So over the last week I have commented on dozens!!!
One that caught my eye was this post by yellow.
Originally I was caught by the post itself...His point was (he is a university chaplain, obviously)
I was looking at the postgrad prospectus the other day and one line about the chaplaincy struck me:
“Embracing all faiths the chaplaincy welcomes all students”
Now the second part of that statement I agree with but I found the first part troubling. Firstly it’s just not true.
I thought to myself "I couldn't agree more". Of course we (Christians) should accept, love and care for all people, whatever their beliefs...but wait a minute - embracing all faiths?
I'm sorry, when the church (or parachurch) starts to talk like this, you know they are missing the point! Jesus did not embrace all faiths - and anyone who claims that He did has either not read or has not understood the plain meaning of the New Testament!
There is a huge difference between accepting another human being (whether Hindu, Muslim or Atheist) and embracing their faith.
Now it is just possible that those who wrote that prospectus didn't actually mean it to come out like that - perhaps they meant it in the sense of "not turning anyone away, whatever their faith".
But I don't think so...and clearly neither does yellow...
I was more concerned with the idea that I embrace all faiths. Clearly I don’t.
Good on you, mate! But what led me to want to comment was the next bit.
I’m not talking here about Muslims or Jews or Sikhs or Hindus. These are all respectable faiths; I’m talking here about the Scientologists, the Jehovah’s Witnesses and The Mormons. How can we embrace their doctrine?
Some things people believe... well, they are just weird aren’t they? I’m not being a blind bigot here. Can anyone seriously expect me to take a world view with Xemu the alien ruler of the Galactic Federation depositing souls here on interstellar Douglas DC-8s as seriously as... say... the Quran? Can I put the Mormons on the same footing as Hindus?
Whoa hold on a minute...what makes something a "respectable faith"? How do we sort out some kind of hierarchy of belief?
That made me think, if push comes to shove how would it look? I guess my list would start with Christianity as the only perfectly sensible one, followed by Judaism (Well, they're nearly right, aren't they?). And at the other end, the extreme nutter end, I would probably agree and put Scientology up there ( my goodness, have you heard Tom Cruise lately?) and right at the end would be Atheism (I wonder what would upset an atheist most, that I call them nutters or that I include them in a list of faiths? - but I digress).
My problem with this is that it is basically random. How can we decide which set of beliefs is more sensible than another set? What we consider to be loopy is as much to do with our culture and worldview as any subjective judgement. Now I've read the Hindu scriptures...frankly I think the JWs are less nutty....at least they believe in one God!
But that's not my point either...
Christianity is at the same time exclusive and inclusive.
In terms of it's truth, in the claims of Jesus, it is utterly exclusive - He claimed to be the only way to God. I know that's not very PC or post-modern but tough...as the tee-shirt say "God said it -'nuff said".
In terms of it's love for mankind, it is utterly inclusive! Jesus doesn't care how loopy your beliefs is today (or for that matter how evil your actions) you still get a second chance with Him. And yes I know we, His followers screw that one up regularly...but then if we were perfect we wouldn't need a Saviour.
So I was going to comment as such on yellow's post...and I did comment, but I didn't say any of this. As I hit the comment button something else caught my attention...and that's the subject of my next post.
faith belief atheism christianity religion
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