This last weekend Sara and I were able to visit several places of worship for various religions in Chicago. A group from Harding University came up and we joined them at four religious establishments. He is a short rundown of the weekend.
Mosque: Friday’s noon prayers are the “main event” for Muslims. This past weekend we were welcomed to the Islamic Foundation of Chicago, and impressive building currently under expansion. After taking off my shoes and finding a patch of carpet near the back of the large empty room I watched around 500 men enter the room. Women are given their own space, in a balcony where they are able to participate while not being subject to bending for prayer in front of or behind men. This is a practical consideration as the prostrated prayer position might be inappropriate for mixed company. The service lasted about 1 hour including a sermon in Arabic and prayers in Arabic. The phrase, Allah ha akbar, is recited several times which means God is great, a true statement that I can embrace. Later, the Imam spoke to us about Islam and presented us with portions of a book he had written and a pamphlet entitled, Muslims are the True Followers of Christ. The women prepared a snack for us, chicken and rice. It was very good.
SGI: Soko Gakkai International is a multi-national organization affiliated with Nichiren Buddhism, a specific sect of Buddhism born out of the teachings of Nichiren, a Japanese monk of the 13th century. The Buddhists welcomed us enthusiastically by waving flags and singing and shouting “welcome”. I sat near the front in the small round room. There was room for about 100 people sitting in straight lines facing a black and gold alter. The alter is home to the written form of a prayer as well as a few other characters written in calligraphic Japanese. The Buddhists are very respectful to the writings, touching the alter only with gloved hands and not allowing pictures to be taken of the document. They chanted a prayer in a mixture of Japanese, Chinese and Sanskrit for about 20 minutes as they do twice daily. Nichiren Buddhists differ from most Buddhists in that they do not seek Nirvana, the cessation of existence. They find this theology inconsistent with the eternal nature of spirit. They seek the Buddha state during life, a high state of consciousness which allows for true happiness. Thereafter we asked questions which they were happy to answer and received a tour of the facilities. SGI is intent on achieving world piece and has a representative at the UN. SGI was responsible for facilitating the first Arab/American dialogue following September 11th.
Hindu Temple: The suburb of Aurora IL looks like any other suburb, unless you turn the right corner to find a massive temple straight out of India. Gold trimmed walls adorned with intricately cut images. We entered and removed our shoes. We received a lengthy monologue about Hinduism from a lay practitioner before being freed to walk around the images. Hindus worship and present alms to the gods through images of the gods. They do not claim to worship the images and therefore they are not idols, because the god is not within the image. In this temple there were around 75 images, each enshrined in a box or room with incenses, fruit, or money. The Hindus were not expecting us because our contact was gone and had not left word, so the visit was very impromptu, but, nevertheless we were welcomed and treated well.
Sikh Temple: The Sikh temple mostly looks like a community center or club house in a wealthy suburban neighborhood. It is expanding due to growth and is where around 1500 Sikhs currently worship. After taking off our shoes we were given snacks and then presented information about Sikhism. While our contact was speaking to us he received work that the leader of the Golden Temple was in the building. Most of us didn’t realize at the time what this meant. This is the head Sikh, think Pope. He worships at the Golden Temple in Amristar India, the most Holy place for Sikhs! I still do not know what he was there but he walked into our room along with several other men. He asked, through a translator, if we were being well welcomed, to which we replied, yes! We went into the sanctuary where there was singing in Punjabi as well as a sermon given by the aforementioned ‘high guest,’ also in Punjabi. We were excused after about an hour while most of the Sikhs remained, this turned out to be because the dinning area could not accommodate everyone. We were given a meal of Indian food. When we were finished the rest of the Sikhs came and ate. Sikhism grew out of the clash between Hinduism and Islam as Islam traveled East across Asia during the 16th century. Guru is a Punjabi work with loosely translates to “Teacher.” The founder, was the first Guru. There were 10 Gurus in all until the 10th compiled the teachings of all into a book and dedicated it as the 11th and final Guru. This book is treated as a very important person: fanned, spoken to, and put to bed.
