The election of Tulsi Gabbard, a practicing Hindu, to Congress underscores Hawaii’s openness to religious diversity. And with Hindus making up less than 0.5 percent of Hawaii’s registered voters, the broad-minded and all-embracing nature of the local citizenry reaches the stars.

Hawaii’s congressional delegation now is 50 percent Buddhist (Mazie Hirono and Colleen Hanabusa), 25 percent Jewish (Brian Schatz) and 25 percent Hindu. The rest of Congress is about 87 percent Protestant and Catholic and 7 percent Jewish, with a spattering of followers of other Christian denominations, three Buddhists and two Muslims, according to the Pew Foundation.

Gabbard also became the first congressperson to take her oath of office on the Bhagawat Gita.
Hawaii’s interfaith tolerance, inspired by the Hawaiian spirituality’s all-embracing characteristic, dates back generations. Some recent examples:

>> The Nuuanu Valley’s Interfaith Thanksgiving celebration, now in its 51st year, is the longest uninterrupted such observation in our nation. Gabbard was the keynote speaker at this year’s program, held at the Buddhist Honpa Hongwanji Betsuin.

A few years back, when this celebration was held at the Jewish Temple Emanu-El, the program began with the adhan, the Muslim call to prayer.

>> In 2003, Hawaii residents formed the All Believers Network (Belnet). Its mission: to proclaim the belief that all spiritually based religions are from the One Eternal Being, a message brought to us by many inspired spiritual teachers, all of whom we respect equally.

Belnet’s board has individuals from the following 18 faiths: Baha’i, Buddhism, Christianity, Daoism, Hawaiian, Spirituality, Hinduism, Indigenous Religions, Islam, Jainism, Judaism, Mormonism, Seicho-No-Ie, Sikhism, Subud, Sufism, Unitarian Universalism, Unity and Zoroastrianism. Other like-minded groups, such as The Interfaith Alliance and the Open Table, add to our spiritually uplifting interfaith mosaic.

>> In 2005, Belnet organized its annual program under the theme, “Moving from Exclusion to Inclusion in My Faith.” Exploring how passages of exclusion in sacred texts could be re-interpreted and made inclusive, four panelists (a Jew, Christian, Hindu and Muslim) critiqued their own traditions for the purpose.

>> Introduced by Sen. Suzanne Chun-Oakland, the Hawaii Legislature unanimously passed a resolution supporting the organization of an international interfaith conference in Hawaii in 2011 and also promoting Hawaii as the world’s interfaith harmony capital.

As a prelude to that conference, Belnet conducted a survey exploring how followers of various religions perceived the reality they revered. The 300-plus respondents following 14 religions perceived their reality in identical terms (all-hearing, all-knowing, all-seeing, compassionate, eternal, flawless, formless, genderless, unique and wise).

Thus, at the above-mentioned 2011 conference, the 75 participants developed recommendations for a concerted educational effort to spread this message.

>> Rotary International generally steers away from discussing religion, but its International Peace Forum, to be held in Honolulu Jan. 25-27, will have a workshop, “Exploring Converging Paths of Religions to Promote Peace.”

With this backdrop, Gabbard’s election is not icing on the cake; it becomes an important ingredient enhancing the cake’s unique flavor. And while this all-embracing and beautiful characteristic is essentially Hawaiian, we believe it is reproducible.

Indeed, our dream, hope and aspiration is to serve as a role model for others.