Religious Convergence

 The guy who drove me into San Francisco Saturday night is Nepali. He has a nine-year-old daughter back there he hasn’t seen for years because he has applied for political asylum here and cannot go back.

He was curious about me and why I was heading to the city, so I told him. It was my youngest son’s 27th birthday and I was meeting him at a restaurant on Potrero Hill, the neighborhood where he lives.

Although I’ve never been to Nepal, I’ve been close — in India, Pakistan and Afghanistan, during my years in the Peace Corps.

The driver mentioned that he knows quite a few Afghans, including recent arrivals to the town where we both live, and he said he can always tell them by the distinctive woolen caps that Afghan men favor.

We agreed that the situation is dire in Afghanistan, especially for women and girls, who are being systematically discriminated against by the ruling Taliban. “We have some discrimination against women and girls too in Nepal,” he told me.

“And we have some here in America,” I reminded him, particularly in the form of recent right-wing court rulings on abortion.

“But it’s not as bad as in Afghanistan!” we both said in unison.

He then brought up religion and asked me what I knew about the Sunni-Shia divide among Moslems, explaining that he is Hindu, but has a lot of respect for Buddhism, which makes sense because he comes from the country that was the birthplace of Buddha.

All I could think to say was that historically there was a Catholic-Protestant conflict in Christianity and the Middle East is riven by the conflict between Moslems and Jews. Within Islam, the tension between the two sects in our time seems fierce in similar ways.

We agreed that people should just practice whatever religion they want to but never force it on others. If people would only do that, this world would be a much nicer place. 

We shook hands as he dropped me off at the restaurant and I wished him well in his quest for asylum. “It’s been a long fight,” he said. “Seven years.”

***

Such interactions and conversations are not unusual in the highly diverse areas around our big cities in America, especially on the coasts. But they must be exceedingly rare in the rural interior, the small towns that remain predominantly white, Christian and politically conservative.

Then again, that is changing. And that is part of the political tension we face in this country.

America at its very best is a melting pot, where the values of tolerance and inclusiveness prevail. At least that is my belief. 

So Happy Easter, Passover or Ramadan, whatever you may prefer.

Or perhaps all three, none of the above, or … consider this story:

A priest, a minister and a rabbit go into a bar. The bartender asks the priest what he wants and he gives him his order. Then the bartender asks the minister what he wants and he gives him his order. Then the bartender comes to the rabbit and says, “Wait a minute. Aren’t you a rabbit? What are you doing in here?”

“I’m only here because of auto-correct,” says the rabbit.