Interfaith Messengers

If we pay attention to “the media” at all—community, local, national, or online—we experience innumerable messages vying for our attention. Almost never do we see messages about more profound matters which, if presented well, can positively impact peoples’ attitudes and frames of mind. These messages can also be effectively linked to the issues facing our country today.

Interfaith Messengers seek to fill this void and recall deeper dimensions of the human experience. By “interfaith,” I do not mean a cause, or a practical agenda of any kind. Interfaith could never be a religion, because it refers to interior things “underneath” the exterior things associated with all religions. Ceremony, rituals, priesthoods, holy objects, as also politics and religious wars—all that is on the outside. Almost everything we see the religions doing distracts us from their more internal, permanent and meaningful aspects. “Interfaith,” therefore, refers to what all religious have in common—unifying, transcendent and ineffable experiences of communion with a common God/Self/Truth/Source/ Light, whatever we may call it.

All of us are in touch with this to some degree (however deeply buried in some cases). We present this reality to people in short-message form and get conversations going around it. We would hold signs in small groups, as a spiritual practice—a kind of contemplative or prayerful demonstration.

If you have taken workshops in mindfulness and the like, then you might be familiar with standing and walking meditations done in silence. This is how we hold our signs. Although we seek interaction, we never start conversations. It may be a matter of faith, but we are full and complete unto ourselves! We therefore greet passerby only with nods and smiles. Obviously, verbal exchanges are more likely to be meaningful if people have the interest to approach us.

If you happen to believe that your religion is superior to all the others, that’s okay. That notion has always been important to a lot of people. As an Interfaith Messengers however, we seek to overcome anything that sets us apart from others and judges them. I think even some agnostics could join us, since some of them understand s great deal about “spirituality” although in their own way.

Join us! There’s a lot to talk about—what the signs should say, situations we would encounter, how to share our own experiences, policies for dealing with the police, etc. should we encounter them, and so on!