Words of Faith: Shalom, salaam and peace be with you

I have had the privilege to spend study time in Egypt each of the past two years. It wasn’t really a country on my bucket list, but the opportunities presented themselves, so I jumped.

People thought I was nuts two years ago for going after the unrest there, and again this year after someone planted a bomb on a plane from Sharm el Sheik. Once again, I jumped at the chance to visit Egypt and I’m glad I did.

I love the Egyptian people – their gregarious nature and wonderful sense of humor are delightful – and the food is pretty terrific, too.

Last year, my time in Cairo and Alexandria was spent learning about modern Egyptian religious life: the Islamic, Christian and remnants of Jewish and Roman streams of history there. This year, I spent time again in Cairo, but also Luxor and Aswan, learning about ancient Egyptian religious life – gods and temples and tombs of pharaohs.

All five of those religious traditions: Islam, Christianity, Judaism and Roman and Egyptian religious life, have terrible violence attached to them. Each has periods of dominance and violent oppression of the other. Each of the three existing traditions have had, and still have, groups of fundamentalists in their religion who misinterpret the core beliefs of their faith and use it violently against those who are more moderate or progressive or different. Most violence is physically brutal and destructive, yet oppression by gender, race, economic status, geography and heritage can also do enormous violence to the human spirit.

Most violence, whatever its expression, has at its core, the fear of change and of difference, which is deeply rooted in human history. Violence is often the way we live out our fears, as individuals, as countries and as faith traditions.

None of us can say, “my tradition is one of peace, and has always faithfully lived that out.” All of us have to acknowledge our violent history and all of us have the opportunity to change the future. Does that mean that violence is always rejected? Not necessarily. There are those in peace traditions who do reject all violent solutions, like the Mennonites, who are consistently non-violent including when it comes to war and capital punishment. But there are many in religious traditions who subscribe to a position that violence and war are, unfortunately, necessary evils.

For example, look at the horrific happenings and drastic situations such as those promoted by ISIS today.

But none of our traditions, at their core, values violence as something for which to strive. None of our traditions uphold dominance and oppression as values. Shalom, salaam, peace be with you – those are the greetings and the deepest hopes of Islam, Judaism and Christianity – that God will grant peace to the Earth. May it be so.

This story was originally published November 27, 2015 at 4:33 PM with the headline "Words of Faith: Shalom, salaam and peace be with you."