Why Suffering?

People often ask me how I pick my topics for the Interfaith Events. There is no one set way that I determine the topics. The topic of suffering has been brewing in me for awhile. Over a year ago a friend of mine lost her recent husband to cancer. My friend and her young child were left behind to carry on this life. A life which she was hoping to build with the love of her life. I did not reconnect with my friend until several months after the death of her husband. When we spent time together she had determined that she did not believe in a God who would allow this sort of suffering. She also could not come to terms with how Christians had prayed during her husband's suffering. I am a follower of Jesus so my friend's words challenged me in my own views of suffering and how people of faith communicate their beliefs about suffering. Then over the past year our school community has had unexpected deaths, accidents and illnesses. A community often experiences sadness but what we were experiencing was heartbreaking. The topic of Why We Must Suffer? comes out of my own experience in my own community.

Once I had chosen the topic I knew who spoke at the Interfaith Event was crucial. In my experience, I am not interested in listening  to someone talk about 'suffering' if he/she has not experienced suffering. This is one of those topics where life experience gives a person the right to be heard. Each of the speakers for this Interfaith Event: Why Must I Suffer? have walked through their own fires. For some of them it has been heartbreaking personal tragedy and for others they see suffering daily in their professional life. It is their depth of understanding of suffering that will make this event especially an enlightening evening. Each speaker will be addressing how their suffering has been formed by their faith.

At the end of the evening hopefully we will have learned about the faith communities in Fort Wayne through the lens of suffering.  As the topic of suffering is discussed, hopefully we will also see more deeply that there is hope even in our suffering.

Questions for Interfaith Event: Why Must I Suffer?

Five of the six speakers for the Interfaith Event: Why Must I Suffer? were able to attend a meeting yesterday to discuss the event. The speakers for the event are:

Arjia Rinpoche, Tibetan Mongolian Buddhist Cultural Center, Director

Robert Rogers, Mighty in the Land Ministry, Founder

Dr. Prasad Mantravadi, Radiation Oncology Associates, Physician

Amani Elhefni, Universal Education Foundation Islamic School, Principal

Rabbi Mitchell Kornspan, B'nai Jacob Congregation

L. Michael Spath, D.Min., Ph.D.Religious Studies - Department of Philosophy; Peace and Conflict Studies Indiana University Purdue University Fort Wayne; Indiana Center for Middle East Peace

We started the meeting by sharing our own stories, including where suffering has occurred in our lives. This time of sharing about suffering immediately built a bond among the speakers. Suffering crosses all religious lines, for it is a human experience. After we discussed my vision and purpose of the Interfaith Events we determined the questions to be addressed and the time limits for each question.

Question 1) Share with us how you have known or experienced suffering; being either a personal experience or a professional experience.

Question 2) From the viewpoint of your faith, why do bad things happen to good people? Why must we suffer?

Question 3) From the viewpoint of your faith, how should we respond to those who are suffering? What are words of comfort that we can give to those who are suffering?

Questions for the discussion time:What part of your faith helped you during your suffering? How do I get through my suffering?  In religions there is often self-imposed suffering (example: fasting). From the perspective of your religion tell us why this is important for a person's spiritual life? Is it seen as suffering?

We had a wonderful time together. Each person was warm, caring, and has a desire to help others who are suffering. I'm anticipating a great event.

Hidden Picture

Five years ago when I started my first interfaith parent group I was also moving into a new classroom at school because of a remodeling project at Canterbury School. In my classroom I wanted to have a piece of artwork that would represent the faith communities at our school. Canterbury School is an independent school and the school is founded on Christian principles. Even though the school has been founded on Christian principles we have many different faiths at our school. With the help of my interfaith parent group and Maria Kirkland, an artist and art teacher at Canterbury School, a piece of artwork was created. A picture of the artwork is on the right side of this blog. The artwork has 9 squares. Each square represents a different religion at our school. The artwork is to represent that we are different in our theologies but we are united in our community. There is a hidden picture in the artwork to represent our common community. Throughout all nine squares there is a dove and an olive branch.  It is difficult to see the dove and the branch in a reproduction. It is a beautiful work of art that is a statement for who we are at Canterbury School.

Since the artwork has been in my room I start each school year by having the students look at the artwork, explaining we are a school based on Christian principles but we have many students of different faiths at our school, and we are different. We talk about symbols and we identify and name each of the symbols on the work of art. Finally, there is the wonderful discovery of the hidden picture. My students love the artwork. They love to see ‘their’ symbol and they love the hidden picture.

It is in communities that the true lessons of the hidden picture are discovered. There are nine squares because we do have different theologies. In a community that practices hospitality one-with-another we feel safe to honestly acknowledge our differences. We are not compromising our own beliefs by acknowledging our differences. But we can not stop there. The squares are obvious. It is the hidden picture that we must strive for. Even though we have different theologies we do live in a common community, we have a common ethic and we need each other to work for the common good. My hope is that some day that picture won’t be hidden.