Golden Rule, Fasting and Interfaith

 

Tonight Cheri and I will speak at this community event which combines the buka puasa (breaking the fast) with  the Golden Rule day. These are normally two different community events but have been combined this year due to an exceptionally full schedule. The purpose of events like this is to invite people of various religious and cultural backgrounds to come together and learn about each other's traditions, religious practices and teachings and thereby increase understanding and unity within the community. Since the golden rule is something that is a common value of all major religions it is a great topic for bringing people together. I will share a story of how my mother taught me about the golden rule then Cheri will talk about teaching our children the golden rule before we open up some time for sharing by members of the audience. We don't have any pictures from the event yet because it is later tonight. I will paste some pics at the end of this blog post and publish it tomorrow.
  After the speaker's our Muslim friends will have their prayers and then we will eat together.


The INSaF interfaith group that sponsors the event above has monthly zoom meetings that Cheri and I have joined since coming to Malaysia. This year they decided to have each of the major religions present a few basic beliefs and misconceptions in these calls. It was our turn to present on Tuesday night this week and I pasted two of the slides from our presentation above. We covered basic Christian beliefs, what happens in Church, differentiating the name of the Church from the prophet Mormon, and Temples.
  There are so many differences that can divide people, not just religious beliefs but politics, age old grudges, social and economic stratifications, race, gender and many others. It is important to bring people together in ways that will allow us to understand these differences and appreciate the good in each other and our respective beliefs and practices.

This is Cheri making friends as she always does at gatherings. The place where this event was held is also home to a number of orphaned and disadvantaged children. These are a few of the wonderful young people who attended our meeting.

Dr. Amir, Me, and Uncle PK; from three different religous backgrounds all speaking on the same topic, the Golden Rule. Cheri also spoke about teaching our children the Golden Rule but, sadly, I didn't get a picture of her. Sorry Cher.

I just received a few more pictures from our friend, Gopal.













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