Gosh. I have so much to say about Omaha, NE and worry I don’t have the wherewithal to say it – or maybe I’m not supposed to be the ONE to say it. An avowed atheist declaring optimism because of a faith community? That sounds like betrayal!
But nope. Bear with me.
When last we saw Kyle Knapp he was a minister. We sat around long past our bedtimes and swapped tales, not least of which was the story of Kyle being ousted from his church because he was asking too many questions and the incredible story of his wife’s involvement with the Omaha, NE Tri-Faith Initiative. They asked if we wanted to go see it and we said “Hell yeah”, without the Hell though.
The tale as told by Kyle and Gail is that it sprung from the ignorant assaults on Muslims after 9/11 – a group of Christians and a group of Jews joining hands to defend a Mosque. I’m not seeing that as part of the Official History [actually, this is mentioned in their explanatory video, just not in the text], but the outcome is still the same. Different faiths gathering together not just to hold meetings, but to hold land and buildings together. It was implied that a lot of the homes and businesses local to the campus are also somehow part of the greater picture… making it further self-sustaining, not just worshipping together, but Living and working together too.
I’ve long been a believer that integration is really the only answer to a lot of our hatreds. Mixing our Lives together till they’re inseparable is a good way to get over the whole “us vs them” thing. Of course, in the Tri-Faith setting at least they can all agree on God and a moral grounding… but building a Mosque, a Synagogue and a Christian church + an “Interfaith” centre all within the same campus encourages these communities to find even greater commonalities.
The day of our visit I was overwhelmed by the 40-acre campus and the vision of it all. I’ve been off and on cynical about it in the time since and have a bit more faith in the smaller vision of Kyle’s current chosen home – Urban Abbey is a more human scale coffeeshop / bookstore / church that feels more comprehensible in it’s grasp and more homey in it’s realization.
Tri-Faith is huge and is probably the sort of thing churches OUGHT to be reaching for, but how much of its existence will be wrapped up in sustaining this massive campus? Urban Abbey seems less disconnected and in the trenches. I’m all too familiar with Big Organizations with Great Intentions faltering after their first generation of leadership ages out and steps down. I have hope for them but a lot of fear, too.
I have so much more to think about with this. But it’s not what I expected to find in Omaha, Nebraska.
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