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Ambassadors for Christ in an interfaith world
Today's guest blogger is Nick Price, who works for InterVarsity Christian Fellowship/USA at the University of Illinois at Chicago. He and his wife, Jenny, live in Glen Ellyn, IL, with their daughter Abigail. Check out a video of Nick's work.
I remember the first time I attended an interfaith gathering. It was the summer of 2005 and I had just completed my junior year in college. The event was the 3rd National Conference on Interfaith Youth Work, held at DePaul University in downtown Chicago.
The conference began on an inspiring note as Dr. Eboo Patel, founder and President of the Interfaith Youth Core, articulated the need for interfaith cooperation in a post-9/11 world. His vision was to build a world where people of different faith communities served together and built bridges of understanding instead of bombs of destruction.
However, as the morning progressed a problem arose. When discussing the challenges of interfaith work a Christian participant shared that the biggest problem he faced was including the conservative members of his own tradition in the interfaith movement. The other participants quickly echoed this frustration with words like "evangelicals" and "fundamentalists" punctuating their statements of exasperation and disdain. Eventually it was my turn to share and I made the confession that brought the earlier concerns a little closer to home. "My name is Nick Price and I am an evangelical Christian."
To say that this admission changed the conversation would be an understatement. Soon the question was no longer, "Why don't religious conservatives participate in interfaith dialogue?" but rather, "How can we set a place at the table for religious conservatives?" However, our discussion also highlighted a stark reality: that evangelicals are often wary of interfaith work.
From the evangelical perspective, "interfaith" has often been used as a code word for "relativism." But the truth is that interfaith is not about watering down each other's faith traditions. Rather, it is about building cooperation across religious lines on areas where we can agree, such as the call to social justice and service, while also creating spaces where we can talk about our differences in meaningful and respectful ways.
As an evangelical I see a lot of hope in the interfaith movement. In a world where there is increasing hostility between religious groups, the interfaith movement provides a space where people can be fully faithful to their religious traditions while also working together for the common good. By engaging in interfaith dialogue and cooperation, I believe I am living out Jesus' teaching in the Sermon on the Mount:
"Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God" (Matt. 5:9). Peace comes when we actually spend time developing meaningful relationships with those with whom we disagree. In doing so we begin to understand what it means to live side by side in our diverse world.I believe this is why Jesus said that the second great commandment is, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself" (Matt. 22:39). Increasingly our neighbors are people of other faith traditions and worldviews. Interfaith work provides us with an opportunity to learn how to live this commandment out in practical ways. Interfaith work invites us to be faithful to God and loving to others.
May we, as evangelicals, enter into this conversation and come to be known as true ambassadors for Christ. Amen.
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
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January 10, 2011; 9:35 AM ET
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Interfaith Issues
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Morality
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Personal Religion
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Religion & Leadership
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Posted by: Kingofkings1 | January 13, 2011 6:39 AM
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Arif2 is correct. Who needs interfaith dialog in the world at present? How many Muslims have been killed in the west by Christians just because they were muslims? How many Muslims have been killed in India by Hindus for being muslims? How many muslims have been killed in China by the Buddhists, the atheists, the taoists, etc. for being Muslim?
Now start counting every single day, every single week, every single year for years on end, as to how many Kafirs or non-muslims are killed by the Muslim believers around the world?
Yesterdays News:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110111/ap_on_re_mi_ea
All of the casualties in the latest attack were Christians — four of them women — raising concerns it will ignite a new wave of protests by a community still traumatized by the suicide bombing.
...
Shooting attacks against Christians occasionally take place in Egypt's impoverished south, usually over commercial disputes, church building or allegations of cross-sectarian relationships.
Killing christians, hindus, buddhists, etc. around the world and Eboo cannot bring himself to go to Pakistan, Egypt, Thailand, Russia, Nigeria, Ethopia, or any other country at the bloody borders of Islam to get Muslims to understand Islam means peace and to do Interfaith Dialog with the Kafirs instead of killing them. Why is that?
Posted by: AKafir | January 12, 2011 11:54 PM
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Clearthinking clarifies
“ Let's agree to disagree. We agree that all people "not of the book" are wrong and inferior. Their religion and culture should be attacked and destroyed. Then, we'll try to kill each other. Exageration & over-simplification? This is the history of the Crusades and Jihads for over a thousand years.”
Lumping the Crusaders with the Jihadis is a big mistake. The Jihadis kill people simply because those people have a different faith. The Crusades fought back after their lands were looted, their men killed and their women and children enslaved.The first Crusade began in 1095, 460 years after the first Christian city was overrun by Muslim armies, 457 years after Jerusalem was conquered by Muslim armies,453 years after Egypt was taken by Muslim armies,443, after Muslims first plundered Italy,427 years after Muslim armies first laid siege to the Christian capital of Constantinople ,380 years after Spain was conquered by Muslim armies, 363 years after France was first attacked by Muslim armies, 249 years after Rome itself was sacked by a Muslim army, and only after centuries of church burnings, killings. enslavement and forced conversions had some European Christians fought back.
Posted by: abrahamhab1 | January 11, 2011 8:06 PM
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Honest interfaith dialogue between Christian and Muslim:
Christian: My god and prophet is best. All others are inferior and will go to Hell.
Muslim: My god and prophet is best. All others are inferior kafirs and can be killed. The Koran says, "[005:033] The punishment of those who wage war against God and His Apostle, and strive with might and main for mischief through the land is: execution, or crucifixion, or the cutting off of hands and feet from opposite sides."
Both: Let's agree to disagree. We agree that all people "not of the book" are wrong and inferior. Their religion and culture should be attacked and destroyed. Then, we'll try to kill each other.
Exageration & over-simplification? This is the history of the Crusades and Jihads for over a thousand years. Today, look at Nigeria, Sudan, Pakistan, Philipines...
Posted by: clearthinking1 | January 11, 2011 5:15 PM
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Because muslims are bullies by nature of their faith. They don’t like competition, they eliminate their minorities; witness Egypt, Iran, Pakistan, Bangladesh... The appeasers of the West give them a platform to propagate their faith as they are in the minority here. They play the weak card and call for interfaith dialog where its not needed. There is absolutely no need for interfaith dialogs in the US. Muslims enjoy all the protections of a free society and then some. After 9/11 Muslims were so terrified that they sought all sorts of protection where none was needed. Muslims hate to be in an uncomfortable position, therefore they made up discrimination and harassment charges to gain attention and funding. We are wasting billions of dollars on airline security, do you remember how easy it was to fly pre 9/11. Ah those were the days!!!
Posted by: Arif2 | January 11, 2011 1:39 PM
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Well said, Nick. As a chaplain and instructor in a Canadian University who also identifies as an evangelical Christian, I see much hope in an interfaith movement that acknowledges difference with an embrace. Thanks for this entry. Glen
Posted by: GRyland | January 11, 2011 12:24 PM
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Why it is that Muslims like Eboo promotes interfaith dialogue in the USA and we do not see a Pakistani or Saudi Eboo call for interfaith in their countries?
My humble assessment is because the “prophet of the Christians” asks his followers to love their neighbors, but the Muslim prophet commands his followers to kill the neighbor who has a different faith and plunder his belongings and enslave his wife and children.
Posted by: abrahamhab1 | January 11, 2011 10:58 AM
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Abrahamhab1 wrote:
Why it is that Muslims like Eboo promotes interfaith dialogue in the USA and we do not ------ Eboo call for interfaith in their countries?
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We do have such people, for example Avigdor Lieberman. Recently, Hillary Clinton recognized the exemplary service of Avigdor Lieberman in Israel for recent activities that promote interfaith dialogue and appreciation.