The Living Room Focuses on Many Faiths
Filed by Michael Cross in Feature, Local News, News.
December 7, 2011
As Christians celebrate the season of peace…the turbulence and uncertainty of the world continues.
Nowhere has that played out more than the Middle East, where the Arab Spring brought revolution to Tunisia, Egypt and Libya.
Doctor Don Betz is an expert on the Middle East and is this month’s guest on The Living Room.
“I think that we are in a new period of exploration and opportunity and so all of the old standard phrases like ‘they’re a bunch of crazy people in the middle east…always gave us a get out of reality free card that we didn’t have to deal with the issue. We’d always say, ‘we can’t understand them — it’s not understandable so we can wash our hands.’ But we must understand because what’s happening there is being influenced by events around the world and those events in the region are going to impact us.”
On the second half of the The Living Room, host Gerry Bonds will also introduce two people of different faiths who have built a unique friendship around the dinner table.
Shannon Warren is a Christian – Malaka Elyazgii is a Muslim – they’re part of a group of Oklahoma women who have been meeting once a month to break bread since last January — fostering tolerance and understanding among people of different cultures.
“I believe that as a Christian it’s important to of course obey God and God commands us to love one another,” said Warren. “This just seemed like the right time to be reaching out to our Muslim sisters and building friendships and communicating with one another and building an understanding.”
“One thing that I could feed off Shannon – when she mentioned that we get together monthly to inspire one another and enrich one another one thing that we start with is – we’re not here to convert anyone, we’re here to interact yet understand one another.”
You can hear more about this unique friendship, and the interfaith women’s group that brought them together, on next edition of The Living Room, Wednesday night at 6:30.
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I appreciate coverage of inclusivity in our society. It is much in keeping with the spirit of the season and the values of good journalism.
Dr. Don Betz (Betts is a misspelling of his name)