhn’s book, which I was introduced to in my college days in the 1970s, continues to reverberate through my understanding of how the world works.

I’ve been working on this review off and on for over a month now, in each fresh attempt I’ve had to carve off major chunks of what I found truly important and had a desire to share, but the truth is that the first couple of drafts were essentially a Reader’s Digest Condensed version of the original book. I certainly do not want to give you enough information that you no longer feel the need to read the book, and so I’ll just cursorily list some of the other elements that Mr. Kenney drew upon to make and extend his argument.

Among the tantalizing concepts he explores in supporting his central themes are: “complexity: the evolution of consciousness; chaos to order: how open systems advance; creativity: bottom-up, self-organizing, emergent forms; and cooperation: interdependence as evolutionary touchstone.”  In discussing complexity Mr. Kenney aptly notes that "Complexity does not mean complication. A jumbled pile of orchestral instruments is complicated. The performance of a symphony is an example of organized complexity.” In discussing chaos to order he relies upon the writings of such luminaries as Stuart Kauffman and James Gleick. Having studied chaos theory in some depth I feel compelled to note that the everyday use of the word “chaos” is rather different from the technical, mathematical understandings of this science, often associated with the phrase “dynamical systems”. It is a sophisticated understanding of how just a few elements in simple relationships can evolve into very complex structures and systems. Here is a bit of amplification on Mr. Kenney’s understanding of cooperation: "Non-Zero-Sum Games. This theme is emblematic of the sea-change concept, demonstrating that our evolution tends toward cooperation and interdependence rather than endless competitions involving winners and losers. Cultural evolution favors non-zero-sum behaviors (cooperative win-win or lose-lose interactions) over zero-sum (win-lose) social patterns. "

Another important chapter looks at the thought of American philosopher Ken Wilber and his widely studied conceptual framework: the Four Quadrants, an Integral Approach to Knowing. This model describes four essential realms of human knowledge and endeavor, the four are divided into two hemispheres, where two are concerned with the individual, in both their interior and exterior dimensions, and two address the collective, in its interior and exterior dimensions. This seemingly simple model can be elaborated into a rather detailed diagram of almost any human phenomenon one can imagine. Just enter “four quadrants” into your search engine and specify that you want to see images to verify this. Wilber is among the most revered and prolific thinkers of our times.

All in all taking on this book review has been a daunting task, but entirely worthwhile if it inspires you to pick it up and share its insights with those around you. Mr. Kenney ends this book with a discussion of Joseph Campbell’s notion of the great stories. Campbell maintained that the great stories “have at least four basic functions. 1) They orient us within our cosmos and disclose the mysteries of nature and of the times and spaces within which life unfolds. 2) They ground us in our social nexus, reminding us of the protocols, the limits, and the values that make our place and our time unique. 3) They aid us in the passages from one life stage to the next, recalling those first humans who walked the same path from birth into this world to birth into the next. 4) They arouse in us a sense of wonder, an awareness of the divinely mysterious character of all existence.”

Mr. Kenney concludes “That’s why I find cultural evolution so empowering. It’s a story that needs telling, and it’s beginning to be told in a variety of powerful ways by committed and persuasive teachers around the world. The new story is especially urgent in a time of sea-change, one of the very rare periods of a potential evolutionary quantum leap. If the story of the evolution of human values over time is worth telling to the children around every campfire, how much more important is the story of an extraordinary time of crossing? And who needs to hear it more than those who are trying to thrive in a crosscurrent they may not understand?” Who indeed?
 
Kenney, James. Thriving in the Crosscurrent: Clarity and Hope in a Time of Cultural Sea-change. Quest Books. Also available in a Kindle Edition.

“So that we might be illuminated, to be called to significant action so that what may seem to be a tragedy to some can become a triumph to the rest of the world”.

These were the closing words of Rev. Dr. Kylon Middleton, Pastor, Mt. Zion AME Chapel, Charleston, SC and keynote speaker at Unified Interfaith Community Coalition of Beaufort’s third annual Mother Emanuel Nine Memorial on June 15th, 2018. His rousing sermon in this interfaith event at the historic Brick Baptist Church, adjacent to Penn Center, honored those nine slain souls, and very personally that of Rev. Clementa Pinckney, his lifelong friend and pastoral colleague. To see his sermon click on the image above. Rev. Middleton went well beyond that though, furthering UICC’s goal of transcending the pain, of not being bound by the past, with a fervent desire to give meaning to the suffering we have sustained in the loss of so many to violence.

UICC was founded by Rev. Jeannine Smalls, Pastor Grace Chapel AME Church, in response to that tragic event in 2015 at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston. From the beginning she felt that it was important that this tragedy unite us, transcending the barriers among denominations and between faiths, knowing that our faith communities share a common humanity, a desire for justice and a hunger for peace. Her longtime friend and spiritual brother Rev. Middleton spoke of this very eloquently “We are stronger together because of our faith, we are stronger when we stand as Baptists, and we are stronger when we stand as AME, we are stronger when we stand as Jews, we are stronger when we stand in the Baha’i faith, we are strong when we acknowledge our Unitarian Universalism, we are strong when we’re Islamic, we are strong when we stand up to be Episcopalians, especially in South Carolina in 2018, we are strong when we are Lutheran, we’re strong in our Presbyterianism, we are strong as non-denominationalists, we are strong as Catholics, so we are stronger in our faith together! It is larger than one church, it is larger than one denomination, is larger than one faith, it is about our human community.”

