 The Book of Genesis continues to exert a surprising magnetism,
especially when Bill Moyers is the one talking about it. Chizuk
Amuno Congregation and the Institute for Christian and Jewish
Studies welcomed Moyers to Baltimore on September 25th to launch
the tenth anniversary of ICJS and a national program of inquiry
into the Book of Genesis. A crowd of some 1,800 people joined
the celebration.
Following introductory remarks by Rabbi Joel Zaiman of Chizuk
Amuno, ICJS Executive Director Christopher Leighton, and Pulitzer
Prize-winning author Taylor Branch, Bill Moyers entertained the
capacity audience with a lively description of the origins of
the Genesis project and his hopes for the upcoming PBS television
series based upon it. Pointing out the rapidly growing interest
in serious talk about religion as one result of the unsettled
conditions prevailing in American life today, and deploring the
lack of religious discourse among people committed to the life
of the mind, Moyers spoke passionately of his desire to create
a national conversation about religion and God. He envisions a
"living conversation" in which people will listen to one another
talk about their own experiences of spiritual reality without
the hostilities and polemics that have marred religious discussions
through the ages.
The stories of Genesis have been chosen for this project, Moyers
said, because of the enormous impact they have had on language,
literature, imagination, and social conscience in Western civilization.
He explained further that most of what happens in modern life
is a reflection of the difficult struggles and the genuine human
feelings depicted in Genesis. Displaying
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Moyers hopes to
creat a national
conversation about
religion and God.
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his keen wit and his deep love of the Bible, Moyers referred
to the familiar characters of Genesis as "a memorable cast of
superstars in a story produced and directed by God." He hopes
to bring to television the excitement of people of diverse backgrounds
learning about these stories together, discussing their deepest
beliefs, and dealing creatively with their diversity. In the Genesis
project Moyers positions himself at the intersection where the
secular and the spiritual converge, because it is at this critical
juncture that we can create a new vision of what it means to be
a united nation in a time when mosques and Buddhist retreat centers,
churches and synagogues, have become an integral part of the American
religious landscape.
As described in the article below, an exciting new dialogue has
begun in Baltimore in a pilot project directed by the ICJS. The
ICJS is an ideal context in which to field-test the Genesis pro
ject, developed by Moyers and his wife Judith, because their goal
in bringing A Living Conversation to television is similar to
one of the Institute's own long-standing objectives: to bring
people from different religious communities together to study
their sacred Scriptures and to view their own religious attachments
through the eyes of the other. These encounters with text and
neighbor animate a commitment at the heart
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From left to right: Rabbi Joel Zaiman, Taylor Branch, Bill Moyers,
Dr. Christopher Leighton, Rev. Kay Albury, Charles Obrecht |
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of the ICJS; namely, that we can overcome the legacy of hatred
that has characterized the relationship of Christians and Jews
without loss to our unique and distinctive religious identities.
The inter-congregational Genesis sessions translate this dream
into com-munity action. Nevertheless, the success of this project
is not without its difficulties.
In the panel discussion that followed Moyers' presentation, Rev.
Kay Albury, pastor of Ames Memorial Methodist Church, articulated
a challenge at the heart of this initiative: can a group of ordinary
citizens contribute anything substantive to the conversation of
an elite group of scholars? Will they be silenced by the expertise
of academics, or will they discover in their struggle with Genesis
that their own experiences advance understanding and sustain the
promise that the racial and reli gious paralysis that cripples
our community may yet be healed?
In moving the "living conversation" from the television screen
into the living room, the ICJS is creating a model of interfaith
and interracial encounter that may well be replicated in communities
all across America, and fulfilling Bill Moyers' dream of a dynamic
new religious dialogue in our country. |