Jesus HIMSELF said, “I am the Way, the Truth and the Light. No one can come to the Father except through me.” But to people like Beelzebubba, that makes Jesus himself “un-Christian!” After all, a sweet, lovable, non-judgmental guy like Jesus would NEVER suggest that his teachings were better than those of any other religion, right?
Yeah, sure. Seems to me that if Jesus thought paganism was just as good as what he taught, he could have saved himself a trip to Earth, along with the pain of suffering of the crucifixion.
I happen to think Christians should think long and hard before participating in “interfaith” services, because the end result is usually to blur real, important distinctions among religions, to end up with a wimpy, tepid service and a bland set of prayers designed to offend no one, and to say nothing of value.
Are there times when cooperation among religious groups is appropriate? Sure. I have no problem at all with my Catholic parish joining up with Protestant, Jewish, Moslem, ___ (fill in some other faith) groups in practical, charitable causes. If I knew of a mosque or Buddhist temple running a successful food pantry for the poor, I could certainly donate time or money to those groups with a clear conscience.
But could I stand up with a Hindu and join with him in any kind of meaningful prayer? No, I don’t see how. He and I don’t look at the world or at God(s) in the same way. At least one of us would have to make unforgivable compromises if we were to pray together.
I don’t understand why Xians feel so threatened by gods that they don’t even believe in. It’s like an atheist running away screaming when they see a church because they’re afraid of being trampled by the IPU.
If you were at a specifically pagan ritual, I would say either remain silent out of respect for the participants, or leave. If I went to Mass, even though I’m not Catholic, I would not feel like I was betraying anyone by sitting quietly. If I was truly offended by anything I heard, I’d just leave- a Catholic Mass is for Catholics, and I expect they wouldn’t give a plug nickel about my opinion of how they run things. And I would assume anyone else there was Catholic as well, so I would feel disinclined to talk about, for instance, my feelings about abortion (I’m pro-choice).
OTOH, an interfaith service is not the same thing. Since it’s by the very definition going to include people of many different faiths, I would make no assumptions about anyone’s beliefs. If you attend an interfaith service, the only assumption I’m going to make about you is that you are someone who wants to make a visible stand for [whatever the service is supposed to address; in this case, support for the victims of 9/11] and nothing else. In my head, it doesn’t reflect badly on your beliefs at all. In fact, I would tend to think it reflects well, because in a time when people are scared and hurting, you’re there showing your concern, putting aside doctrinal squabbles or what-have-you for more appropriate times.
I’m not sure how. If nothing else, the majority of Americans (I’m assuming you’re American) are Christian, so unless I see some other obvious sign that would indicate that you followed some other faith, chances are better that you’re Christian; that’s what the assumption ‘default’ is set at (if I found myself in a position to make assumptions about your beliefs anyway, which doesn’t happen very often). In anything else but a service for a specific religion, if you’re not doing the invoking, I’m not gonna assume anything.
I guess it’s more up to each Chhristian. Generally Christianity tells it’s followers to try to go and get more members, but obviously very few people try to do that all the time, without consideration for different situations. Perhaps the Synod wishes that he took the chance to get up and denounce all other faiths- which would be a really dumb thing to do, IMHO, since it would make them look like a bunch of insensitive jerks. More likely they didn’t want him to attend. Sad, that, because really he was showing that he cared and prayed for the victims without bothering with whether they deserved his comfort or not.
