I keep my mind on this impossible dream I have to rid the world of hate and teach people to like each other. My age is never a thing I think about. Here's something you would enjoy. Please pass the word to all your friends.

Come all you who hunger and thirst to
The Human Family Reunion
Saturday, February 24, 2001
at High Noon
at
Barker Temple Church of God in Christ
17th and Highland
Kansas City, MO
 

We come today with open minds and warm hearts. Who's right is the wrong
question. We want simply to know one another. To enlarge our circle of
friends. To become more visible and vital members of the Human Family. At
this reunion we meet our brothers and sisters, aunts and uncles, nephews and
nieces of other creeds, colors and cultures. We celebrate life and one
another.

The Human Family Reunion is sponsored by HateBusters, Barker Temple Church of
God in Christ, Central Baptist Theological Seminary, the Midwest Center for
Service Learning and Women's Issues, the Center for Religious Experience and
Study and endorsed by all the faith traditions represented in the Kansas City
metropolitan community.

                    Let it never be forgot, that once there was a spot,
                    for one brief shining moment, known as Camelot.
 

Maybe that's enough. Enough to buoy our weary souls o'er troubled waters and
bring us back each February to the Barker Temple Human Family Reunion. May
these few minutes together today set our hearts and minds upon that grand
high road blessed by all the world's religions. And may the memory of this
day bring joy to us all.

                       Bring a dish of your favorite food and come

To tell us you are coming or to get more information call Ed Chasteen,
913/371-5313 or 816/792-2272.
You may also call Maxine "Queen Mother" McFarlane, 816/353-5507.

      In a court of law, only those with first-hand knowledge are allowed to testify. But in the court of public opinion, hearsay is often all we have.
The often negative stories about each other we see on TV and read in the paper is for many of us the only thing we know of one another. My dear friends, that does not have to be the case. Right here in Greater Kansas City, we can show how much better it is for everyone when we all have first hand knowledge. We can all know each other by name. Face to face. Up front and personal. Rumor and gossip will find NO VACANCY signs when they come to our hearts and minds.
      My dream is that we become a model for our country by demonstrating to the world our commitment to getting to know one another across religious lines. We live close to one another but we seldom visit each other. Most of what we know of one another is second-hand information, passed on to us by the media and by friends. That's okay. But that's how we learn of folks around the world. Seems like we could do better when we live just a few minutes apart.
      My idea is so simple. It seems so little. I propose that we plan regular visits with one another. We will go in small groups, no more than 15. We will talk to one another about our families, our work, our faith, our hopes and dreams. We will get to know each other on a first name basis.
      "Who is right" will not be the question we ask. We will ask, "How can we get to know one another?" We seek to know one another as neighbors. When we have done this, we will be better able to interpret the information about faith groups we read in the paper and see on TV and hear from our friends.
      My dream is that we build friendships between people of different faiths. The nightmare I sometimes have is that if we do not do this, then the fringe elements in all the faiths will set us against each other. This has happened before, and the specter of its reappearance haunts me now. I must make what effort I can here in the place where I live to prevent this. I want all of us who are people of faith to find common ground in the struggle we all have to find purpose and hope in life. I want us to love one another and help one another.
      I think visiting one another and talking quietly about things that matter to us is a first step down that long road to loving our neighbor as ourselves. I want us to begin these visits soon and do them often. I need your help to make this happen. Send me your ideas by email. Call me. Let's have lunch. More than one and a half million of us live together here in Greater Kansas City. We have come from all over the world. We can visit the world right here in Kansas City. We can inspire all of America by showing the peace, power, purpose and joy that come to those who love their neighbors.
      Greater Kansas City is now home to people from all the world's religions, giving us a rare and golden opportunity to show that we can draw upon all that is indeed holy in all our faiths. We need not allow those who understand so little of their faith to set the agenda by which the rest of us live. Those people who use their faith to make war upon people of other faiths have imperfectly understood their own faith. Something other than their faith prompts them to violence. Those who do violence must be disavowed by all people of faith. The Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. recognized the corrosive power of violence when he said, "Always avoid violence. If you sow the seeds of violence in your struggle, unborn generations will reap the whirlwind of social disintegration."
      Will Rogers used to say, "I never met a man I didn't like." I wonder if he might have said, "I never liked a man I didn't meet." Well, he might have.
So, here's my idea to help all of our religious communities in Greater Kansas City learn to like each other. Regularly all year long we will visit faith communities in Greater Kansas City. From 8:30 in the morning until 4:30 in the afternoon. We will get into a 15 passenger van at Central Baptist Seminary in Kansas City, Kansas or at William Jewell College in Liberty, Missouri. We will journey in groups no larger than 15 into the religious hearts of Greater Kansas City. To visit in greater numbers would not allow the personal attention we all should get and give.
      We will visit churches, synagogues, masjids, temples, religious schools. We will meet pastors, rabbis, imams and members. We will eat unfamiliar foods in places we have not visited previously. We will see the world right here in Kansas City. We will build bridges between communities of faith. We will make new friends and open doors to new personal worlds. We will begin the process of becoming World Class Persons, able to go anyplace at anytime and talk to anyone about anything and feel safe. And when the world hears what we are doing and who we are becoming, they will beat a path to our door to learn from us what they might do back at their home place to make their little piece of God's good earth more like the place we are creating.
      The scriptures of all the world's faiths promise that love is stronger than hate. Love does not defeat hate, however, simply by being the superior motive. Love wins because those who love give themselves wholeheartedly to its pursuit.  Let us now be about this business of showing our love for one another. Let us visit and eat and talk together so that we might in unison breathe on that spark of goodness and genius that God built into each of us. "Who is right?" is not the question that motivates our visits; rather, the question is "How can we learn to love each other as neighbors?"
      Traveling by van as we are into Kansas City's religious communities, we are calling this the VAN (Visiting Area Neighbors) Project. We will make one scheduled visit each month and will arrange other visits upon request. These visits are planned here at HateBusters Headquarters on the campus of Central Baptist Seminary. We will also arrange other visits as requested by churches, synagogues, masjids, or other faith community. If you would like to arrange a VAN Project for your faith community, please call or email us at the address below.
      The VAN Project is made possible through the combined efforts of HateBusters, the Community Involvement Program at Central Seminary and the Midwest Center for Service Learning and Women's Issues at William Jewell College.
      To get a schedule of visits and/or to sign up for a trip, contact Dr. Ed Chasteen or Dr. Chris Henson. Ed is founder and President of HateBusters, Inc., a 501 c-3 non-profit. "Our purpose is to overcome hate with love." Ed is also Director of Community Involvement at Central Baptist Seminary and Professor Emeritus of Sociology and Anthropology at William Jewell College. Chris is Executive Director of the Midwest Center for Service Learning and Women's Issues, located at William Jewell College.
     Cost for each trip is $30 per person. For this modest price, you get a place on the van, a wonderful lunch and a rare opportunity to meet the good folks who put the "Greater" in Kansas City. Greater Kansas City is a work in progress. With your willing assistance, we might just become that heavenly city set high on a hill, drawing all eyes unto it. We will never know if we don't try.
      Are we up for the effort? I think we are. HateBusters will keep a written record of all the places we visit, including the names of those who go with us and those we meet. The story of our day together will be written, and a copy will be given to each participant. Address and phone numbers of every participant will be included so that we may keep in touch and perhaps plan future visits.

