“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.         

             

           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. 

             


          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.                   

          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.

          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.”