.be.

Have you ever attended a function and are not really sure why you  were invited?  Through Natureman's participation on the city's Social Justice committee, we received an invitation to attend a special discussion.  What we learned once we arrived was this gathering was sponsored by a group of men who call themselves .be. and meet through their church to explore difficult topics.

In today's world of misunderstanding their concept was to bring together people of different faiths and backgrounds to do the very same thing. Talk, share, discuss and most important of all listen.

Our topic of the evening was "Is the God of Judaism, Christianity and Islam the same/different?" The Endowed Professor of Viterbo University's Reinhart Institute for Ethics in Leadership, Richard Kyte presented scripture from each religion's text, the Old and New Testaments and Koran to describe G-d and Allah.

Religious symbols (lot r) The Crescent (Islam) the Start of David (Judaism) and the Cross (Christianity)

Before breaking into 6 random groups the attendees reviewed 2 papers on tips for "Listening Well" which included the following:
1. Be present to those who are speaking.
2. No saving, fixing, advising or setting each other straight , unless speaker asks for counsel. 
3. Learn to respond to others with honest, open questions instead of counseling, corrections or loaded questions. 
4.Learn to listen to your own inner dialogue while you are also   trying to listen to the speaker.
5. Trust and learn from the silence. 
6. Everything that is shared in the group is confidential.
7. To turn off one's phone.

And the second paper was on 'Barriers to Effective Listening" which included: Comparing, Mind Reading, Rehearsing, Filtering, Judging, Dreaming, Identifying, Advising and Sparring.

Personally, I found both helpful. 

I have shared this evening at various gatherings as it was a powerful evening. Each table of 8/9 individuals had a moderator to provide questions and keep the discussion flowing and respectful for the hour.

Our first item to share if we so desired was to talk about our own spiritual journey of what God is to us personally. Some background as to our religious upbringing/life experience. The ages at my table ranged from 17 to 79 and it was eye opening to hear about other's "faith".

Then our impression about the scripture discussions of a higher being. Were they positive/negative?  Does each religion foster a personal/ impersonal God? My table was fortunate to have representatives from each of the denominations. I learned in the Koran there are 99 adjectives to describe a personal Allah.

How many of us have ever openly discussed religion with people of different faiths?  It was a powerful evening as similarities between the three melded and preconceived differences shrunk once we shared our interpretations of who G-d, God / Allah is. 

We definitely should talk and listen more often...