Wood County Religion Series

Fall 2008
FUTURE CHALLENGES
Proposed by
J. Krochmalny
July 15, 2008

BACKGROUND

For the past 33 years and perhaps greatly expanded upon since September 11,
2001, there have been numerous examples of recognized religious leaders
promoting their own agendas. Frequently, these same individuals use their
pulpits in calling for an active persecution of just about anyone who does not see
the world in quite the same way as they do.

Reverend Pat Robinson has recently called for the assassination of President of
Venezuela Hugo Chavez. Reverend Franklin Graham, successor of the Rev.
Billy Graham calls Islam a “gutter religion”. Reverend John Hagee of Texas is
presently praising the country of Israel and calling for the annihilation of the
Iranian Government. Blind Muslim Cleric, Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman calls for
the destruction of the United States and Israel. Then there are the well-exposed
teachings of Osama bin-Laden who supposedly speaks for millions of true
believers.

These and other “believers” are the source of news to the American public who,
as is being inferred, are the leaders of their religious denominations. The image
being portrayed and accepted by the public is that this is what the
Christian/Muslim/Jewish/You Name It religion is about - resulting in a polarization
of global society around these emotional and world-consuming forces. An
historical parallel may have existed in Europe during the summer of 1914
whereby Historian and Writer, Barbara Tuchman comments that everyone in
Europe was “itching for a fight”, without regard to the consequences of such
actions. The question becomes; are the present forces in the world leading up to
another world cataclysm? In light of this, should the people of reason remain
silent while demigods pave the way to Armageddon with hatred and intolerance?

UNITED STATES NATIONAL VIEWS ON DIVERSE RELIGIOUS BELIEFS

The Pew Research Center seems to point to the fact that the majority of
Americans and in many cases the majority of believers within faith communities
believe that there are other pathways to Divine Knowledge.1 Of the Christian
Churches surveyed, the majority of Americans expressed opinions in agreement
with acceptance of other pathways to God. The Barna Research Organization

1
The Pew Research Center has published their key findings at:
http://pewresearch.org/pubs/876/religion-america-part-two
points to a strong minority of Christian Evangelicals that allows other non-
Christian faith groups credibility in their religious experiences and journeys.2

What may be driving these unique perspectives among active believers is the
exposure we all have to our global society. This includes the Internet/World Wide
Web, business outsourcing of services, immigration to the United States of
peoples of diverse cultures and (perhaps to a greater extent than the previously
mentioned) the personal investigation of truth.

SCOPE/PROPOSAL

The Greater Toledo (Ohio) area has only one functioning and active interfaith
organization – The MultiFaith Council of Northwest Ohio. Judy and Woody
Trautman have truly been the driving force and energy behind this unique group.
The successes of this organization involves an Interfaith presence on various
housing builds through Habitat for Humanity, the Toledo Erase the Hate program,
comparative religions study programs as well as numerous Interfaith Banquets
complete with the presentation of honorariums to local leaders of faith. The
focus of all of these activities has been to increase dialog among the diverse
cultures making up the Greater Toledo Community – which has succeeded
beyond everyone’s expectations. In light of these achievements, the time may
have arrived for persons of faith to take a more active role in the shaping the
communities in which we live.

There is ample evidence among social anthropologists that humans create their
own futures through systematic planning. A recent Google Search revealed over
3 million links of various organizations that believe that futures can be identified
and planned into existence3. Perhaps with the various national trends identifying
new paradigms existing within the peoples of faith that allow for tolerance,
forgiveness and forbearance, bring exciting and new possibilities for our
communities. Individual religious beliefs could be a major factor in the recreation
of the societies in which we all live. The Prophet-Founder of the Baha’I Faith,
Baha’u’llah writes, “They who are the people of God have no ambition except to
revive the world, to ennoble its life, and regenerate its peoples.4” One reason for
these perceived unknown facts about individual beliefs may be due to the lack of
religious education of the individual. Feelings of inferiority may have a subduing
effect on persons who would otherwise contest “scriptural scholars” regardless of
the faith tradition.

An expansion of the interfaith groundwork already established within the

Northwest Ohio area could involve the motivation and nurturing of “agents of
2
The Barna Group is located at: http://www.barna.org/FlexPage.aspx?
Page=BarnaUpdate&BarnaUpdateID=122
3
A search conducted on July 15, 2008 revealed 3.3 Million references to futurist topics available
on the Internet. See http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-
8&rlz=1T4GGIH_enUS248US248&q=Futurist
4
Baha'u'llah, Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah, p. 270
change” who would possess the necessary tools for the reshaping of
communities according to a desired progressive and diverse future vision of unity
and diversity.

FUTURE CHALLENGES – BEING A FORCE FOR CHANGE IN YOUR

COMMUNITY

If religion has shown itself to be a major source for the instability of communities,
then it follows that it can also be a major source for stability. This stability would
then be a prerequisite for progression and advancement. People of faith, whose
core values of forgiveness, forbearance, compassion and others (common
attributes existing in all of the world’s religions), can use these values to
stabilize/heal the communities in which they live. The exploration of this topic
could include but not be limited to the following areas:

• Spiritual energy required for community transformation

• Servant Leadership
• The Art of Consultation - Problem-solving on a spiritual level
• Attraction of Like-Minded Souls
• Courage in confronting ignorance
• Rewards for such efforts (based upon Holy Scriptures)
• Applying Futurist and Systematic Thinking Processes for
Visioning & Planning
• Incorporating Continuous Improvement in all processes
• Networking among other like-minded organizations
• Petitioning for Non-Governmental (NGO) advisory status among
government and community offices and organizations

CONCLUSION

We find that in many places in the world, communities are being torn apart due to
violence that is based upon religious differences. Nowhere is there found in the
Qur’an, Gospels, Torah or the Veda’s that their believers should go out and
slaughter their brothers. Obviously, these beliefs came into existence due to
someone’s interpretation- without any scriptural foundation. If these individuals
think they have the religious authority to make such demands, there should be
individuals that could counter such exhortations. In the United States, such
individuals could be the agents of change within their communities. National
trends involving religious belief seem to point in that direction.