She states that her research is not to prove her (Christianity) is right, but to understand religion from a different point of view. Faith is not a competitive sport with only one team winning for eternity. What she has heard over and over again, when in another country, is that evangelists are not good listeners. I'm going to throw in a little Christianese here - evangelism and witnessing are not the same thing. Evangelism is preaching the gospel of Jesus, witnessing is simply sharing your Christian experiences with others, hopefully in a dialog where they can tell you their experiences.
Finding out about other people and their cultures/religions is something I've been learning more about the past few years. Instead of trying to convince others they are wrong, we should look for commonality and learn where they are coming from. This doesn't mean trying to "translate" their views into your own religious views but to understand theirs from a different frame of reference. For example a Buddhist in front of a statue may not be worshiping "idols" but honoring Buddha's example (there are no divine mediators in the Buddhist religion).
What I also didn't realize is that Christians aren't the only ones who have a "Golden Rule" Judaism, Islam and Hinduism (and I'm sure others) have a version of the Golden Rule. If we all treated others as we would like to be treated wouldn't the world be a better place?
Another point she brought up is that if you meet a Hindu, or Muslim or someone from any religion you have met exactly one person. Even in the same religion we have different views so don't judge the whole by the thoughts or actions of one person.
Barbara Taylor Brown writes that after listening to an Imam she was taken by his words "Be the best person you can be in your religion." She vowed to speak from the heart of her faith wishing others well at the heart of theirs.
