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Tuesday, March 16, 2010
The Virtues of Dialogue
“I’ve never understood why some people look at dialogue and mission in either-or
terms.” So opines Chawkat Moucarry, Ph.D. (Sorbonne), formerly with the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students,
and now World Vision International’s director of inter-faith relations. “Not only are the two words compatible,
but they must shape each other,” he continues. We
tend to think of dialogue as verbal engagement, and it is that. But it is much more than that. For one thing, it is a disposition,
an open attitude toward the other, the stranger or antagonist in our midst. It can even be understood as a way of life. It
may be what Jesus meant when he said, “Blessed are the peacemakers.”
With respect to Christian-Muslim dialogue, Moucarry (photo above) likes to use the story of Jesus’ meeting
with the Samaritan woman as a model. First, they meet as simple human beings with much in common. Second, they meet as believers
in the one God who share a number of common beliefs. Third, they meet as those who claim to be God’s witnesses on earth.
Meeting one another this way, they discover their mutual differences in faith. But they discover these in a way that
allows them to discuss the differences civilly, find out what is behind those differences, and – as I mentioned yesterday
– even learn from each other. Such encounters not only result in better understandings, but also better relationships,
greater tolerance, and occasional conversions.
Some readers are going to take
umbrage at the word “occasional” above. But the truth is that for many centuries now the percentage of conversions
from Islam to Christ, or from Christianity to Islam by way of the usual confrontation and proclamation approaches has been
very, very small. We live in a violent world, and dialogue is one sure way to enhance friendships and reduce violence and
its consequences.
One more blog tomorrow on this subject, and then I’ll drop it for awhile.
10:37 am edt
Monday, March 15, 2010
Dialogue
From 1946 through 1989 the confrontation
with communism shaped America’s relationships with the rest of the world. Today the confrontation with extremist Islam
colors everything geopolitical. Unfortunately, it spills over from geopolitical into religion and, worse yet, disfigures our
attitudes toward Muslims in general.
For that reason I have, for some time now, been promoting my friend Nabeel Jabbour’s book, The Crescent Through
the Eyes of the Cross (NavPress, 2008), book. Nabeel demonstrates very practical ways in which ordinary Americans can
build sensitive relationships with our Muslim neighbors.
Another of my friends, whose name I won’t mention
because it might prejudice some of his relationships, is deeply engaged in Christian dialogue with Muslims. He rejects the
polemics commonly used today. “Polemics just adds salt to the historical wounds inflicted on past Muslim-Christian relations,”
he says. “Dialogue, on the other hand, is a sincere attempt to understand the ‘other’ before engaging him
or her with the gospel.
A sometimes unexpected result of dialogue is that it inevitably
leads to a reexamining one’s own beliefs, that is, the way one thinks about my faith, about Jesus and the gospel. As
my friend rightly notes, “Islam asks questions that I don’t get asked in a Christian context. The effect of answering
those questions leads me to consider things in the Bible I have never thought about before.”
This question of getting to know and appreciate Muslims at the personal level is crucial to our times, I believe. In
tomorrow’s blog I want to share some more thoughts on the matter.
10:13 am edt
Sunday, March 14, 2010
Weight? Debt? Condition?
This blog may not interest too many of you,
but it does illustrate my tendency to read almost any article, including those by notable experts, critically. The specific
article I am referring to here is John Wilson’s interview (in Christianity Today) of Gary Anderson on the subject
of Sin. John Wilson is the editor of Books & Culture,
and Gary Anderson, Ph.D., is Professor of Old Testament and Hebrew Bible at Notre Dame University. He is also the author of
the recently published Sin: A History (Yale University Press, 2009). Anderson’s thesis is simple
and straightforward: In the Old Testament, the main metaphor for sin is that it is a burden that has to be borne,
but in the New Testament this changes. The image of sin as a weight disappears almost completely and is replaced
by the metaphor of sin as a debt (“forgive us our debts…”). And this in turn in our day has been
replaced by sin thought of as a condition, something reflecting our upbringing or other formative circumstance. Anderson
doesn’t think this is very helpful.
Anderson doesn’t mince words. “Jesus never
talks about sinful individuals bearing enormous weight on their shoulders” [my emphasis]. A correlative of the weight
metaphor would be the image of the virtuous individual who takes on the sin-burdens of others. But “we [Christians]
don’t have that notion at all” [again, my emphasis].
Neither assertion is totally accurate, however. In a well known passage Jesus says, “Come to me, all you who
are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest Take
my yoke upon you and learn from me, and you will find rest for your souls.” And the apostle Paul urged Christians in
Galatia, “Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.”
As for the modern notion of sin as a condition, the apostle Peter describes Jesus as one who “went about doing
good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil.” In my opinion, all three metaphors are valid and applicable
to each of us. In the Christ event, God bears our burdens, forgives our debt, and heals us, body and soul.
6:58 pm edt
Saturday, March 13, 2010
The 4/14 Window
Fuller Seminary’s School of Intercultural Studies is the first theological institution in America to focus on the study
of children at risk – street children, children amidst armed conflict, sexually exploited children. Currently Fuller
is promoting the “4/14 Window.”
The 4/14 Window refers to the global population of
children between the ages of four and 14 years. It includes more than one billion children who suffer as slave laborers,
orphans, prostitutes, and soldiers. We all know that Jesus did not marginalize children. He put a child in the midst of his disciples
and told them to form their ministry around children. “Let the children come to me, and do not hinder them, because
the kingdom of God belongs to such as these,” he said. Children
are everywhere the most receptive "people group" to the gospel. 85% of conversions to Christianity happen between
the ages of four and 14. Chlldren and teenagers make up half
of the world’s population, yet as little as ten percent of formal mission efforts are directed toward them. We need
to change this. At the same time, as news reports from the Haitian earthquake disaster revealed, even well-intentioned
Christians may unwittingly exploit children. This too needs to change. * Statistics in this post are based on research by Professor Bryant Myers of Fuller Seminary.
10:31 am est
Friday, March 12, 2010
Senior Survivors
Being an advanced senior myself, this story in the New York Times caught my eye. From Haiti Ian Urbina reports that it is
the elderly survivors of the earthquake who are now by far at most risk. They are being overlooked in relief efforts because
they are more frail, less mobile, and less vocal in their demands for food and water.
A disproportionate number of the 200,000-plus people who lost their
lives in the earthquake are seniors. This is because the elderly were more likely to have been indoors rather than coming
home from work or school when the disaster struck. The survivors
are growing old in a place where so many die young. They suffer survivors’ guilt. “You’re not supposed to
outlive your children and grandchildren,” they say. They
also suffer indignities. Living outdoors, they must bathe and defecate in public. They wait in long lines for bulk foods.
“Does it really make sense to ask a 70-year-old to carry a 50-kilo bag of rice or wait in line for two hours?”
asks an emergency program manager.But their age also has positive
value. They are the ones who know who lived in a particular house, who was the parent of a certain child, and who owned what
land. “Their memory is a national resource,” observes a United Nations spokesperson.
With the rainy season about to commence, these seniors face unimaginable
hardship. We must remember them in prayer. Rather than looking back in sorrow or ahead in fear, many look up. As one lady
said, pointing to the sky: “I look to God; he keeps me here now.”
9:54 am est
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