Onward, Christian Strangers: Finding Common Ground
Our first series to explore together is all about what it looks like to share the Gospel message in this new day, where Christians (ought to) feel more like strangers than perhaps we ever have before. In a cultural climate where both the religious and non-religious groups are growing at the same time, the "Good News" we have to share is both more relevant and yet more marginalized than ever. How do we seize the opportunity to speak the "old, old story" to a "new, new day?"
________________________________
No one wants to see themselves doing the very thing they rail against.
In elementary school, no boy wants to be accused of throwing "like a girl." After all, "boys rule and girls drool" (at least in elementary school). To be accused of acting like the very group you are trying to ridicule is the lowest of degradations.
One of the main areas of critique against religion in general is that it is a "conversation stopper." In other words, in a conversation between a believer and an non-believer, once religious belief enters the conversation, we've left the world of the "pragmatic" and entered the realm of "personal belief and conviction," and real conversation can no longer take place. The believer's "religious views" cannot be engaged by the non-believer, who has no "religious views" and thus the two people are talking on different levels.
But are they really talking on different levels? Are "religious views" really only those views that involve God or Jesus or the supernatural? And if we could find more common ground, would it make conversations easier between believers and non-believers?
That brings us the real question: what is religion, really?
Some might say religion involves belief in God. But many religions, like Zen Buddhism, do not really affirm belief in God, or any god. Others might say religion involves a belief in the supernatural. But again, there are many religions who do not incorporate any supernatural claims.
It might help to think of religion as accomplishing 4 crucial tasks for a person:
1. Religion grants PERSPECTIVE. What is the lens through which I will view this world, interpret experiences, and find meaning for myself?
2. Religion clarifies and solves PROBLEMS. Why are things the way they are? Is something wrong with this world, and if so, what is it, and how do so fix it?
3. Religion sets PRIORITIES. In a world of limited resources, what is most important? How should I devote my time? What is more important than something else in my life, and how do I determine that?
4. Religion constrains PASSIONS. What are the limits of my own personal desires and ambitions? How far can I go?
When we define religion along these lines, it becomes clear that EVERYONE adheres to some level of religion, even those who identify as "unbelievers." Everyone adheres to some set of "exclusive claims" that inform the way they see the world. Anytime anyone says someone "ought to" or "ought not to" do something, they are making a moral judgment, based on an exclusive truth claim. To claim that "all religions are the same and equally wrong" is to claim one way of viewing all religions, thus making an exclusive claim. Even the statement "there are no exclusive truth claims" is, itself, an exclusive truth claim!
Anytime anyone says someone "ought to" or "ought not to" do something, they are making a moral judgment, based on an exclusive truth claim.
The point is this: when believers and non-believers converse, we have more common ground than we think. When we can acknowledge that, whether we believe in God or not, we are both adhering to a set of truth claims to make sense of the world, we can then begin to discuss the differences in those truth claims.
The question is not, "Should I be religious?" but "Which religion will I choose?" One that makes sense of things by way of God, or one that does so another way? From there, we can argue how the evidence around us points to one way of thinking as perhaps more right than the other, based on that evidence.
However, this realization of common ground also reminds us that we must be mindful of our critiques and accusations toward our opposition. When non-believers decry claims of "absolute truth," let them remember that they, too, live by absolute truth claims everyday, just different ones. And when Christian believers grow arrogant and condescending, let us remember the cross at the center of our faith, which proclaims that we are all sinners and yet we all also bear the image of God. Thus, the cross leaves room for cooperation and respect.
We may not arrive at a conclusion, but at least we can have the conversation.
Comments