DownshoreDrift

Are All Religions Basically the Same?

With over half of evangelicals reportedly saying that they believe that people from other religions can go to heaven, the question emerges, are all religions basically the same? That is the refrain that is constantly heard in our pluralistic society. People say things like, "As long as you're sincere, God will honor that," or "All religions basically teach the same thing, don't they?" Or, "As long as you are a good person, it does not matter which religion you ascribe to."  The truth is that different religions do not teach the same thing. They are all, in one form or another, mutually exclusive.

I am preparing for our next trip to India in the fall and I was reading Ravi Zacharias' new book, New Birth or Rebirth: Jesus Talks With Krishna, and he made a very interesting statement. He said that all religions believe that they are exclusively true, in one form or another. If not, then why do they persecute people for converting to other religions? Why is conversion from their religion to another looked down upon or persecuted? For that matter, why not encourage conversion if it makes the person happy? If all religions are fundamentally the same, then why should we propogate a religion? Why try to gain converts or spread teachings? Many people in the New Age movement borrow a great deal from Hindu thought. But, orthodox Hinduism harshly persecutes people for converting, to the point that in the area that we work in in Northern India, Christians are regularly attacked, churches are burned, and ministries are harassed and shut down. No, true Hinduism is not very tolerant to other faiths.

It is only in the West where we know little about the true beliefs of other religions (including Christianity), do people make claims that all religions are basically the same. That is primarily a secular manifestation of the Hindu teaching of monism, which states that all is one. This secular view tells us that man is supreme and religion is just a function of man's desire for transcendance. Since all people are basically the same, then all religion is just a cultural adaptation of that desire for transcendence. But, in reality, this is not the view of the world's religions, especially Hinduism. All that you have to do is walk along the paths of Rishikesh along the Ganges River to know that Hinduism and Christianity have absolutely nothing in common. Any teachings of oneness only come from the Hindu perspective. If other views bow to that perspective, then they can be included.

Christianity teaches exclusivity. Jesus is the only way to salvation. This is why Christians are persecuted all over the world. Their view of the exclusivity of Christ is bumping up against the exclusive teachings of other religions. The issue is not that all religions are the same because they are drastically different in fundamental ways, but rather, the question is, "Which religion is true?"

That is a conversation that only truthseekers want to engage in.

Racial Diversity a Gospel Imperative: Thoughts From the Willow Creek Leadership Summit

Why don't Southern Baptists have conferences like this???  A group of about 10 of us are attending the Willow Creek Leadership Summit at a satellite location here in Montgomery. It has been really good so far, with excellent sessions led by Bill Hybels, Gary Haugen of the International Justice Mission (who said, "Leadership that matters to God involves issues that matter to God"), Wendy Kopp of Teach for America, John Burke of Gateway Community Church, and Bill George. All of the speakers were excellent and very challenging. They gave great foundations for leadership in the church and the world and told amazing stories of risk and adventure in creating new realities. The theme this year seems to be focusing on the issue of justice and social issues.

Probably the most poignant speaker of the day for me was Efrem Smith of  The Sanctuary Covenant Church in Minneapolis.  He spoke on the need for a racially diverse, multicultural church witness in America. Here are the notes that I took from his talk:

• The church should be a solution to the racial divide in our country, not a part of the problem.
• Culture should be engaged for Kingdom purposes, not necessarily fully embraced
• We live in a multi-cultural, technological, innovative, multi-racial, multi-ethnic, connected, global world.
• The more diverse that we as a nation get, the more divided we become. We are in need of leaders who will engage this world to bring about peace and prosperity to show that there is a God who brings hope, healing, justice, and transformation.
• 30 years ago, 1 in 100 children born in America were born of a mixed race. Today, it is 1 in 19. The next generation will not be under the rigid racial distinctions of the past.
• We must lead and be prophetic in a multicultural world.
• A leader in this world must be invaded by God to lead multiculturally and multiethnically.
• 1 John 4:7 - Love one another - In order to lead in a multicultural world, we must be a beloved leader. You become this way when you allow yourself to be taken by God and His purposes.
• We must be connected to God so that people can see God through us.
• It is not about qualification to lead multiculturally, it is about being picked up by God and being carried along by His purposes.
• When we have been filled by God, we will address issues of race, class, and ethnicity around the world. Does the church have an answer? Yes!
• If the church really wants to transform where the pain is, we will invest in and plant churches in the inner city and find dwelling places where the hurting people are.
• We must be able to confess where we've gotten in wrong.
• The reason why we've had racial and ethic storms in this world is because man's desire for comfort has come in conflict with God's desire for reconciliation and healing.
• What if we confronted the reasons for why churches are ethnically and racially divided and addressed those reasons? Our primary identity is not racial. We should not have white churches and black churches in cities that are racially and ethnically diverse. The church should represent the community and consist of all people. This is what the Gospel commands. Along these lines Smith says,

"The Church must wrestle with what it means to equip the saints to advance the Kingdom of God in an ever-increasing multi-ethnic and multicultural world. In order for this to happen, pastors and ministry leaders must begin by seeing reconciliation as theology and Christian formation. Reconciliation must be seen as spiritual discipline on the same level as prayer, fasting, and stewardship. One of the major issues with which we still struggle in the body of Christ is racial segregation. There still exists a belief among many church leaders that a homogenous church model is the best for church development and growth. Within an ever-increasing multi-ethnic and multicultural society, when sociologists want to prove that there is yet a racial divide, many look no further than the church to make this point."

