What Does "AllFaith" Mean?

Reverend Peter M. Semadeni of the Churchlight School of All-Faith Spirituality (His Website) has posted a chapter from his new book and asked for my thoughts on it. As I read the chapter it became obvious that the essential question is: What does "AllFaith" mean?

Here is my reply. I would post his chapter here but as it is rather long it will be best I think for those interested to go there (Click Here).

Hi Reverend Peter,

Thanks for the invitation to comment on this important issue.

There is an innate difficulty with "AllFaith spirituality" (which I have practiced for many years according the Light I have thus far received). And that is, what does "all faith" actually mean?

There's a trap that far too many folks are snared by. Its sort of like those who say:

    "I am open minded and I hate those who are not! Such people need to be stopped! Outlawed! Rejected as extremists!"

    Or,
    "Behead those who say Islam is violent! Islam means peace!" (Islam means "submission," it only means peace for those who submit to the deen and ummah of Islam)

    Or,
    "Jesus accepts everyone, all you have to do is become a heterosexual, Bible Believing, Creation affirming, evolution denying, anti-abortion... member of one the denominations I approve of..."

    Or,
    "All religions are equal and anyone who does not believe this is intolerant and should be silenced!"

    Etc.

No accusation is intended here.

If one is truly "AllFaith" or "All-Faith" then it seems to me one honors all faiths as they are. But how can this even be possible? How can one honor polytheists, monotheists, pantheists, panenthists, advaitins, dvaitins, atheists, scientists, nihilists, transcendentalists... etc. etc. when their views are so diverse?

How can one support Judaism while also supporting Christianity (as I do), without opposing Islam (which I do not). How can one believe in the God of the Bible and Qu'ran and yet believe in Sri Visnu? In Mahadev Siva? In Srimati Durga? In Ahura Mazda? In Ek Noir? in Tao? in Tat Tvam Asi? etc.

Its a tough question.

Does "AllFaith" mean all religions need to be compacted or distilled into a single belief system, like many New Agers and Secular Humanists seek to do? Is it our view that only by merging all religions will we at last discover the truth of any?

But... what is Christianity without Jesus and Paul? What is Islam without Nabi Muhammad (SAW)? What is Judaism without Moses and the Torah? What is Hinduism without Sri Krsna? Lord Siva? The Vedas? What is Buddhism without Siddhartha Gautama and the Bodhisattvas, or Taoism without Lao Tsu and Chuang Tzu? How many particulars can we take away from the religions without fundamentally altering what they are? The Christian Apostle Paul said, "If Jesus was not raised from the dead, your faith is vain."

Does "AllFaith" mean that we today are somehow "higher" than those who came before us and ready to "transcend" the old religions and embrace Quantum Theory and the other new insights we are now being offered? This view flies in the face of practically all religions east and west (although this move was foretold by the prophets of many religions).

Any answer, it seems to me, denies the very premise of being truly AllFaith.

    Is "God" a "Person"?
    Is "God" an "Energy"?
    Is God a "Presence"?
    Is "God" the accumulation of our conceptions of goodness? ("god" is German for the word "goot," the good).

Who or what (if anything) is "God"?

    Some Jews tell us that God is En Soff ("No Thing" -- ie nothing that is conceivable)
    Some Advaitins tells us that God is Neti Neti ("Not this Not that" -- ie nothing that is limited by duality)
    Some Vaisnavas tell us that God is Acintya Bheda Abheda Tattva ("the very Formless Form of Inconceivable Oneness AND Diversity").
    Most Christians tell us that God is One Being who simultaneously exists in three distinct Persons as Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
    Most Hindus have the same belief, that Ek (the One) manifests as Brahma (Creator), Visnu/Narayan (Sustainer) and Siva/Rudra (Destroyer/Transformer)

Whenever we seek to define God or say what God is not, I believe we have limited God (or try to). By "Ek Devata" defies all definition, description and limitation.

God is more.

    But
      God is also that.

You say, "My God makes mistakes just as everyone else does and has bad days and good days and deals with them accordingly. The only reason my God is everywhere at once is because we are within God."

This clearly is not the God (and/or faith) of Israel, of the Christians, of the Muslims, or of most other Theists. The standard theistic view of God is of an eternal, utterly perfect "Person" or "Individual" (however conceived) who never makes mistakes (other than the Mormons who teach, "As man now is God once was, as God now is man will become" but they are an anomaly on many levels). Even among the "Personalist Hindus" who celebrate the Rasa Lila and other earthly "past times" of God Incarnate, the Holy One appears in order to "play a role" as a limited being, but is never consumed or even influenced by Maya (illusion), except by divine choice as part of sport.

God is More.

    But
      God is also that.

So, my point is, it seems to me that you are teaching yet "another god," yet "another faith" -- AS DO I arguably -- no insult is intended here, but your description of God excludes the beliefs of practically all existing faiths and would be viewed as blasphemy by several of them. How then is it All-Faith?

So, what is AllFaith?

As I define the term, AllFaith means to honor all faith traditions as legitimate Paths to the One (Ek Devata: the One God however conceived) while maintaining ones own views and revelations according to the Light one has thus far received.

When all is said and done:

"Truth is One, the Sages describe it diverse ways."

To accept this is to be AllFaith in my opinion.

Best of success on your project.