For more information, call 913/371-5313, ex. 139.

The first day of spring has come as it should. Early morning clouds give way to soft sunlight. The wind gentles during the day to a warm breeze. First buds on flowering trees announce themselves in baby pink. Great expectations dance in all our minds as the 12 of us gather in Gene and Pat Cole’s living room, just a few blocks from Metro North Shopping Center. Sister Marilyn Peot has brought 10 other members of St. Charles Parish: Diane and Greg Smith, Mike and Joyce Rauth-Fears, Sister Aline Mohrhaus, Norbert and Shirley Duello and Glenna Carrol. I will be their driver. Promptly at 8:30 on this glorious morning we board our William Jewell College van. Fewer than 70 miles we will travel. By 6 PM we will return. But, oh, the wondrous day we will have.

First stop, the home of Vern Barnet. Vern is Founder and Director of CRES (Center for Religious Experience and Study), a student and teacher of world religions, a passionate seeker of all that is sacred and all that would enrich our lives together. For half-an-hour in his living room, Vern shares his vision with us. Then Vern comes with us in our Van. All day he will share with us from his vast and compassionate knowledge of every faith as we make our way about Greater Kansas City to four faith communities that are at home here.

The Hindu Temple at 6301 Lackman Road in Shawnee is our second stop. Kris Krishna is our host. After we remove our shoes, Kris ushers us downstairs where Sudha Bathina has prepared a short lecture and overhead transparences on the basics of Hunduism. She answers questions that we have. Members of the Temple have prepared refreshments for us before we go upstairs for a tour of the Temple sanctuary and an explanation of the statuary on display. Their priest describes for us the process by which one becomes a priest. Ananda Bhattacharyya and his wife Dipti are long-time HateBusters supporters and members of the Temple. They have just returned from a three-month visit to India. Ananda is a retired engineer. He also is here today to welcome us and share his knowledge.

At noon we come to the Sikh Gudwara (Temple) at 6834 Pflumm Road in Shawnee, just a short drive from the Hindu Temple. The parking lot is full when we arrive, and people are entering the building. Women and girls wear flowing dresses in all colors of the rainbow. Men and boys wear suits and turbans on their heads. Charanjit Hundal is our host and meets us at the door.

We have arrived just in time for a wedding. We take off our shoes, tie a scarf on our head and enter. Women are seated on the carpeted floor to our left; men to our right. The room is full already, but space is made for us to join the other guests. The ceremony and the songs are all in Punjabi. Those near us do not understand the language, but they know what’s happening. They whisper to some of us so we will know.

After an hour, we adjourn downstairs for a delicious vegetarian Indian meal. The aromas and the spices give an Eastern ambiance. We get our meals and take our places on the floor with beautiful food before us. Charanjit explains that chairs and tables are not used in the gudwara. “Sitting on the floor, we are all equal. No one is elevated above another.” The children made it through the mandated quiet of the wedding. Now their exuberant noises and movement make it hard to hear Charanjit as he explains Sikhism to us. Pat is seated next to him. She hears it all and gives us a near literal recitation when we get to the van and before we leave the parking lot.

It’s one-thirty when we leave. Across Greater Kansas City on Shawnee Mission Parkway, we skirt Country Club Plaza on the south and come to Wornall Road. A left turn brings us three blocks later to 47th Street (AKA Brush Creek and Emanuel Cleaver Blvd.), where we turn right and over to Troost Avenue. Another left and we are quickly at Al-Inshirah Masjid (Mosque), just in time for our two o’clock appointment. Imam (minister) Bilial Muhammed is our host.

We remove our shoes just inside the door and enter the place of worship. Bilial has invited some of his members to join us: Majeeda and Aasim Baheyadeen, Shaeer Akhtab, Robert Rashad, Abdus Sabir Taalib Din Muhammed and Zarrieff Osman. We all seat ourselves in a circle. Others join us as the imam and his members explain Islamic belief and practices to us. As we conclude our discussion and answer period, the men form a line and demonstrate for us the method and meaning of their required daily prayers.

In an adjoining room, the women have prepared refreshments for us, giving us all a few minutes for talk of ordinary things that neighbors might discuss. Then Vern arranges us for another of the photographs he has taken at every stop. Photographs that will appear in the next edition of the CRES newsletter.

Llama Chuck Stanford has just day before yesterday returned from several week’s study in India. Jetlag is still a problem. I had thought we could not visit the Rime Buddhist Center in his absence. I had instead asked Vern to take us on a quick tour of the Nelson-Atkins religious art, a tour he regularly gives. But Vern and Chuck are good friends. They have arranged for Matt Rice, Chairman of the Board at the Rime Buddhist Center, to meet us there at four o’clock for a tour and discussion.

Rime Buddhist Center is located just off I-35 near the 20th Street exit in a former church building. There are several schools of Buddhism. The word “Rime”, pronounced ree-may, indicates that this center does not follow any particular school but is inclusive of them all. Matt leads us through the building, stopping to explain the significance of every object. He invites us to come again at any time to learn more.

By six o’clock we are parked again in the Cole’s driveway, back where we started nine and one-half hours ago. It’s likely that never in our lives have we spent a day immersed in religious thought so seemingly different yet so fundamentally similar. Asking in various ways a similar question—What does God require of me and how should I live? –these faiths have arrived at answers that seem so different. I am reminded when I think of these obvious differences that to the unaided eye the earth seems flat.

All day I have reminded those who travel with me and those we visit that our purpose is to form friendships with people of other faiths. If we know by name people of other faiths we can serve as bridges when troubled waters flow between us. When rumors fly that demean a faith, we can come to our friends for facts we trust. By being friends across faith lines we can help all our faiths not simply to endure one another but to endorse each other.

As monopoly is bad for an economy so also is it bad for a religious faith. In economics monopoly leads always to higher prices for inferior products. With no competition there is no incentive to improve the product and no reason not to raise the price. The same is true in the religious arena. Any one of the world’s religions if given unquestioned authority would produce an inferior product at too great a price. Religious diversity is essential if the full range of human spiritual needs is to be fully satisfied. A free spiritual marketplace benefits each individual faith and should, therefore, be endorsed by followers of every faith.

My chosen profession is Ambassador to Other Communities of Faith. I am a Christian. A Baptist. I am a faithful member of my local church. Because my faith is precious to me, I want to meet and know people of other faiths. I want to visit with them and become a friend. I do not want to join them or to change them. I want us all to be ourselves and encourage one another in our faiths. I invite others to join me in this effort.
 
 

Comments of those who visited faith communities today

 “What an enlightening day, Ed! We so appreciated the thoroughness of your preparation; and your sharing of your philosophy about what brought us together--the key point being to consider how we are alike, rather than how we are different. Like the Hindus, we believe Catholicism is a way of life. With the Sikhs, we believe all men are created equal, there is no caste system. What warm hospitality we received from the Muslims. Their emphasis on frequent communion with God through prayer rings true with us. The Buddhists' emphasis on meditation and its integration in our daily lives is a very important aspect of our Catholic spirituality also. Having Vern Barnet accompany us on each of the visits was just icing on the cake! Thanks again, Ed, and God bless for making this a very special day.”

Sincerely,

Shirley & Norbert Duello
Members, St. Charles Catholic Parish