Interfaith Cooperation in Pasadena Provokes Paranoia, Panic and Hate

Posted December 5, 2012

Last year, over 60 houses of worship participated in an unprecedented interfaith event co-organized by Interfaith Alliance, “Faith Shared.” It brought together Christians, Jews and Muslims for a day of courage and hope not to ignore differences, but to celebrate differences as well as commonalities. One of the houses of worship that enthusiastically took part was All Saints Church in Pasadena, CA.

We spoke to the pastor, Rev. Edwin Bacon, and the Muslim Public Affairs Council’s Dr. Maher Hathout about the event on State of Belief Radio:

https://stateofbelief.com/showarchive/2011/june-11th-2011/

https://stateofbelief.com/showarchive/2011/june-25th-2011/

Since then, interfaith cooperation has continued to blossom at All Saints. In fact, on Dec. 15th, the church is hosting the MPAC Convention – the first time an American Muslim organization will hold its national convention in a Christian church. The prospect of that inspired a moving blog post from the church’s Senior Associate, the Rev. Susan Russell:

http://inchatatime.blogspot.de/2012/12/advent-mpac-and-armor-of-light.html

And here’s what Rector Rev. J. Edwin Bacon, Jr. has written on the subject:

http://www.8habitsoflove.com/blog/our-future-in-the-making-all-saints-and-mpac/

There will be a press conference responding to these attacks on Thursday December 6th at 9am Pacific Time/12 noon Eastern Time. It will be streamed live at:

http://www.mpac.org/webcast

And the President of the Muslim Public Affairs Council, Salam Al-Marayati, will be joining us on this weekend’s State of Belief Radio to talk about the ugly backlash – and about the importance of continued dedication to interfaith work, even under the most difficult circumstances – ESPECIALLY under the most difficult circumstances.