Local Authority: Q&A with Seattle's Three Wise Men

Colloquially dubbed the “Interfaith Amigos”, Rabbi Ted Falcon, Sheikh Jamal Rahman and Pastor Don Mackenzie, work towards "inclusive spirituality"

Yes, Rabbi Ted Falcon, Sheikh Jamal Rahman and Pastor Don Mackenzie may sometimes walk into a bar for their meetings, but this is no joke. For the last eight years, these close friends have been working together to bridge the gap between their three different faiths. Colloquially dubbed the “Interfaith Amigos” (interfaithamigos.com), the trio has organized workshops and events that blend their congregations; broadcast a year-long, weekly interfaith talk radio show (on KKNW-AM); and in 2005, led an intercongregational group to Israel and Palestine to explore Judaism, Christianity and Islam and the inter-relationships of those faiths. In their book released last June, Getting to the Heart of Interfaith: The Eye-Opening, Hope-Filled Friendship of a Pastor, a Rabbi and a Sheikh, they discuss “inclusive spirituality” and its ultimate potential for ending the global cycle of war and violence.

SM: How did you come to build such a strong relationship with each other?

TF: Jamal and I met in the late ’90s. We were on a board that was trying to start a spiritual university. That never happened, but when 9/11 happened, I called him and we shared the Shabbat that week, and we’ve been working together ever since.

DM: Ted and I met at a Jewish-Christian dialogue in Seattle that’s been going on a long time. In 1999, we had lunch together and realized we had a lot in common. I remember saying we have more in common with each other than Ted has with a lot of rabbis and I do with a lot of ministers.

JR: Besides our own ministries, the three of us always participated in a very complete way in any interfaith program. When I got to know Ted and Don, I realized they were some of the best Muslims I ever knew, because Muslim simply means, “One who is surrendered to God.”

DM: We beat him up when he said that.

JR: That’s right. [Laughs.] I felt good about it.

SM: What is “inclusive spirituality”?

TF: Spirituality by its very nature is inclusive awareness. The more spiritual someone is, the more inclusive their involvement with the world. The less spiritual, the more exclusive.

JR: If you have a glass of water, the container is the institution, and the water is the message—the heart of the tradition. We need the container, but sometimes we are too focused on just polishing the outside of the container, and we forget the beauty and the majesty of the message inside.

TF: It’s easy to forget that that same water is what other vessels are also holding.

JR: Interfaith is really essentially about friendship, about a relationship.

SM: Whom is your book written for?

DM: It’s for everybody. Sure, there are people who are already predisposed to this....that’s part of it. But the others are people who hadn’t thought about this angle, who might change their minds about certain issues that could make a difference.

TF: We hope it will be used as a guide for religious discussion. We want to encourage other clergy and other people to pursue this kind of relationship.

JR: We like to say that everybody believes in God, they simply call God by a different name—truth, justice, humanity. This book is for anybody who is a seeker.


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