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Biography [Transcribed from tape and edited for clarity.]
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"I Can't Hear You, Can You Hear Me?" "I can't hear you, can you hear me?" How frequently we say those words or hear those words when we have a faulty telephone connection; or when we're looking for someone—for example, a lost child—"can you hear me?" But even when sound is clear, we seek understanding. Do you understand what I said? What does that mean? What are you getting at? Communication is not just words but the sharing of meaning. Communicating is complex and difficult. Think of all the broken relationships, the feuds, yes sometimes even wars between nations triggered by misunderstanding or confused communication. On the other hand, expert communicators find ways to get us to respond to a message in subtle and subliminal ways. The way we speak to each other or send messages gives meaning or confuses. Whether we come from different nations, different regions, different ethnic backgrounds, even whether we are men or women influences what we say and hear and what it means. The late Mayor Harold Washington asked his staff to read the book, Black and White: Styles in Conflict by Tom Kochman as one way to get beyond deadlock and misunderstanding. Today, men and women are reading the near best seller, You Just Don't Understand by Deborah Tannen because we are learning that men and women live in different cultures which speak past each other and which have different world views, assumptions and experiences. I have a plaque on the wall of my study to remind me of the difficulty of communication. It says, "I know you believe you understand what you think I said, but I am not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant." We tell stories or search for metaphors to help us communicate meaning in ways that definitions and assertions cannot. Poetry, religious writings, drama and music are efforts to help us to communicate more fully—to share meaning. And yet even those efforts frequently fail when one tries to communicate in a different culture or context, or to translate meaning into a different language. That can frustrate but also be rewarding. Several years ago, I was privileged to attend a world mission conference with delegates from around the world. We participated in a daily Bible study group which had been carefully structured to include persons from different places, nations, continents and languages. How surprised we were to learn what variety of meanings scripture had in different situations. We'd ask why and learn from the response. Our learning with and from each other was a time of speaking in different languages, and also of hearing the Word of God in new, deeper and surprising ways. In the search for meaning in our lives we search for religious, spiritual and transcendental understanding. We seek a word from our God. The first several verses of the Gospel of John are: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and without Him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in Him was life and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it." These words are used by John to describe the coming of Jesus as God's son, God with us—God incarnate among us—the word made flesh—full of truth and light—truth beyond full understanding or comprehension—but to be revealed in the story to be told and our own relationship with God. Scholars tell us that these verses are from an ancient hymn influenced by Jewish and Gnostic roots which seeks to communicate truth and understanding in the diverse and rich mixture of peoples and traditions of that time. Then, as now, men and women were searching for a word that could clarify, help and sustain life. So do we now. Communication is powerful and complex. Words are powerful. We offer a kind and gentle word, a clear and convincing word, a sharp and demanding word, an insightful and helping word. Yet, we too frequently retreat into angry, resentful, rejecting, hurtful, belittling or denying words. We seek words of hope and support, love and caring for ourselves. Words bring light and life or words can bring darkness and pain. We no longer live in small and isolated communities with a common culture and language, shared beliefs and a large degree of consensus. Most of our communities today have become multi-cultural, multi-ethnic, multi-national and multi-lingual with much confusion and misunderstanding. Will we continue, all too frequently, to be angry, resentful, rejecting and destructive in the situations where misunderstanding is rampant?—or will we seek to welcome and listen and find different and new words as givers of new life and light? Can we learn from the stories that Jesus told of the good Samaritan and of the Samaritan woman at the well? He deliberately names the other, the outsider, the rejected as the carrier of hope, help and faith. How difficult it is for us to let go of dominating assumptions. And yet how delightful it can be to share our understandings and values in friendship. Try it, you might like it. God is constantly surprising us. Maybe we should stop talking and listen for awhile. Ann Weems has written a brief poem called, A Listening. Hear it.
Our community and our world are threatened by increasing division, fear, alienation and hostility. We share this world and this community with others. Dialogue with others, joint planning and working together at common tasks can truly help. We must learn to understand and communicate, in ways that may feel strange to us, if we are to find light and life beyond our present knowledge and hope beyond our present understanding. Unfortunately the great diversity in the world has become tension and conflict in a global village which threatens peace and possibility for us all. The diversity, challenges and gifts represented by the cultures, languages and different spiritual understandings of the peoples of the world are increasingly present in our own community. Others live next door. May they become our neighbors as we learn to communicate with each other and to share and laugh and hope together. Can we learn to respect and to listen before rendering negative judgment? Perhaps the Word from God for our time is that new life and light comes when we share our knowledge and share the will to make a world which is secure and safe and sustainable for us all. Hear a verse from James Ayer's Come and See:
"The Word was God. The light shines in the darkness and the darkness did not overcome it." May the words of our mouths and the meditations of our heart be acceptable, O God—our strength and our redeemer.
