What do you admire about other denominations or religious traditions?

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AlbertDerGrosse

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It’s so easy to point out what we think is wrong with religions outside our own, but what are some things you admire about other religious traditions? Strengths they may have in praxis that are (currently) lacking in your own tradition?

I’m Roman Catholic and I have a huge amount of respect for Byzantine Christians (of all communions) for their fidelity to ritualistic tradition and aesthetic beauty. Despite them not having a “Pope” calling all the shots they seem to have had no trouble maintaining this for 2000 years without much deviation from each other. I’ve never been to a lackluster Byzantine liturgy nor seen an unappealing Byzantine church. Even in their small little mission chapels throughout the US where austerity is by necessity, they still manage to have beautiful little churches that look like churches and they somehow manage to have beautiful, chanted liturgies even if only 10 people are present! I feel like we Latins really dropped the ball in this regard over the last couple generations.

I have a lot of respect for Evangelicals’ devotion to and knowledge of the Scriptures. This isn’t to say that I believe Sola Scriptura is sound theology, but I think we Catholics could stand to read it more, commit more of it to memory, and defer to it more in our day to day lives. Honestly if I needed to look up a passage but didn’t have recourse to the internet and had a random Catholic and a random Evangelical with me, I’d probably ask the Evangelical and take her at her word.

I think Muslims really put us to shame when it comes to prayer discipline and fasting (perhaps not Eastern Christians, because they’ve got some strict disciplines) but definitely us Western Christians. I think it’s sort of pathetic that a Catholic can ever complain about their hunger one of the only two days of the year the Church expects us to fast. Even our Latin definition of a fast is kinda shameful. One meal plus two collations that when put together do not constitute a meal is equal to 1.99 meals. That’s not fasting. The exceptions made for meat abstinence are likewise very lenient. When it comes to prayer: though many Catholics have started taking up praying the Liturgy of the Hours (which is a very good and pious practice), none of us except religious and priests have an obligation to pray a set number of times a day, a set number of prayers, and at set times of the day. I know that once I started praying the Breviary it forced me to reorganize my entire day around my prayer life instead of the other way around.

Some things (among many) that I admire about non-Catholics. What about you?
 
I agree about Muslims and their discipline. The commitment to the prayers among the devout is admirable. While I am somewhat ambivalent about some aspects of women in Islam veiling, a friend explained to me that she viewed it as keeping her hair as something special and intimate for her husband, like keeping a precious jewel under wraps, which I found rather charming.

I love almost everything about Orthodoxy, and have a special affection for the Coptic Orthodox, which I very nearly became. Their liturgy is delightfully chaotic and immensely reverent - holy chaos is what I said after my first experience of the Divine Liturgy. The desert fathers are magnificent.

I respect old school evangelicals because of their commitment to scripture - the conservative strain of this brand of Christianity is what led me into the Catholic church, most inadvertantly. Basically, they are very good at holding an objective approach to a text, which is very helpful for clear thinking, and holding out against heretical innovation. The trouble is, they’re not really conservative enough because the actual theology they hold to is an innovation itself!!!
 
I admire the religious Jews from Israel who are so dedicated to find signs from God in small or big events, and see the biblical text in an atemporal place where every event happened then and is happening now and it means something for the future. I am little sad that the general message from Rome and Constantinopole is still so generally vague and usually avoids most kind of mysticism by fear of being called words in the press or by the daily Caesars perhaps. There are no taking chances in seeing a sign or wondering if… idk… The weather is bad because we have offended God on this planet? Why can"t it be so? It was so all through the events in OT. Are we closer to God today than say… Moses?
 
JoyToTheWhirled said:
I love almost everything about Orthodoxy, and have a special affection for the Coptic Orthodox, which I very nearly became. Their liturgy is delightfully chaotic and immensely reverent - holy chaos is what I said after my first experience of the Divine Liturgy. The desert fathers are magnificent.
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Yes! I’ve never been to any Oriental Orthodox liturgy but I used to live next door to an Ethiopian church, and have watched videos of their liturgies on YouTube. “Holy Chaos” is a great way to put it. That chaos isn’t contrived either, unlike how it appears among us Latins when we try it. I feel like the chaos is more an emergent property of the holiness for them whereas when we get creative we’re introducing chaos for chaos’ sake.
I respect old school evangelicals because of their commitment to scripture - the conservative strain of this brand of Christianity is what led me into the Catholic church, most inadvertantly. Basically, they are very good at holding an objective approach to a text, which is very helpful for clear thinking, and holding out against heretical innovation. The trouble is, they’re not really conservative enough because the actual theology they hold to is an innovation itself!!!
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Indeed!
 
This is a great idea for a thread!

I admire the fasting of Muslims.
I admire the commitment to mission of young Mormons.
I admire the potlucks of everyone who is good at potlucks…Southern Baptists come to mind.
I am fascinated by the cultural practices of the Sikhs.
I admire the bizarre conviction and trust in the snake handling churches.
 
AlbertDerGrosse said:
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JoyToTheWhirled:
I love almost everything about Orthodoxy, and have a special affection for the Coptic Orthodox, which I very nearly became. Their liturgy is delightfully chaotic and immensely reverent - holy chaos is what I said after my first experience of the Divine Liturgy. The desert fathers are magnificent.
Click to expand...
Yes! I’ve never been to any Oriental Orthodox liturgy but I used to live next door to an Ethiopian church, and have watched videos of their liturgies on YouTube. “Holy Chaos” is a great way to put it. That chaos isn’t contrived either, unlike how it appears among us Latins when we try it. I feel like the chaos is more an emergent property of the holiness for them whereas when we get creative we’re introducing chaos for chaos’ sake.
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I know what you mean. Ultimately, as a rather buttoned up Englishwoman, I think my temperament is more suited to the regiment and clean lines of the West. The Copts were, on the surface, all over the place, but it was very evident that everything was done for a reason, even if they touch on different points of the compass to us, if that makes sense. Coptic icons are my favourite, well worth spending time with.
 