Efrem Smith went on to say that the only proper response to a multi-cultural society is a multi-cultural church. I agree. Raffi Shahinian left a comment on my post from the other day on this issue pointing me to a post that he had written on the subject. Raffi said that the church has always had a problem with racial and cultural divisions. That is why Paul talked about it so much. But, the point was that they were not allowed to stay in those divisions. Paul prophetically called them out of their inward focus to a broader reality of the diverse Body of Christ. Raffi says that a great deal of Paul's writings dealt directly with this issue of prejudice between differing groups based on race, culture, background, and ethnicity. Romans should be read in this context because we are all equally sinners and justified by faith - whether Jew or Gentile. This is why Romans 1-8 sets up the rest of the letter in calling Jews and Gentiles (who are both reconciled to God the same way) to love one another and accept on another. Galatians deals with this, as does Ephesians, Colossians, 1 Corinthians, etc. It goes on and on. I have never thought about it that way, but he is right.  The Gospel is made up of both vertical reconciliation (between us and God) as well as horizontal reconciliation (between man and man).  For the Church not to display this in a racially divided land is to not display a holistic Gospel witness.

Here are thoughts from Efrem after he spoke at the Summit:

Compassion and mercy ministries lead to engaging in justice advocacy.  That is worth thinking about.

God continues to speak to me on this issue. I am working on a book on this subject with the Montgomery story as a background. I have come to believe that reconciliation is a gospel issue - it is not a preference issue. Our churches must deal with this to be able to effectively proclaim the gospel to the mission field of America. If we do not, any claim to be serious about reaching our country is just words.

UPDATE:  This is a great post on the detrimental nature of silence on the racial issue in our churches. Pretending like it is not a problem, or like if it ever was a problem it was dealt with in the past, is not a helpful take on the current issue within the church.   

How Long Until the Church Effectively Deals With Its Prejudice?

CNN is producing a great series on being "Black in America." Yesterday, they dealt with the issue of race in the church by confronting Why Many Americans Prefer Their Sundays Segregated (HT: Jim West). This is a fascinating article. Here are some excerpts:

• Only 5 percent of our nation's churches are considered racially integrated (at least 20% of a minority race attends)
• Many who want segregated churches are looking for a place of refuge where they don't have to experience racism on Sundays
• Fear of interracial dating may keep churches segregated
• Integrated churches could help heal racial divides in America

I have said a lot about this in the past and I plan to say a good deal more about it in the future. At any rate, I think that it is significant that a secular world looks at the church and takes notice that we are just as segregated as they are, if not more so. Clearly, the Bible teaches that racial distinctions are to fade away in Christ, yet they remain in His Church. How do you think this affects our witness and what can we do about it?

Obviously, repentance and heart change is necessary. Maybe we will start to consider that when we realize that our preferences, beyond just being incompatible with the Gospel, are also destroying our witness in America, the land of multiculturalism.

Russell Moore on Spiritual Warfare, the Family, and the Rule of Appetites

Either the prophetic cry regarding our lifestyle choices and pursuit of the American Dream is getting louder, or I am just paying closer attention. As our economy tanks and our culture declines, I think that more and more Christians will begin to consider how we are living. Russell Moore from Southern Seminary takes aim at Southern Baptists' acquiesance to a culture run amok in materialism and hedonism. He hits this topic much harder than I have over the past few weeks as he talks to Southern Baptists about some timely issues. He says, "both left and right in the American mainstream are captive to the ideology that the appetites are to be indulged; the heart wants what it wants, by whatever system will do it most efficiently."  Moore is at his best in this article when he exposes the spiritual warfare that is taking place in our midst and how we have been deceived as we fall in line with the materialistic pursuit of our culture. He aptly points out that our enemy is not flesh and blood.

Moore's only weakness is that he is writing from a middle-class perspective as he critiques families where both parents are working. This is the reality for many families and there is really nothing that can be done about it. Instead of making families who HAVE to do this to survive feel bad, we should help them and support them as they provide for their families. His focus, however, is rightly placed on those families who could easily make it on one income, but choose to put children in day care to pursue a lifestyle of affluence. That action does require some analysis and alternatives need to be considered.

Overall, however, his take on this subject is timely - especially his comments on spiritual warfare. 

If We Want to Follow Jesus . . .

Americans are clustering more and more into cultural, social, economic, religious, and political enclaves according to Bill Bishop in his new book, The Big Sort: Why the Clustering of Like-Minded America is Tearing Us Apart. Basically, our affluence has led us to the place that most Americans want to live, work, and play with people just like them. The Homogenous Unit Principle that I spoke of a few posts ago, seems to be alive and well in an increasingly multicultural America. But, instead of becoming a melting pot, we look more like a salad bowl of Balkanized special interests. Of course, we have seen this for years with white-flight and the rise of the suburb, but it is now apparently happening across other areas of life and it has profound social, political, and religious implicatoins.