Floyd Brown: I want to tell you that communication is my business and so when you get on the topic of communication, my ears perk up and I get a chance to reflect on things that are said. Are we communicating better today, or worse? David Ramage: I think that we are trying harder than we ever have before, partly because we have to. We are living in communities that are very diverse. Yet when you look at what is happening around the world and see what is happening in areas where people are talking about terrible concepts of ethnic cleansing and things like that, one wonders, doesn't one? Brown: Absolutely. We have got to communicate better. We have known that for some time. Which brings us to something that you are doing that is extremely exciting here in the city of Chicago. It is going to be the 1993 Parliament of the World's Religions. You are going to be bringing in people from all over the world—leaders of great religions. This is celebrating something, isn't it? Ramage: It is very definitely celebrating something. Those of us who know a little bit about Chicago's history are aware of the fact that 1893 was the year of the Great Columbian Exposition. It was the 400th anniversary of Columbus's discovering America, or whatever the proper way to say that is these days. As a part of that, there were great congresses and parliaments in relation to science and art. One of those was a gathering for the first time of representatives of the great religions of the world. It was a very special time because it was the time when the Eastern religions were really introduced to the West. They were virtually unknown up until that time. It was a quite remarkable event here in Chicago. As a matter of fact, the original sessions took place in the then recently constructed building that was to become the Art Institute. Brown: What a tremendous undertaking! Who had the capacity to get all of these great leaders from all over the world and bring them to Chicago? Ramage: In 1893, it was a group of local ministers who organized it. You will recall that this was also the year of the great missionary movement of the Christian Church. People were being introduced to others around the world. This was kind of an—sometimes not always too popular—initiative to try and listen and see what these other religions had to say for themselves. Brown: Parliament. Does that mean that you are going to pass some legislation here? Ramage: No, but I think we are going to try to listen to what each other has to say. Brown: That's wonderful. Could you tell some of the religions and some of the great people who will be there? I understand John Templeton will be a part of this as well. Ramage: We are quite pleased about the fact that one of the events associated with the Parliament itself in August and early September of this year, will be the presentation of the Templeton World Prize in Religion. It will be done at the University of Chicago's Rockefeller Chapel, but it will be one of the events that will take place. Brown: That prize is, of course, for someone who has advanced religion. Ramage: Yes. That prize is given annually to someone from around the world who is recognized for the contributions they have made to all of humankind. Brown: That's wonderful. Tell us some of the things that will be going on. I have about three questions to ask you at once as our time progresses here, but I want to get all of the information. First of all, can the public attend this? Ramage: It is very much for the public. We assume that several thousand people will be coming. Some of us have used the metaphor "a county fair" as kind of a framework. While there will be main events going on, there will be all kinds of things happening in which individual religious and spiritual communities can present themselves in ways that people can better understand who they are. Most important about this particular Parliament, there will be major sessions in which the people representing the different spiritual understandings in the world will come together to try to seek common good and common purpose about the great issues that face humankind. Many of the sessions will be on those issues. What can we do together, for example, to help to see that our planet survives, that is ecologically? What can we do about the major issues of world hunger together as we bring our insights and understandings together? Brown: It just isn't intolerance when we think about religions. There are so many problems in the world for which we can bring our resources together and actually accomplish something that is really for the good of everyone. You are going to have thousands of people here. Are you all going to meet in one place and break up into sessions? What is going to happen? Ramage: Let me answer that. First, let me say that one of the most unusual and unique things about the planning group for this Parliament is that virtually all of the groups that came from all over the world in 1893, are represented on the planning committee. Yet, they are represented by persons who are members of living faith communities in Chicagoland itself. A hundred years ago they had to bring people from all over the world just to have the religions represented. Today they are represented in the planning right here in Chicago. It is that group that is both inviting and planning this particular Parliament. We are going to have workshops of one kind or another. We are going to have an opportunity for people to learn about particular spiritual traditions. We are going to have opportunities to work together. Some distinguished world leaders are coming. Many of them would not be household names to most of us but for their religious adherents, they would be the great names of the world. For example, persons like the Dalai Lama will be here in Chicago and others, a great many others. We are trying to find a way to have a conversation between those leaders in order to understand each other so that we can have better dialogue, better understanding and work on the issues that we confront. Brown: The issues are many. It shows that we are really a diversified community here in Chicago in that all of these religions are represented right here and you had no difficulty getting the persons together. Ramage: As a matter of fact, that is an interesting comment because the original initiation for this particular project emerged out in the suburbs by a group that came together. I think some of them had said that they met each other for the first time when they were invited by the local National Conference of Christians and Jews to come together for the Interfaith Thanksgiving service. Out of that, they began to meet out in the suburbs where many of them are and began to organize for celebrating that great Parliament their traditions remembered. Brown: We are looking forward to it. It is going to be an exciting event. Thank you so much for sharing it with us. |
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