Unless religions are honest with each other about their blind spots and imperfections, interreligious efforts will falter," stressed Rabbi David Wolpe at an interfaith conference on "Finding Common Ground: Reconciliation Among the Children of Abraham."

The noted author and lecturer, who serves as the rabbi of Sinai Temple in Los Angeles, said if faiths are not forthright in their efforts to reach out and understand each other, there's no point in interreligious dialogue.

"Admitting the imperfections in all of our own traditions is a painful but necessary part of interreligious discourse," Rabbi Wolpe declared during his keynote address on "Why Faith Matters" at the Nov. 2 conference sponsored by the Diane and Guilford Glazer Institute for Jewish Studies at Pepperdine University in Malibu.

"Our inability to admit our shame because someone will see it is at least as destructive as all the other manifestations of religious indifference. Because you have to be able to say where you're wrong. Otherwise, there is no point in interreligious dialogue. You have to be able to say what you learned from other traditions that you don't have in yours.

"Otherwise, we really have nothing to learn from each other," he added. "All we have is boasting to each other about the riches that we hoard. And that moves us nowhere."

The rabbi, named the Number 1 "Pulpit Rabbi" in America by Newsweek magazine, said religions needed to share the goodness existing in the rituals and social action that's an integral part of their faith traditions.

"If we could do that together, I think it would be much richer, much better that if we had a theological dialogue when at the end we all go back to our individual huts and we know a little bit more about someone else, but we've not done anything with it," he said. "And, after all, it is through doing that we come to know each other."

Rabbi Wolpe wished the statement "God is bigger than my religion" would be duly noted by all faiths. If they shared this single theological concept, then at least religions would be more tolerant and, possible, even understanding of other each other.

"Having said all this ecumenical observation that we share the same God and things, I think you ought not to give up one iota on the peculiarities, eccentricities, idiosyncrasies and gloriousness of each of our religion traditions," he said. "You actually don't have to give up anything to appreciate the other or work with the other.

"If we meet on the ground of our own uniqueness, then we're being honest. If we pretend that we agree on things that we don't agree on - if we make nice because we don't want any conflict between religions - then we're violating not only our own integrity but also the integrity of the other. So if you misrepresent your tradition in an attempt to make it ecumenical, then you rob the other person of getting to know you."

Deeper and wider
The one-day conference featured speakers from the Christian, Muslim and Jewish communities. Major topics included "Interpreting Sacred Texts," "National Identity and Religious Pluralism" and "Dealing with the Outsider in Our Midst."

At the outsider session, Rabbi Mark Diamond stressed that interfaith work needed to reach deeper and wider, taking honest dialogue out to people in the pews in churches, mosques and synagogues.

"Friends, for me interfaith work is more than just holding hands and singing 'kumbaya,'" said the executive vice president of the Board of Rabbis of Southern California. "We have to move beyond dialogues. Each and every one of us must do much more to learn to live together as the children of Abraham and the children of God.

"People of diverse faith need to sit together, break bread together, study together, create together in order to understand and respect what divides us and what unites us. And above all else, I firmly believe that we must translate our religious passion into compassion for others. To me, our mission, our mandate, is quite clear. We are commanded to uplift the fallen, heal the sick, shelter the homeless and feed the hungry."

The world today has truly become a global village, reported Imam Dr. Muzammil Siddiqi. The director of the Islamic Society of Orange County pointed out how modern means of transportation and communication have narrowed distances, bringing together people of diverse faiths, cultures and colors. Modern political and economic conditions have moved millions of people of different religions to live and work side by side.

"Our neighbors today, including not only those who we know, are many outsiders in our midst," he said. "It is the duty of religious people of all faiths to provide moral vision for the inhabitants of this global village, We must learn to live with love, peace and justice for all our neighbors.

Then the imam asked, "What relationship do we have with others? What are our responsibilities? How to be good neighbors? How can we live our faith and be open and good to others? What are the challenges living in a pluralistic society? Where and how do we need to improve our relations?

"These are some important questions that we should be discussing in our interfaith work," he said.

Dealing with 'outsiders'
The last to speak at the "Dealing with the Outsider in Our Midst" session was William Abraham, a native of Northern Ireland and professor at the Perkins School of Theology, Southern Methodist University. Speaking from within the Christian tradition, he said it was important first to take stock of the "brutal history" among different religions.

He said the problem with thinking of others as outsiders was that quickly led to wanting to get rid of them. If people of different faiths could just agree to settle their difference through argument and persuasion instead of violence, he said, that would be a tremendous improvement.

"I think you've got to take seriously in the United States its civil religion," Abraham observed. "America is not just a secular experiment, it's a theological experiment. In my judgment, you have invented a very interesting moral, religious and political tradition and system. What you do is allow people to believe in the same god, even when they don't worship the same God.

"And I think that is actually an asset crucial in the future development of a civic society in which Jews, Muslims, Catholics, Protestants - the whole lot - can actually find a way to recognize the deep significance of religion in our public life."