How do religions become respectful to other traditions? I resonated with Stephen Prothero thought, “If it matters to ordinary people it matters,” (Prothero, Diversity Conversation 2010). Who are ordinary people? Are they immigrants, social outcasts, less fortunate, or people who go to work, church and school? I believe when we respect the differences of other religions we will help shape the values of society. In turn, we will realize what matters to ordinary people also matters in society. Throughout this paper I will argue interreligious communities need to be accessible and open to learn traditions of other faiths. The interreligious faith communities can start with respecting the differences and similarities of each other’s religions.
Respecting the differences of other religions is essential for society to understand other religions and one of the obligations in interreligious relations. We can even expound the idea of respecting the differences of other religions into being an obligation of a Christian. Coogan states, “What way can religions encourage society in general to grant equality to other traditions with beliefs and practices perhaps antithetical to its own?” (Coogan 1998) How can the religious society be more vulnerable to other traditions, but maintain their own traditions? I am encouraged by Coogan's statement, “The world’s major religious traditions have both reflected and shaped the values of the societies of which they have been an inseparable element” (Coogan 1998). It encourages me to think historically how Moses, Martin Luther, John Wesley, and Martin Luther King have helped shape religion and society into what it have become today.
How can we respect the differences of other religions? Until attending graduate school, I never worried about other religions and learning their faith traditions. I accepted everyone with very few