Building Bridges

Scene 1

Uganda is leading against Kenya by one point. The sun is beating down on Mandela National Stadium and tensions rise as the game progresses through the second half. Uganda kicks the ball out of bounds and Kenya is awarded a corner kick. This is a crucial moment in the game.

Victor: In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit! He crosses himself while yelling.

Kenya doesn’t make the goal. Victor raises his rosary beads.

Victor: AMEN!!!!!

Angie: Looks like your faith paid off. Trying to control her laughter as she speaks.

Victor: I know! I need to pray more often!

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Scene 2

People are packed into a large open room at a Born-again Christian Church. Plastic chairs are crammed in every corner. The temperature continually rises as the Sunday sun beats down on the tin roof. People start yelling and raising their hands in the air.

Enter President Museveni. Before singing the Ugandan National Anthem, crowd control pushes people back towards the seats.

Preacher: Praises to the Lord for allowing Mussevani to visit us!

Crowd: Amen!

Preacher: Lift your hands to Lord and join me in prayer. As directed, the entire room raises their hands above their heads and bows their heads.

The prayer is in Luganda and people respond during the prayer with many “Mmms” in agreement.

Preacher: Amen!

Crowd: Amen!! Triumphantly.

Preacher: Please welcome the President to our church.

Yelling and whistling welcome the highest ranking official in Uganda. Museveni speaks for a few shorts minutes about how grateful he is to be here. He makes no comments about politics, but he does tell the story of Christ feeding the multitude. Mostly, Museveni just waves.

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Religions and their presence in the world have always intrigued me. After travelling all over the world with my father (England, France, Germany, Peru, Belize, El Salvador, and now Uganda), Catholicism has never ceased to make itself known. Christianity as a whole is always a predominant movement around the world. Unlike South America, Uganda has many Muslims. I’d even venture to say that the Islamic religion is second only to Catholicism when it comes to membership numbers here. There is even a Mosque about fifteen minutes from our house and countless women wearing veils. Being in an area with many Muslims as well as recently reading Greg Mortenson’s

Three Cups of Tea has made me realize how much I don’t know about this religion and what it really means to be a Muslim. Three Cups of Tea portrayed true Muslims as people who worship Allah and generally just want to do good in the world. Christians worship the Almighty God and also try to be charitable and good to the people of their world. Good works is also an integral part of the Jewish religion. From what I can tell, each and every religion worships a God of some sort and the teachings emphasize make your neighbor’s burden a little lighter. Yes, there are fundamental differences in all religions, even cultures and societies, but there are also many parallels.

But, if so many of the principles are the same, why are we always fighting with each other? If faith, hope, and charity form a solid foundation for a plethora of different beliefs, why can’t we just get along? Why are we as

human beings always pointing fingers saying “You’re wrong!”? Instead of building walls between people of different beliefs, we need to build bridges of trust and respect.

This past year at school I participated in a bi-monthly discussion group. Each week we would vote on the topic. One of our favorite topics happened to be entitled “How do you overcome the gap between Christians and Atheists?” Ultimately we decided there is no singular, correct process for triumphing over such vast differences. But, the group consensus was that trust needed to be established in order for both parties to feel respected and understood. Each party needs to come 70% of the way across so that we can overlap and catch ourselves if there is a weakness in our bridge.

But this brings me back to my initial point about the many similarities in principles between different beliefs, cultures, etc. What I just wrote is the way we, as human beings, should approach or differences, but it is often not the way we do approach them. And there is something very wrong with that.

How do we promote this kind of collaboration, understanding, trust, and mutual respect across cultures, religions, beliefs, races, or any other kind of dissimilarity in the world?

Over and Out

Lex

Picture 1 - Laundry day.

Picture 2 - Blythe opening her mission call. Temple Square!

Picture 3 - me eating a grasshopper!