Video
Twitter
Facebook
RSS Feed
The New Christian Interfaith Leaders
Today's guest blogger is Hannah McConnaughay, an Outreach Education and Training Associate at the Interfaith Youth Core. Hannah graduated in June of 2008 from the University of Chicago, where she studied religious studies and economics and was a member of the Interfaith Youth Core's Fellows Alliance.
As a Christian interfaith activist, I get a lot of questions about the compatibility between my faith and my work. These questions come from all sides:
"Don't Christians hate non-Christians?"
"Do you really believe Jesus is your Lord and Savior?"
"Does working with other people mean you have to admit that your religion isn't any truer than theirs?"
There are many others.
I have always had my personal answers to these questions, and a few public examples to complement my answers, like Rick Warren. But a few skeptics usually remain, convinced that I am an anomaly sent to deceive them, or that my stories of Christianity calling me into the diverse world don't apply to Evangelical, politically conservative, or Orthodox Christians. The hard core skeptics might always be there, but recently I've had a few experiences that have shown me that I am not alone, that there is a whole movement of Christians out there who are strong in their faith and in their willingness to work with others, who are following Jesus' example of plainly sharing our convictions and communing with all of our equals in creation.
My first indicator of this trend was a group at Lafayette College in Pennsylvania, called the Lafayette Christian Fellowship. When they heard that their Director of Religious Life was bringing some Interfaith Youth Core (IFYC) trainers to town, they decided to host an event for us to discuss "People of Conviction in a Pluralistic World." They were convicted Christians, with exclusive truth claims (they do believe that Jesus is their Lord and Savior and Christianity the true religion), who wanted to start right off with the hardest questions, such as: "How do I remain bold in my faith while living in a diverse world?" And so my fellow IFYC trainer, Jenan, and I shared how we manage to maintain our identities amid diversity. Pretty soon, the students jumped in with their own great stories of living in harmony and truth with their non-Christian roommates and colleagues. They have a conviction in their faith as well as a desire to spread it, and they also have faith in interfaith work and its importance in improving the world.
Last week, I saw the same conviction being acted out at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The Cru group there (a local chapter of Campus Crusade for Christ) put together an incredible series for the university where they hosted Q & A sessions open to the campus with panels composed of students of mixed backgrounds. Each panel had a few Cru members and three to four members other groups on campus stereotypically understood to have tensions with their Christian counterparts -- Hillel, the Muslim Students Association (MSA), a Gay Lesbian Bisexual Transgender and Queer (GLBTQ) group, and the Atheists, Agnostics and Freethinkers. I had the privilege of being able to watch the Cru-MSA panel and what I witnessed was a room of complete honesty, conviction, and openness. Cru members were honest about their belief that accepting Jesus as your Savior is the only way to Heaven, as well as their wish that everyone would follow that path. MSA members were honest about their conviction that Jesus was a prophet, but not divine, and that the Qur'an is the most relevant, beautiful, and necessary access to God's word.
After talking, the panelists answered audience questions ranging from dress to theology, the silly to the profound and ended with a discussion about the things they want to change on campus, and how they could work together on bringing about those changes.
The collaborative spirit between these campus religious groups is raw and inspiring; they are able to build interfaith relationships without sacrificing one iota of their beliefs. They've shown me that "Christian interfaith leaders" are more and more common and that they embody the movement of which I find myself a part: strong in my faith and in my willingness to work with others, following Jesus' example of plainly sharing my convictions, and communing with all of my equals in creation.
The content of this blog reflects the views of its author and does not necessarily reflect the views of either Eboo Patel or the Interfaith Youth Core.
By
Eboo Patel
|
April 1, 2009; 2:30 PM ET
| Category:
Interfaith Issues
,
Personal Religion
,
Religion & Leadership
,
Religious Conflict
,
The Faith Divide
,
Theology
Save & Share:
Previous: Holy Warriors in National Armies |
Next: The War on "War on Terror"
Posted by: Counterww | April 14, 2009 3:48 PM
Report Offensive Comment
Yes, SOME SAY that Jesus was something other than what he IS-
the resurrected Savior and Son of God that died for our Sins. These people are fooled by speculative nonsense spouted by intellectual elites that don't want to understand God.
Atonement was mentioned and implied by Jesus several times in the gospels, NOT INVENTED as the mistaken CCNL would have you believe.
Paul explained how the power of God is evident and manifested in the person of Jesus Christ.
Liberal theologians won't help you from your sin. Only the atoning blood of Christ can free mankind.
Campus Crusade is a fine organization that helps people find Christ and establish themselves as loving Christians.
Posted by: Counterww | April 14, 2009 12:59 PM
Report Offensive Comment
Ms. Hannah McConnaughay,
"Cru members were honest about their belief that accepting Jesus as your Savior is the only way to Heaven, as well as their wish that everyone would follow that path."
So, the basis of interfaith dialogue is that unless you accept my Christian beliefs, you are inferior even in the eyes of God and not worthy of heaven. This does NOT sound like a promising basis for mutual respect and understanding. But maybe inferior human beings just don't understand the ways of the Christian or Muslim God.
"They are able to build interfaith relationships without sacrificing one iota of their beliefs."
Sounds like denial is not just a river in Egypt.
Posted by: clearthinking1 | April 2, 2009 2:44 AM
Report Offensive Comment
Talking Points for Any Campus Crusade - Part 1
Some say:
Jesus was an illiterate Jewish peasant/carpenter/simple preacher man who has been characterized anywhere from the Messiah from Nazareth to a mythical character from mythical Nazareth to a mamzer from Nazareth (Professor Bruce Chilton, in his book Rabbi Jesus).
Analyses of Jesus’ life by many contemporary historic Jesus and NT scholars (e.g. Professors Crossan, Borg and Fredriksen, On Faith panelists) via the NT and related documents have concluded that only about 30% of Jesus' sayings and ways noted in the NT were authentic. The rest being embellishments (e.g. miracles)/hallucinations made/had by the NT authors to impress various Christian, Jewish and Pagan sects.
The 30% of the NT that is "authentic Jesus" like everything in life was borrowed/plagiarized and/or improved from those who came before. In Jesus' case, it was the ways and sayings of the Babylonians, Greeks, Persians, Egyptians, Hittites, Canaanites, OT, John the Baptizer and possibly the ways and sayings of traveling Greek Cynics.
http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/theories.html
For added "pizzazz", Catholic/Christian theologians divided god the singularity into three persons and invented atonement as an added guilt trip for the "pew people" to go along with this trinity of overseers. By doing so, they made god the padre into god the "filicider".
Posted by: CCNL | April 1, 2009 11:40 PM
Report Offensive Comment
The comments to this entry are closed.
An many say he is Lord and God.
Many more than the liberal theologians that have no faith and are basically intellectual snobs