NPPA, part 2: Questions of Tolerance

Ah, Eggos in the toaster.  I love Saturday mornings.

So, jumping back into No Perfect People Allowed.  It was recommended that I begin with Chapter 7, and that's exactly what I did.

It spoke.  Spoke loud.  What follows are some of the thoughts John Burke explained, and my reactions to them.  It may be somewhat lengthy, but that's okay, you're used to that, right? 

This chapter deals with what it calls a "tolerance litmus test."  Meaning, people in our culture who are seeking spiritual truth will often ask certain questions to ascertain whether we are accepting or intolerant (most probably lean more toward the latter, based on what they've seen, and I can't say that I blame them).  The actual questions are genuine curiosities in and of themselves, but there are often questions beneath the questions that are important for the faith community to grasp.  Recognizing and being able to respond openly and honestly to these deeper, unspoken questions is absolutely necessary if we are going to remove barriers that stand in the way of people embracing faith.

The question he addresses in Chapter 7 is this: "What about other religions?"

The questions beneath it probably sound something like this (taken from the story that opens the chapter): " just so narrow minded and arrogant.  I mean, who are we to say one group or culture is right or wrong?  To say Native American Indians, for instance, were wrong in all their beliefs because they knew nothing about Jesus?  That's ridiculous."  "Every culture has it's own customs, beliefs, and values that must be respected.  I see the biggest problem with religion is it divides people and creates hostility.  It seems all religions are basically saying the same thing, so why argue and fight about who is right or wrong?..."

The questions deal a whole heck of a lot with questions of open-mindedness (a HUGE value in our generation), arrogance (a huge turn-off), and questions of God's fairness (How could God send someone to hell simply because they've never heard about Jesus?).

I can't say these same questions never crossed my mind myself, and I was raised in church.  None of the answers ever satisfied.  And the reigning attitudes did little to foster open-mindedness, much less humility.  In my childhood church, other denominations of Christianity couldn't escape ridicule (I'm so sorry, Baptists).  With that kind of judgmental attitude toward other Christians who, despite some differences in the small points of theology, were the same in all the essentials, it should come as no surprise that other religions were held in absolute contempt.  Or worse, they were viewed with a kind of condescending pity.

Were these well-meaning Christian people?  Absolutely.  Good-hearted, God-loving folks?  For sure.  Doing a whole hell of a lot of damage, for all their good intentions?  Don't even get me started.

We are ten kinds of evil when we let Jesus be anything but completely central.  Being good and being like Jesus are so wholly different.  Being good doesn't necessarily make you like Jesus.  Being good, you can still be arrogant, uncaring, judgmental, and harsh; we saw this with the Pharisees in the New Testament, and we also saw that Jesus reserved his severest anger for them.  In relationship with Jesus, as we become like him, we begin to care about the things he does --  humility, grace, sacrificial love, forgiveness, servanthood -- just to name a few.  We begin to care about the people he cares for -- the outsiders, the poor, the broken, the lonely, the sick, the unlovely, the unloved, the imperfect.  It's in this way that he makes us good... good, but in the right way -- grace and truth in equal balance.

Okay, enough personal commentary for the moment.  Here's what he said (I can't do it all justice here, so go ahead and read the book, for Pete's sake, but in order to stretch some brains, here we go):

When people in our generation hear Christians say that Jesus is the only way, what they hear us saying is "We're right and everyone else is wrong because our way is always right."  They hear that and think of the same pride and arrogance that led Christians in the Middle Ages to slaughter those of other religions and ethnicities.  This attitude of religious superiority doesn't fly with a culture that has learned to value diversity of belief.

Burke says, "The way to address these concerns is head-on.  I'll say flat-out in a message, 'One of the biggest problems people have with Christianity, I find, is this idea that Jesus is the way to be made right with God.  It feels so narrow, so intolerant, so religiously snobbish -- kind of a "we're-right-because-you're wrong" kindergarten mentality.'  Anticipating and openly voicing this question-beneath-the-question often diffuses people's resistance to even listen.  This allows them to relate to you and actually want to hear your answer.  When you affirm where tolerance is needed -- you can also show its natural limits."

"Tolerance is a good thing when it comes to differences in people, tastes, or preferences.  We should be tolerant of others' opinions and even beliefs that differ from our own.  But this doesn't mean we have to agree that everything the other person thinks is true.  You can be tolerant and disagree."  Burke goes on to use the example of preference (one person liking a red car and another liking a black car) vs. reliability (one person insisting on a Ford Pinto, which Ford discontinued because they blow up, while the other person chooses a Honda). 

"The question is -- where does religious thought fit?  Is saying 'I believe Muhammad' or 'I believe in Jesus' the same as saying 'I like red' or 'I like black'?  Or is it more like saying 'I believe Pintos are reliable' or 'I believe Hondas are reliable'?  That's where the real question lies.  My experience tells me that most people these days think religious belief is more like a preference thing -- red or black -- whichever makes you happy.  And I will acknowledge that they are right -- it is just preference, if God has not revealed himself to our finite, fallible world.  But what if God took the initiative to show up?  That would take away a lot of our subjective opinion."

Burke says that we must understand that when asked about other religions, the underlying question is really "Do you always think you're right and everyone else is wrong?"  This is a litmus test for arrogance, and the only way to pass is to show a humility and willingness to learn, "remembering that all truth is God's truth, and truth has nothing to fear.  I have found when leaders humbly acknowledge that we don't know everything, and that religious arrogance has caused problems in the past, it helps people drop their first defense.  As we acknowledge the good aspects of tolerance, yet differentiate tolerance from agreement, we can better communicate the right heart."

Once it is clear that we are more about caring about people than about "being right," we can move forward to the next question, which many in our world assume to be truth: "Don't all religions basically say the same thing?"

Til tomorrow, hopefully.  :)