Having been raised in a predominantly Jewish suburb I came to admire the feeling of community and also the discipline of keeping kosher. Abstaining from meat on a Friday is nothing when compared with keeping two sets of crockery and pans (ideally two kitchens!) so as to ensure not to ‘scald a calf in its mother’s milk’.
I also think their sitting Shiva after a death is a beautiful thing…
 
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I admire the emphasis my Mormon and Muslim friends place on community and rituals/practices. And they do it without whining about them being inconveniences.
 
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I admire the Mormon people, their commitment to family, to community, to the corporal works of mercy is outstanding. Knowing and working closely with Mormons has let me see that these things are real, not just put on for show.

I admire Muslims in their commitment to prayer and fasting, their complete lack of “embarrassment” to be Islamic in public, their commitment to good works (every Mosque I know has a food pantry for example). Have Muslim family members, so, I see this up close and personal.

I admire the devotion of Orthodox Jews. Heck, I can barely go without meat on Friday, let alone keep kosher! We women can learn a lot about modesty while beautiful from these women. I follow some Orthodox Jewish fashion bloggers.

I admire the unflinching commitment to preaching the Gospel from many evangelicals. I admire their true love for Scripture and their lack of the need to “protect kids” from the basic truths of Christianity. Convert here from the evangelical tribe.

I admire the community centered life of the Amish. My father has deep friendships with many Amish families, any big family event in my family has a large Amish contingent 🙂 Oh, and I admire their singing ability!
 
My late wife was a Buddhist, and we raised our two boys to be dual Buddhist Catholics, with great success. So there is a lot that I respect in the Buddhist traditions, especially Soto Zen.

I’m also a physician. The thing I respect the most about Buddhism is that its first commandment is the same as the first commandment of medicine: Primum, non nocere. “First of all, do no harm”, and the second commandment is to relieve suffering when you see it.

Another thing I appreciate is the incredible patience that characterizes Buddhism. I consider myself very patient for a western Christian, but my boys have me beat by a long mile, and I never saw my wife lose composure even a tiny smidgen during all the years we knew each other.

The thing I respect most about Buddhism, though, is how learning about it has helped me deepen my Catholic faith. It’s not that they overlap, so much, but that they complement each other like a lock and key. I wish I had more time to learn a lot more about Buddhism.
 
I admire the "salt of the earth’ Lutherans that I am surrounded by here in the frozen north. Yes, they are right out of Garrison Keillor’s Prairie Home Companion. Good, honest, hard working, no nonsense, kind folk, with quirky senses of humor and great hotdish-and-bar church suppers.
 
I know committed Buddhists who exercise remarkable patience and self-restraint. Something to be admired.
 
You are in for a treat! Tater tot hot dish will win your heart. 🙂
 
I do have disagreements with other religions, but I don’t want to get into that for this thread.
I admire the Jehovah’s Withnesses for their commitment to stay completely neutral in the world’s military conflicts and refusal to serve in wars. I believe that this would be a much better world if everyone refused to serve in war. Just recently, I read about how a just married couple was celebrating with a wedding party and someone comes along and drops a bomb on them, killing everyone there. And the killers went scot free because it was a mistake in wartime. I also admire the way the JW women dress and the fact that they have a serious devotion to bible reading.
I admire the Muslim women and the modest way they dress. If a man looks at a woman with lust, he has committed the mortal sin of adultery, according to the Bible. Well, it seems that so many women of Christian background are, by the way they dress, deliberately tempting men to commit adultery.
I admire the Jews for their emphasis on learning and scholarship.
I admire the Buddhists for their teaching to do no harm and to relieve suffering.
I admire the Amish for their adherence to traditional values.
I admire Hinduism and its ancient texts such as the Upanishads, the Mahabharata, the Ramayana, the Bhagavad Gita (a part of the Mahabharata), and the Puranas, which were composed across generations and inform the reader about the objectives of human life, ethics, moral law of cause and effect, nirvana, and spiritual life.
I admire the SSPX for their dress code, the fact that so many of their families are quite large with 5, 6, or 7 or more children, and saying the Mass in Latin. Latin is the base and foundation of many other languages such as Italian, Romanian, Romansh, French, Spanish, and Portuguese. And further there are many benefits to knowing latin, such as latin provides the root words for many scientific terms, latin terms are used in law, government and medicine, knowing latin is a help to learning other languages, latin was the language of ancient Rome and of medieval western scholars, etc.
I admire the Orthodox Church for the way they conduct their marriage ceremony. In addition to the crowning part of the ceremony, the ceremony is conducted by the priest who effects the Sacrament. I think it is much better than to have the couple be the ones to effect the Sacrament, because having the couple confer the Sacrament opens itself to possible annulment later on, where a spouse can claim that their consent was somehow defective.
I admire the Mormons for their tithing and giving so much to their church.
I admire the Quakers for their pacifism.
I admire the Bahai religion which teaches the unity of all people and that there are very few justifications for war.
 
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I admire the Scientologists for the way they can talk people out of large amounts of cash. And the way they can stare at you without blinking when they speak of Zoltan!(Please Note: This uploaded content is no longer available.)
 
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And I admired Guru Osho for the way he could talk people out of large amounts of cash. And the way he could stare at you without blinking when he spoke of Nirvana!
Not to mention his Rolex, his fleet of Rolls Royces and his ZZ Top chic!(Please Note: This uploaded content is no longer available.)
 
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