My self-appointed
personal research assistant – my son Matthew - brought to my attention an episode
of the wonderful CBC program Tapestry hosted by Mary Hines. Tapestry is one of my go–to programs to
listen to. This was a rebroadcast of
favourites celebrating Tapestry’s 25th anniversary. The program was an interview with Johnathan Sacks
who is the former chief rabbi of England.
I have been a fan of Rabbi Sacks for many years and particularly appreciate
his book, The Dignity of Difference which I have written about fairly
recently in this space. The interview
can be found at https://www.cbc.ca/listen/live-radio/1-59-tapestry
and I would highly recommend it for its ability to enlighten as well as
entertain.
Sacks’ great
concern is that if humanity is to survive, we need to look beyond our
differences to truly see and appreciate the humanity of others. It is impossible to summarize the ground
covered in this interview in the self-limits that I give this forum. I want to give you a taste of Sacks’ erudition
and the depth of knowledge he draws upon which forms what I might call his theology
of the human spirit.
“The great
choice of the twenty-first century; will religion harm or heal?”
“The cause
of violence is not religion. The cause
is the human heart.”
“Complements
are fine as long as you don’t inhale.”
About the
head of the Catholic Church in England, “He took God so seriously that he didn’t
have to take himself seriously.”
God gave human
beings the ability to transcend nature. God
gave us free will. Sacks quotes Isaac Bashevis Singer, “We have to be free; we
have no choice!”
Johnathan Swift, “We have just enough religion to make us hate, but not enough to make us
love one another.”
I will give you a summary of a response Sacks gave to a
question posed by Mary Hines, “Do you encounter the other when you debate a
Richard Dawkins? Do you look at atheism
as the other?” This response for me showed
to wisdom that Sacks brings to the seemingly insoluble situation in the world where
people seem to be building higher and higher walls instead of wider and stronger
bridges.
In response, Dawkins recounted how the BBC had asked him to
have a ‘conversation’ with Dawkins for a program. He agreed to do it on one condition – that he
could invite Dawkins and his wife to have dinner with him and his wife. He did this to see if they could get on as
human beings. Sacks describes Dawkins as
the Voltaire of our times – he is outrageous to provoke a reaction in
people. Sacks notes that he has great
respect for Dawkins but deep down he likes him and, on that basis, he agreed to
the conversation. Two people that
respect each other can meet together.
It does little or no good and probably does harm when people
talk at each other and try to convince the other that they are wrong and you
are right. We need to be able to meet not
with ‘the other’ but with an ‘other’ – person to person to understand and yes
even love not despite who they are but because of who they are. This may seem impossible but with the love of
God all things are possible.
Blessings on your journey.
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