Fellow Jains: We Need to Talk

By: Gautam Srikishan

These days, most of the public discourse about religion is often around how it intersects with controversial political issues — issues like abortion and marriage equality. And it’s no secret that the public discourse is not always positive, constructive, or nuanced.

For a long time, I’ve noticed how rarely we discuss these issues within the Jain community (at least in my own experience in Chicago). Countless other religious communities are taking positions on things like marriage equality because of their religious beliefs, not in spite of them. But it seems like we hardly discuss our positions on these issues in the context of Jainism, as if our opinions would be obvious.

But they’re not obvious; I remember being shocked when I found out a swamiji who often lectures at our temple was, in fact, vehemently opposed to the idea of same-sex marriage. That moment shook me awake to the fact that, as a community, we need to discuss this.

And given that controversial things like marriage equality can be very sensitive, I’ve laid out a few tips for how we can approach these discussions constructively:

1) Remember that religious communities are diverse.

In practically any religious community, there are people on opposite sides of any given issue, even though they’re of the same faith. How weird is that?

Well, not that weird, actually. The thing about religious communities is that they’re diverse. Like really, deeply diverse. Even with Jains, who make up a relatively small percentage of the population, we see a large diversity of knowledge and practice. So, if we ask the question, where does Jainism stand on all of these controversial issues, we might be missing the bigger point here: religious communities rarely vote unanimously. Maybe the better question is this: where do you stand on these issues? And how do your beliefs inform your position?

2) Religions and religious communities can change their views on issues over time.

And it’s a good thing that they do. If religions didn’t have the capacity for change, we might still see things like racial discrimination and polygamy codified in certain religions and sects.

Even in the Jain community, we’re starting to see some shifts in interpretation of Jain principles. As dairy production becomes increasingly industrialized, a growing number of Jains are committing to a vegan diet over vegetarianism, a modern interpretation of Jainism’s value of non-violence. Spiritual leaders like Gurudev Chitrabhanuji and Pramodaji are even urging the broader Jain community to change their diets to reflect the times.

This is an important part of religious practices and views: they can adapt over time. They must reflect the current context, and when they become outdated or are in tension with our values, we should consider how they might change.

3) These issues are complex, so we have to hear each other out.

Few of us are experts on a lot of these issues, and fewer still are actual scholars of Jainism. As such, it’s incredibly important that we listen honestly and charitably to each other’s arguments, regardless of whether we agree or disagree. We have to hear each other out because we don’t know where our argument’s blind spots are.

And besides, nobody wants to hear two people argue past each other — we’ve got presidential debates for that.

So let’s start the discussion. What do you believe?