Mediaculture: Reflections on the effect of media and culture on our faith

How often do you hear someone lament the polarizing, even hateful rhetoric in our society? And much of the media either reflects or engages in such speech. Yet examples of peaceful rhetoric exist, and we should pay attention to them.

One good example of a positive approach to such peaceful talk is the DVD Waging Peace: Muslim and Christian Alternatives. Produced by Third Way Media, a department of MennoMedia of Mennonite Church USA, Waging Peace is airing this fall on many ABC stations across the country. But you need not wait for it to come to your local affiliate. Order a copy to show and discuss with your Sunday school class or small group.

The one-hour documentary consists of interviews with Christian and Muslim scholars and tells stories of peacebuilding activities between Christians and Muslims.
The various scholars offer a fair if simplified history of Christianity and Islam how peacebuilding is at the root of each faith. This is helpful information for those unfamiliar with one or the other faith.

However, it’s the stories that will speak more powerfully to most listeners. At Floradale (Ontario) Mennonite Church, pastor Fred Redekop and Muslim Imam Shafiq Hudda began having breakfast together, which led to their faith communities engaging in conversation, meals and volunteer projects, including making and knotting comforters together to give to refugees.

The film interviews Muslim and Mennonite students at Rockway Mennonite Collegiate in Kitchener, Ontario. These students’ friendship outweighs their different beliefs.
Another story involves Christian Peacemaker Teams. Beth Pyles and Peggy Gish talk about applying the peace teachings of Jesus in violent situations in Iraq and other places.

Claremont (Calif.) School of Theology has founded, along with Jewish and Muslim scholars, the Claremont Lincoln University, which offers religious training in all three faith traditions.

An annual interfaith peace camp in Harrisonburg, Va., builds bridges of understanding for children and families from Christian, Jewish and Muslim faiths. Children use art, writing, speaking, recreation, play and role-play and visit Christian, Jewish and Muslim places of worship. Mennonites are involved in this camp, which ends with a potluck meal of ethnic foods that brings together the parents as well.

The documentary acknowledges that not all is roses. It discusses a conflict between a Baptist congregation and an Islamic community that wants to build its worship center nearby.

The film promotes conversation without trying to convince the other of one’s beliefs. Many viewers, I imagine, will not agree with such an approach.

Eboo Patel of Interfaith Youth Core describes his high school lunch table, which included a Hindu, a Jew, a Muslim, a Mormon, an Evangelical and a Catholic. “We got along fine,” he says.

As Lynne Hybels of Willow Creek Community Church near Chicago says, “The rising rhetoric of hatred [has become] deafening, and I thought, whatever your politics, whatever your religion, that just can’t be right.”

Waging Peace is available for purchase at www.WagingPeaceAlternatives.com. The price is $24.95. A two-minute preview of the documentary can be viewed at the website above.

Gordon Houser is associate editor of The Mennonite.