Beyond the Homogenous Unit Principle (HUP) to a More Holistic Gospel Witness

When I started seminary at Golden Gate in 1997, I took a preaching class my first semester. One day, a representative from Lifeway came in and began sharing with us principles on church growth. One of those principles was the Homogenous Unit Principle, articulated by Donald McGavran.  I had never heard this before, but it explained a lot. The HUP basically says that people most naturally congregate with people who are like them, therefore, church growth should take place among these affinity groups. The boundaries to evangelism are often more sociological than they are theological.  Those boundaries can be removed if the gospel is contextualized to each sub-culture and if churches are formed that affirm those sub-cultures. For example, if I am a middle class white man, then under this way of thinking, I would prefer to congregate with other middle class whites. Therefore, the best way to engage me with the gospel is to tailor ministry toward me in a way that is attractive to a middle class white male.

I was only 22 years old when I heard this principle shared by the man from Lifeway. This made some sense among groups with language barriers in places like India, but it did not really seem to fit what should be happening in a country like America. It sounded strange to me then because I did not see where it was biblical. Even though I was just a young white man from Mississippi, I didn't understand why church was supposed to be all about me. I remember asking a question of the man from Lifeway and my concerns were quickly dismissed as being uninformed. The HUP was presented to us as just the way of things, but for me, it did not seem right.  Wouldn't this perspective actually reinforce negative issues like racism, consumerism, and selfishness?

Is the IMB Axing "New Directions?"

I've been hearing rumblings for a couple of months that New Directions, the strategy adopted by the IMB in 1998 that pushed all of their mission work through the concept of Church Planting Movements (CPMs) is effectively dead.  Apparently this has been in the works for some time now and during the most recent trustee meeting, a task force has been developed to "Renew the Vision" and assess the IMB's structure, strategies and plans for the future.  In the aforementioned article, Dr. Rankin points to "a time of 'unprecedented global advance,' with 609,000 people baptized and 25,497 new churches reported overseas last year through the work of Southern Baptist missionaries and partners."

Here are some questions: If all is going so well within the IMB and it's mission, then why the reorganization? Why dump New Directions if it has doubled the number of baptisms within the past ten years? Why kill the strategy behind CPM's?  The article states that a task force will meet a few times before the next board meeting in September to do some work on the reorganization. Does anyone really believe that a task force can get anything done in a few meetings with something of this magnitude? No, I would confidently say that these plans have been in the works for some time now.

Also, those two little words, "and partners" are much more powerful that most Southern Baptists realize. The truth is, the vast majority of baptisms and church plants are the work of indigenous believers throughout the world that are connected in various ways with IMB missionaries. Still, the question remains: Why reorganize if things are going as well as we have been told again and again?

Where might we be headed? Some are speculating that we are going to see more church supported and initiated mission work with missionaries reporting directly to churches. Others are speculating that NAMB is going to be reorganized as well and the two entities will be combined. That is strongly opposed by IMB leadership, but with the rumblings coming out of NAMB regarding problems with leadership, the future does not look bright for that organization.

I had also heard that we would see a revisitation of some sort of the IMB guidelines regarding ppl and baptism at this board meeting.  Surprising no one, we find out that nothing happened.

And the beat goes on . . . 

Believer's Baptism Vs. Paedobaptism and Covenant Theology

In an attempt to educate and inform on all things of even slight interest to me, I point you to a post by Jason Robertson at Fide-O on the Reformed Presbyterian practice of infant baptism (paedobaptism).  Being a baptist, I obviously believe in a believer's baptism by immersion, but I am still interested to know what other groups believe and what causes divisions between denominations. Some say that divisions don't matter and we should all just join together. On some levels that is true, but on others, the divisions actually mean something. Of course, we should have a charitable spirit toward all whether we agree on everything or not, but it is still interests me to understand where we are all coming from. Any thoughts on this issue?

Americans Create Their Own Religion

According to the recent study by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, America is the most religious nation in the world (I doubt that), but we are also very pluralistic. 92% of Americans believe in God and 70% of people with religious affiliation believe that there is more than one way to heaven. Apparently, we believe a whole host of contradictory things at the same time. This is a pretty groundbreaking study, so I wanted to make sure that I pointed it out here. Thoughts?

Presenter to Baptist Group Questions The Deity of Christ

I know that I have expressed frustration toward the SBC leadership on this blog more than a few times. But, let me say how glad I am that the SBC was rescued from going the route of theological liberalism that is being expressed by this theologian as he presents his views on the Bible to a group of Baptists.  The views were presented in a workshop at the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship's (CBF) General Assembly. There is a disclaimer that the CBF does not hold to all the views of all their speakers for their workshops, but I am really wondering why this type of perspective would be articulated if there was not some sympathy with it. John Killinger, theologian in residence at Marle Collegiate Church in New York City said such things as: