Learning about the world

For the past six weeks the Bible study I help to lead at Hollywood United Methodist Church has been going through a study guide entitled "Building Bridges of Understanding: An Interfaith Response to September 11". It was created by the California Council on Churches (which includes HUMC's pastor) back in 2003 and includes studies on Hunduism, Judaism, Buddhism, Christianity, Islam and Sikhism. And boy, can I just say? It's been an eye-opening six weeks. 

Before I started this study I thought of myself as a fairly knowledgeable person when it comes to spirituality and current events. I read the newspaper daily, I read weekly news magazines, I watch The Daily Show, I follow what's going on in the world. But until last week I apparently had no idea what the religion of Islam really was all about. And I'm shocked by what little I knew about so much else. 

It was an interesting study and one I hope is only just beginning. I feel like I am so much more knowledgeable now but I know there is still so much more to learn. And I feel like this is a responsibility I have as a citizen of the world, as a Christian, as a writer. I'm sad to say most of what I knew about Muslims prior to this was from news organizations and television shows, with an occasional movie thrown in for good measure. But guess what? NCIS: Los Angeles and CNN have a narrow handle on what Muslims stand for, how they practice their religion and what they actually believe (did you know the Qur'an contains the New Testament teachings of Jesus? or that jihad has two basic meanings: to struggle in defense of the faith; the spiritual struggle to become a better Muslim - and that it does not mean "holy war"???)

So it's been a good six weeks, and next we're studying the book of Romans. But I'm not going to stop with my own study of world religions because for every fact we learned, we raised another question and I intend to find answers.