August 20 - The Interfaith Meeting

John, Aaron, and Yusef sat quietly in the lobby until a young man dressed in khakis and a blue oxford came in and invited them into his office. After they sat down across from his desk, the man smiled at them briefly.
"So. Do you know where you are?"
None of the men said anything, and the man smiled again. He looked at John and read from a file.
"John Bishop. Lawyer from Washington, DC. Married to Stephanie Bishop. Three children. In addition to the work you do for UNICEF, you take on several pro bono cases every year, most of them dealing with refugees' rights. Also, you and your wife started a recycling program in your neighborhood, and you are actively involved at your children's schools."
He looked at Aaron and read from a different file.
"Aaron Goldberg. Pediatrician from New York City. Married to Rebecca Goldberg. Father of two. You spend your vacations doing short term projects for Doctors Without Borders. In addition, you and your wife created a foundation that raises money and awareness for tuberculosis in developing countries, and you are also actively involved at your children's schools."
He looked at Yusef and read from a third file.
"Yusef Abdullah. High school teacher turned assistant principal from Philadelphia. Sponsored three orphaned children from Rwanda and started a scholarship fund that enabled all three of them to get college educations. You regularly volunteer at least five hours a week at Big Brothers/Big Sisters, you developed an incentive program to get other teachers from your school district to participate in Big Brothers/Big Sisters, and you are also actively involved at your children's schools."
He addressed all three of them.
"As you can see, you are all devoted to furthering good and righteous causes. In addition to the works I have just described, you are all excellent role models within your communities, respected and looked up to by all you know, and actively involved in your church, synagogue, and mosque respectively. In short, you are all good men."
He paused for effect.
"And I regret to inform you that you have all been killed in a car accident."
The men shifted in their seats, frowned, murmured disbelief, looked at each other, looked at themselves, looked at the man.
"I'm sure this comes as a shock, to say the least," the man said patiently. "You probably don't remember it happening. Most people don't. You just found yourself first in a lobby and then in this office. You don't remember actually coming here, though, right?"
John, Aaron, and Yusef said nothing. They waited for the man to explain himself.
"Well, as long as I'm filling your heads with notions you probably find to be literally unbelievable, let me add one more. Since you are dead, that would make this place . . . heaven or paradise or the world to come or whatever you choose to call it."
The men looked around themselves.
"Don't worry. It's not all like this. It's actually--," he quickly became more animated and then just as quickly calmed down. "--Well, you'll see."
"Anyway, we usually have our first meetings with new arrivals in settings like these so as not to blow their minds too much too soon. It's important to ease you into the concept of, I'll call it the afterlife, by starting you off someplace familiar. Like an office. Like I said, don't worry. It gets more impressive than this. Trust me."
"I'm giving you a lot very quickly, and I know it's a lot to wrap your heads around, but I'm going to keep on plowing through, if you don't mind."
The men sat quietly, waiting for the man to continue.
"OK. So. Given your respective beliefs, I'm sure on some secondary level, you're probably at least somewhat shocked to see two men from faiths other than your own in the afterlife. According to our records, each of you subscribes to the notion of exclusivity of faiths. That is, that your particular religion is the "right" one, the only one. And all others are false."
The men didn't disagree with him.
"And included within that belief is the idea that only followers of your faith will be able to enter the kingdom of God.
"And by the way, when I use the word 'God', I'm doing so for the same reason why we're having this meeting in an office. You're familiar with it and using it allows us to have this conversation. If I tried to describe 'God' more accurately, we'd be in here forever. So to speak. Suffice to say that the actual 'God' is nothing like you imagine Him to be and also everything like you imagine Him to be. He is unfathomably mysterious and also innately familiar. By the way, when I use the pronoun "He" it's not because He's actually a he, but because that's also what you're familiar with. Sorry to be so parenthetical, but I want to make sure we're all on the same page. Are we OK so far?"
The men indicated that they were.
"John, you're a Christian. Aaron, you're a Jew. Yusef, you're a Muslim. Three different religions, and yet you all adhere to this notion of exclusivity. You believe that only people from your faith will enter," he motioned around himself, "the afterlife."
"I've called all of you in here together to save myself the trouble of having the same conversation three times. Gentlemen, I'm afraid I have some bad news for you. As it turns out, all three of you are wrong. 'God' is not Christian, Jewish, or Muslim. 'God' as you conceive of Him is actually a Hindu."
The men looked at each other in disbelief.
"Yeah," he continued. "Hinduism is the horse you should have been betting on. It's a shame, too, because you're all really good guys. Too bad you're going to be spending eternity in," he spoke out of the side of his mouth, "that other place."
He paused again for effect.
"Nah, I'm just messing with you. Sorry, bad joke. But honestly, anyone that would believe in a God that could be so arbitrarily cruel deserves to have his chain yanked at least a little bit."
The men weren't sure how to feel. It was all very overwhelming.
"Look, to put it simply, God--again, I'm using that word for simplicity's sake--is non-denominational. He's not going to exclude someone from the afterlife just because he or she happened to have followed the "wrong" religion for reasons that almost certainly had more to do with his or her circumstances at birth than anything else. He's not some sort of cruel accountant who's going to zing you over which book you followed or which building you worshipped in. He's a bit more reasonable than that. You should give Him more credit. He's more interested in your actions than in what you profess to believe. To put it simply, do you do good things? The other stuff--the symbols, the books, the buildings? I'm not going to say that they're unimportant. Instead, I'll just say that it's what you do that's more important, not which version of the narrative you adhere to. Does this all make sense to you? I understand it's a lot to absorb."
The men nodded.
"And please don't misunderstand me. I'm not saying that any one of your religions is wrong or that you should turn your backs on them or what not. Quite the contrary. I think your respective religions are a big reason why you are the good people you are today. Not the only reason, of course, but a big part of it. No, we want you to stay active in your religions."
"Wait," said John. "Stay active?"
"Yeah," Yusef said. "I thought you said we were dead."
"You are," he said. "But you're going to be revived."
"But we've been dead too long," said Aaron.
"Actually, no, you haven't. It only feels that way to you. During the time we've been talking here, less than one second has passed on earth. Time moves much slower there."
He let that sink in and then continued.
"Anyway, when you go back--and you're all going back--don't change anything about who you are or what you do. The world needs more people like you. The only thing we ask is that you urge other people within your faith to abandon this idea of exclusivity. By the way, I hope that this meeting has disabused you of that idea yourselves. Has it?"
The men looked at each other and nodded.
"You're well-respected within your communities. Leaders. People will listen to you. Help them see that people aren't given or denied access to the afterlife based on which faith they follow. Help them see that good people from outside their faiths are going to be welcome here, too. We think your time on earth might go better if you can look at things that way."
"Anyway, that's about it from me. I'm sure you all have plenty of questions, but we can get into all of that the next time you're here. And yes, you will be back. That is, unless you suddenly start doing a bunch of really bad stuff, which I have no reason to believe will be the case."
The men looked at each other and then back at the man.
"Instead, let me just ask you if you 'get' what I've told you today."
The men said that they did.
"OK, then. Well, we're done here. It's about time for you to go back. Thanks for your time. I'll see you again."
The men got up and opened the door to leave.
"Oh yeah, and one more thing, gentlemen."
They turned around.
"Keep up the Good work."