The Fifth annual Interfaith Event held at the First Baptist Church.

Jayanatha gives his report on the ground: "Our trip has been busy so far. We landed in LA at 9:30pm and waited until 10:20pm for the bus service to our nearby hotel. There we checked in and slept for a few hours, waking up at 3:00am to catch our next flight to Denver. Flying east, we soon reached the sunrise. The cloud layer was thick below us and above the only visible sights through the upper atmosphere were the moon and Venus (?). Then a breathtaking sunrise. After landing at the Denver airport we made our way to our next gate. The closer we got, the smaller the airport became. The ceiling lowered, the walls closed in and the cowboy hat density increased. We were in the right place! We boarded a tiny plane which flew us a sleep-deprived, semi-conscious hour southeast to Midland, Texas. We then checked into our hotel and fell fast asleep for three hours before waking up to go to the Interfaith event. It went well and people really liked Acharya's well-prepared material."

Beautiful shot from Sadhaka Jayanatha\

s phone '

Sadhaka Jayanatha, our normal TAKA reporter, has an eye for photography

This must be Denver!

The tiny, tiny plane to Midland

The flatlands of Texas, what a sight. Mrunal Patel wondering why a photo is being taken. 🙂

This years panel consisted of Imam Wazir Ali from Masjid Warithud-deen Mohammed in Houston, the Rev. Kathryn Boren from St. Luke\

s United Methodist Church, the Rev. Randel Everett from 21st Century Wilberforce Initiative in Virginia, Msgr. Larry Droll from St. Ann\'s Catholic Church and Acharya Arumuganathaswami. '

Moderated by Russell Meyers, CEO of Midland Memorial Hospital

Questions were provided in advance and were penned by the panelists themselves and the moderator. Topics included: religious persecution, homosexuality and same-sex marriage, evil in today\

s world and ex-prisoners and convicts. '

Rev. Kathryn Boren speaks on talking to people with no religious relationship: We need more attractive Christians, not because of how they look, but because of the life they live. That\

s what drew me to the faith. It was seeing a person whose passion for life was such that I wanted that in my own. A person who had such a sense of calm in life, that I wanted that sort of peace. From the outside it may look like we\'ve reduced God to a list of rules.'

Acharya speaks on evil in today\

s world: There is no force or personification of evil which opposes the goodness of God. We don\'t, therefore, accept the premise of the question: that evil exists per se. The better way to ask this of a Hindu is: what to you is the source that seems evil? We believe that the soul is created by God and matures over many, many lifetimes of existence. At first the soul is young and is prone to make mistake and make karma, some good and some bad. All of which will return to it. When we see a person acting in a cruel or horrific way, we are seeing a young soul who will evolve over many lives out of cruelty and into compassion.'

Q and A

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