I am sitting in a lobby of a busy Chinese hotel. People are coming and going, or meeting to drink Chinese tea. I enjoy being part of the activity; the movement, the laughter. Over the PA Christian songs are playing – which makes me wonder – I know most of the people are not Christian yet they are all demonstrating a remarkable tolerance to this other-religion music.
What would happen if I was in the west; and Muslim, or Hindu, or Buddhist music was playing in a public place. Would I show the same level of tolerance, even enjoyment, or would I demand the CD be changed to something more neutral? When it comes to religion why do Christians have an inbuilt ‘us’ and ‘them’ mentality?
I could claim my exclusivity is well founded for according to Jesus - ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life, no one comes to the father except through me (John 14:6)’ and so if I love my neighbour I must at least spell out the consequences for them ‘not’ choosing to be one of ‘us’.
So my concern may be sincere, but it is also easy to see how it invariably leads me into a position of superiority, intolerance; and even hostility; for behind my Christian world-view lies the simmering conviction that my belief is true, yours not, I am redeemed, you are not, I will go to heaven, you will not.
I see my prejudice, but what can I do? I know I should embrace diversity and celebrate common ground – but how can I do that without diluting my own Christian identity? Is there not also a place for old fashioned conviction? A place for standing for what I believe? Is there not in the end a place for ‘us’ and a place for ‘them’?
According to McLaren[1] the issue is not so much what we believe but how we have come to believe it. This nuanced dynamic emerges from deep within our western identity; which in turn is rooted both in Jewish history and our own imperial culture.
For the Jews of Jesus' day wealth, honour and religious station were signs of God’s pleasure while the down trodden, the widows, the poor, the religiously ignorant suffered in this world because they had displeased God.
Historians also tell us that in 312 CE Constantine had a vision of the cross with the inscription ‘conquer by this’. So it is not too surprising that against the backdrop of imperial superiority these words came to mean; terrorize by this, force conversions by this, even kill by this!
But what would Christianity now look like if Constantine had interpreted his vision not through the lens of imperialist superiority or even Jewish superiority, but rather through the humble lens of the prophets -'the multitude of your sacrifices - what are they to me? says the LORD. I have more than enough of burnt offerings, of rams and the fat of fattened animals; I have no pleasure in the blood of bulls and lambs and goats.....stop bringing meaningless sacrifices......stop doing wrong. learn to do right! Seek justice, encourage the oppressed. Defend the cause of the fatherless; plead the case of the widow (Isaiah 1:11-17)'.
The point is the way we tell our history (which is a different thing from what is our history) forms our identity - ‘In seeking to strike a healthy and honest balance in telling our history, I’m convinced that we Christians – Western Christians in particular –must acknowledge the degree to which our faith has become a syncretized faith, a compromised faith, we might even say a corrupted faith. From Constantine to Columbus to the other conquistadors to the colonisers to the present, we have mixed authentically Christian elements of love, joy, peace and reconciliation with strictly imperial elements of superiority, conquest, domination and hostility. We have created a new religion with an identity far different from the one proclaimed and embodied by Jesus in Galilee, or by Peter and James in Jerusalem, or by Paul around the Mediterranean, or by the Christian scholars of the second and third century. In other words, what we call Christianity today has a history, and this history reveals it as a Roman, imperial version of Christianity’[2].
And so it is in the tradition of the prophets rather than through our imperial culture that we must take seriously Jesus' warning about social justice - 'All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. Then the King will say to those on his right, Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me. Then the righteous will answer him, Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you? The King will reply, Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me. Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me (Matthew 25:31-43)’.
In our western society Christians have little doubt that they will go to heaven while non-Christians will not. These are our two self-defined groups. But here Jesus chooses to classify people very differently. In Jesus’ estimation many of the righteous, (by proxy Christians) are goats while many of the down-trodden, the poor, the widows, (by proxy the often non-religious or other-religious) are in-fact sheep.
Now I look around the lobby and wonder; are you down trodden? Have you fed and clothed your neighbour who was hungry, thirsty, in need of shelter? And when you did those things did you not do what Christ demands?
The objection from exclusivity - that goes to Christians’ being right and others wrong simply misses the point; for Jesus does not care about our cultural, historical religious classifications but cares for the down trodden, the humble, the repentant.
And so it will be that His net will be cast further and include many people from many religious and cultural persuasions; but it will also be cast past many who profess to be in the imperially self-defined ‘in-group’; the group that in the west is synonymous with Christian.
The objection from exclusivity - that goes to Christians’ being right and others wrong simply misses the point; for Jesus does not care about our cultural, historical religious classifications but cares for the down trodden, the humble, the repentant.
And so it will be that His net will be cast further and include many people from many religious and cultural persuasions; but it will also be cast past many who profess to be in the imperially self-defined ‘in-group’; the group that in the west is synonymous with Christian.
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