Rev. Smalls in her introduction for Rev. Middleton quoted Martin Luther King “…the most segregated hour in Christian America is 11 AM on a Sunday morning”. The interfaith work of UICC has as a key goal of the change to this “appalling” situation. It is common for events like these to be held on a Friday evening when many people are able to come, and appropriate venues are available. We are deeply grateful to Rev. Dr. Abraham Murray, pastor of the Brick Baptist Church for hosting this important event and for his gracious welcome in his opening remarks. Several of the most dedicated and hardworking members of our organization are members of the Jewish faith and we recognize that it is a hardship, and somewhat insensitive of us to hold these events on their Shabbat. In keeping with who we are and what we are about, it was the first time a Shabbat candle was lit in this august sanctuary. Rabbi TZiPi Radonsky of Watering the Tree Outside the Fence Foundation lit the candle and offered a prayer, closing with a reading from Numbers 6:23-27.

A number of segments of the evening were beautifully woven together with the music of choirs and Emma Stevenson of Rev. Murray’s congregation as soloist. “Aunt Emma” is the aunt of both Rev. Pinckney and Rev. Middleton. Rev. Penny Rahm of Waters Edge United Methodist, had written words reflecting our theme to go with the tune “we shall overcome” which she led a jubilant congregation through. Mostly behind the scenes though absolutely essential to the success of this event was Rev. Shannon Mullen, Pastor of St. John’s Lutheran. There was a slideshow honoring The Mother Emanuel Nine which was shown while one by one individuals in the congregation stood and spoke loudly the name of one of those nine followed by a hallowed chime from Rev. Lori Hlaban, of the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Beaufort, as she conducted the remembrance portion. Theresa White of the Pan-African Family Empowerment and Land Preservation Network spoke to us about the history of Juneteenth and related a number of stories from her family history that brought it home to us all. Members of IPSC, Interfaith Partners of South Carolina, traveled down Columbia to attend including Dr. Adrian Bird, Carey Murphy, and Ethel Crawford. Rev. Roy Tripp of St. Mark’s Episcopal Church offered the closing Benediction.  

Our second keynote speaker was Victoria Smalls who currently serves as Commissioner, Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor and program director for the International African American Museum being built in Charleston South Carolina. Ms. Smalls served a number of years as director of History, Art an Culture programs at Penn Center and also serves everywhere she lives on Baha’i Local Spiritual Assemblies. As Ms. Smalls grew up on St. Helena Island and still had a lot of family living there she was able to offer a unique perspective. Her talk was informative, as she is an historian at heart, inspiring, and she ended with relevant quotes from her Baha’i scriptures. One point in particular that she made is that Penn Center was one of the very few places that Dr. Martin Luther King felt safe, and perhaps the only place where blacks and whites were able to sit down, speak and plan together, during the very segregated 1960s. Many of his most famous speeches were written here and shared with those who accompanied him. At the time of his death plans were in the works to build him a cottage on the marsh on the eastern edge of Penn Center where he could rest and find peace.

Our theme, “We Remember and We Do Not Forget” was suggested by Rabbi TZiPi Radonsky at one of our early planning meetings for this event. She shared with us that in her Jewish faith this phrase “We Remember and We Do Not Forget” is part of her weekly spiritual practice. That it is important to review and remember the blessings and challenges of the past week on the Sabbath and to remind one of the blessings and opportunities to come in the following week. She had a vision that this practice could be extended further back in time and further into the future in the context of this memorial service. One component of the evening was a slideshow where this phrase appeared and was followed by an image reminding us of many of the painful tragedies that somehow unite us. The images included scenes from more than a dozen of the mass shootings of the past few decades, atrocities committed at Jewish concentration camps, numerous slain martyrs to beloved causes, Dr. Martin Luther King, Medgar Evers, Malcolm X, Harvey Milk, and others, slaughters of Native Americans at Wounded Knee, the Cherokee Trail of tears, the Japanese internment camps and most especially the assassinated Mother Emanuel Nine. It ended with these words “We Remember Those We Have Lost To Violence, And We Do Not Forget Our Commitment To Peace”.
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Rev. Smalls has carried the conviction that these tragedies might unite us and give us hope for the future, that our shared understanding and efforts will eventually make such things impossible. Just this morning as I was thinking through all of this in order to write this blog post a friend of mine shared with me this quote from the Talmud “Do not be daunted by the enormity of the world’s grief. Do justly, now. Love mercy, now. Walk humbly, now. You are not obligated to complete the work, but neither are you free to abandon it.” People become martyrs when they are assassinated to prevent them from bringing to completion their life work, and though their deaths are a sadness to us they are most clearly a call to complete their labors.