Suggested Interview Questions
Suggested interview questions for Samir Selmanovic*, author of “It’s Really All About God”
1. Why do you describe yourself as “Muslim Atheist Jewish Christian”?
2. How did someone who was an atheist, and culturally Muslim, end up as pastor of a big Christian church?
3. What do you mean when you say that religions have become “God-management systems”?
4. Why do so few interfaith efforts go beyond “service projects” and “feel good gatherings”?
5. What will it take to get to mutual generosity and interdependence among religions?
6. Many people are alarmed by, or at least turned off by, fundamentalists and extremists, whether religious or atheist. Explain what dangers are posed to civil society by fundamentalism. How is it possible to defeat it?
7. In each of these religions there are texts and theologies that call for exclusion and violence. What do you do about those?
8. What did your experience as a Manhattan pastor working on relief efforts after 9/11 teach you about interreligious understanding and cooperation?
9. What has your own experience of being “the other” taught you—from when your family disowned you when you converted, to being treated with suspicion because of your Muslim name after 9/11?
10. Polls show more and more people describe themselves as spiritual, but with no affiliation to organized religion. What do we lose when we completely abandon religious traditions?
11. Why do you think that for many people, religion is not working anymore?
12. Why do you suggest that it might be time for “religious people to disown the God they believe in and for atheists to disown the God they don’t believe in”?
13. How did you come to believe that to say that a God who favors some people over others is not a God worth worshipping?
14. You’ve tried these other paths. Why did you settle on Christianity?
15. How can we find God outside of our own religion?
16. Are you suggesting that there should be one religion for all people?
17. Where do atheists fit into this new way of thinking about religion?
18. You seem to be optimistic about the future of religion. How so?
19. You write about your two daughters. What do you have to say to parents trying to transmit their beliefs and values to their children?
20. Why do you suggest that the problem with some religious people is that their God is “too big”?
For an INTERVIEW with Samir Selmanovic, please contact Kelly Hughes, (312) 280-8126 or kelly@dechanthughes.com.
*Note: Samir’s name is pronounced “SAH-meer Sel-MAHN-ovich.”
