This piece is part of an on-going blog series called Plurality 2.0 (watch video here). Full schedule of guest authors throughout April and May is available here.
Erin Williams is the Media Coordinator at the Interfaith Youth Core, a Chicago-based international non-profit that builds mutual respect and pluralism among people from different religious and moral traditions by empowering them to work together to serve others. Erin has lived and worked in documentary, media, research, and outreach capacities in Chicago, Barcelona, Boston, D.C., and Johannesburg.
We will not forget, and we will not forgive…
If you don’t know the kind of person I am
and I don’t know the kind of person you are
a pattern that others made may prevail in the world
and following the wrong god home we may miss our star…And so I appeal to a voice, to something shadowy,
a remote important region in all who talk:
though we could fool each other, we should consider—
lest the parade of our mutual life get lost in the dark.
For it is important that awake people be awake,
or a breaking line may discourage them back to sleep;
the signals we give – yes or no, or maybe—
should be clear: the darkness around us is deep.– William Stafford, A Ritual to Read to Each Other
“We will not forget, and we will not forgive,” read the t-shirt of a man who walked into the Chicago subway car where I was sitting one morning. The words were boldly printed in slanted black cursive over an image of the burning Twin Towers, with a large Bald Eagle flying in front of the collapsing buildings.
When I pondered the series title, “Plurality 2.0,” I found myself wondering, as have other bloggers, “what was Plurality 1.0?” Our Franciscan order celebrates 800 years this year since Pope Innocent III gave oral approval to our way of life in 1209, so I wondered if Saint Francis of Assisi might be an example of Plurality 1.0. We often laud Francis as an example of openness and tolerance during a time of violence, animosity, and theological contempt between different races and religions. He traveled to Egypt during the fifth crusade and crossed the battle lines unarmed, asking to speak to the Sultan, an encounter enshrined in the minds of friars interested in interreligious dialogue. Having received the hospitality of the Sultan, Francis returned to Italy a changed man and we see these changes in our rule of life.
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