Over spring break, we visited the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, and the first thing that catches your eye when you enter are the numerous rockets on display in the “Rocket Garden”. I’m into all things Space to the point that my family could drop me at the KSC and pick me back up the following year. And yet, this spring was the first time I actually realized that most of these rockets had originally been designed as ballistic missiles to carry nuclear warheads. They were built during the Space Race, a Cold War contest between the U.S. and the Soviet Union to see which superpower could go the farthest in the exploration and conquest of Space.
Most of these rockets were intended to kill. And yet, what they ended up doing was bringing people to space. Today the International Space Station has housed astronauts from various nations, including the U.S. and Russia at the same time. What happened?
As political tensions started to ease, the focus of NASA and its Soviet counterparts shifted. When fear and defense move down the priority list, room opens up for adventure and exploration. Discovering space. Setting foot on the Moon, and maybe one day even on Mars. Working together on a task too big for any one nation. The catalyst for turning missiles into space exploration devices was the hope for peace. With the end of the Cold War, that hope became stronger, and the dream of joint space exploration became reality.
As I stood in the Rocket Garden that day I suddenly no longer thought about space. I thought about my faith. How that same principle holds true when it comes to faith, only with much bigger consequences. As long as we’re preoccupied with fear and with fighting the perceived enemies of our faith, we will build religious missiles – weapons that will hurt and kill – and we won’t be able to experience any kind of breakthrough discovery in the spiritual realm.
Only when curiosity wins over can our thoughts wander to the stars and we can start working together on endeavors far too big for ourselves. In terms of space, it translates into exploring planets. In terms of the spiritual world, exploring peace.
German Christian theologian Siegfried Zimmer has been working for decades with Muslim and Jewish theologians on various projects toward the dialogue between religions. He has published a document with several pages full of fundamental faith statements that can be (and are) agreed upon by noted representatives of all three religions. He has long-standing friendships with Mullahs and Rabbis from around the world.
In a fascinating recent lecture he said that the most basic requirement for any dialogue between religions is the desire to search for what unifies us rather than what separates us. “Before a Christian should ever read one critique on the Quran, they should always be required to first read two positive books about it.”
Why is that such incredible advice? Because when you start with the critique, with the things that divide us, you right away activate fear and suspicion. And from a position of fear, all you will do is build metaphorical missiles which have no other goal than to destroy. But when you approach what you don’t know with curiosity, you might just imagine building something together… like the Parents Circle, an interfaith organization between Palestinians and Israeli. You only get to be a member of this group if you’re the parent of a child that was killed by the violent struggle between the two people groups. Together, these parents work on forgiveness, respect, and a peaceful way forward in this age-old conflict. They are building something beyond powerful.
If you think that’s all well, but in the end we’re just too different and will never see eye to eye, it might just be because so many of us have (unconsciously) been taught to focus on defending and protecting our faith instead of exploring and celebrating it. I know because I’ve lived with this mindset for far too long. I was against so many things I didn’t know anything about, it’d be embarrassing if it wasn’t so sad. But there’s always room for change.
The first concern I normally hear is that looking for common ground will “water down” our faith. But what if it made it stronger, kinder, and more desirable? Would you rather help build a rocket that will kill people or one that will send them to the moon? What if it’s time for our spiritual efforts to shift from defending to exploring – together?
Different religions, of course, aren’t the only breeding grounds for fear and hatred. In the U.S., the two political parties face the same challenge, and any interaction with other countries is a temptation to barricade rather than invite. But maybe the saddest form of this reactionary living is when fear is disguised as faith. When, because of arrogant, incorrect assumptions we call our own country God’s chosen nation and join what Brian Zahnd calls the “liturgy of nationalism”. When our flag waves behind pulpits that should preach God’s love for all nations. When churches celebrate nationalism instead of prophetically challenging it. And when Christians dig themselves into political trenches and end up helping to elect merciless and hateful politicians.
My visit to the Kennedy space center actually started with a lesson of just how real this tension is around me. Just before the gates opened at 10am, and with hundreds of visitors already lined up, the national anthem was played over the loudspeaker, and the crowd turned to look at the flag, hands over their chest. As always when confronted with this part of national liturgy, I stood uneasy. I have no desire to hurt anyone’s feelings. But the ritualistic reverence to a symbol of nationalism goes so much against my instinct that I can’t get myself to join in. So I stand awkwardly and try to let the moment speak to me. Because flags and anthems aren’t the only things that try to divide the world into “us and them”. The instinct to see what sets us apart might always remain more intuitive than to seek what we have in common. But the Space Center is at the same time a reminder that even inside this tension, amazing things can happen. Even though the U.S. couldn’t resist putting an American flag on the moon, they are now also celebrating the international scientific advancements achieved at the ISS. There is hope.
Maybe, as astrophysicist Neil DeGrasse Tyson tellingly commented, there is a lesson to be learned from the fact that there is no air in space to wave a flag. With enough curiosity and trust, we can go beyond fear-driven phenomena like nationalism or Islamophobia or Antisemitism – and through discovering aspects of the world we have never noticed before, grow deeper and wider in our own culture and faith.
When we set our hearts on this goal, peace becomes a reality more real and lasting than any fear and violence can ever be.
Want to dive in deeper? Watch an inspiring and hopeful interview about the power of peace in the current Middle East conflict with members of the Parents Circle, interviewed by Christiane Amanpour for CNN: https://edition.cnn.com/videos/tv/2021/05/14/amanpour-robi-damelin-bassam-aramin-israel-palestinian-territories-peace.cnn
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