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Conversation with Jason Pitzl-Waters, Mike Stygal, and John W. Morehead

untitledToday we had an opportunity to follow up on a recent conversation with some of our friends in the Pagan community. This time, Jason Pitzl-Waters joined us too. Jason blogs at The Wild Hunt, Mike is Vice President of Pagan Foundation, and John is Custodian of Foundation for Religious Diplomacy’s Evangelical Christian Chapter. Along with Dr. Metzger, they discuss matters of interfaith dialogue between Pagans and Christians, including some of the key sticking points in these relationships.

Listen in for a constructive engagement of the Pagan/Christian divide. Consider adding your voice to the comments section of Jason’s blog and practicing good dialogue.

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From Refugees to Citizens: What’s Next – Mosques and Temples?

This piece was originally published at Patheos on February 18, 2013.

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I am leading a workshop this week and wanted to gather my thoughts on the subject here in preparation. Here is the description:

What kind of response should American Evangelicals have toward those from other religions who are moving from refugee to immigrant to citizenship status in our country? Christians tend to be more sympathetic to those from other religions who are refugees in need of help, but we often become wary once they are viewed as immigrants on their way to citizenship. What happens when Muslim immigrants start building mosques and Hindus and Buddhists start building temples? Should we support them then? This seminar looks at this issue and will consider how to incorporate the biblical themes of neighborliness and care for the stranger in our midst as part of our evangelical witness. Attention will also be given to the theme of freedom of religious expression in our country.

Here I’ve reprinted an article I wrote last year on a related subject that was picked up by Salem News (published June 1, 2012) and Aslan Media (published June 22, 2012):

USA Today released an article a few days ago about the controversy surrounding the building of mosques in America today. I will not speak to this or that particular controversy related to zoning laws and similar matters (Not all issues pertaining to the building of mosques and churches are bound up with religious expression). Instead, I will address the matter of zones of comfort for many Christians and others in America today.

No doubt, many conservative Christians struggle with mosques being built, as do others. Some of the concern stems from fears of September 11, as the USA Today article acknowledges. Other fears may stem from concern over America losing its Christian heritage. I will take up each of these concerns, starting with the latter.

America was founded on pluralistic principles bound up with a quest for democracy, not a theocracy. While there were many conservative Christians who helped to shape America’s origins, there were also many others of non-orthodox Christian perspectives, such as deists like Thomas Jefferson, who shaped America in fundamental ways. Those of us who are Christians who are Americans must be concerned to foster both our Christian witness and American values of freedom for religious expression. It is important for us to support the building of mosques as American Christians for the freedom of religious expression, just as we would want such support for the building of churches throughout America.

The best way to cultivate a truly Christian heritage is not to preserve a form of nominal Christianity, where people embrace Christianity by way of nostalgia. Nostalgic or nominal Christianity does not involve genuine encounters with the good news of God in Jesus Christ. People who are Christian in name only do not often see the need to engage a gospel that is truly Christian. I would much rather be in a post-Christian context, where people know where they stand with Christianity than a quasi-Christian culture where people presume to be Christian, but who are not. I am also open personally to being challenged on what it means to be a Christian. I certainly do not claim to have a corner on the market. Fresh conversations on spirituality are truly needed. I pursue such exchanges with leaders of diverse spiritual traditions in Connecting Christ: How to Discuss Jesus in a World of Diverse Paths. The thoughtful responses included in the volume from Muslim, Buddhist and Unitarian-Universalist representatives, among others, enhance meaningful communication. Freedom to build mosques does not take away from the freedom of the gospel’s expression or lively gospel encounters, but presumption and nostalgia does not help foster freedom of authentic religious expression and engagement on fundamental Christian convictions.

For those American Christians and other Americans who fear Muslims because of September 11 and who are reluctant to see Muslims build more mosques in America, I would say that if you want your fears to increase then make Muslims feel marginalized and unwelcome. While I believe most who claim to be Muslims are peace-loving and civil people (like most who claim to be Christians), there are some people of whatever spiritual stripe who will react negatively when they feel cornered and ostracized. Cornering often leads to clandestine operations that cause harm. The best way to promote civility is to be civil and promote the common good for Muslims, Christians, and those of diverse convictions on religion and spirituality throughout the land. Modeling such civility together here in America may also benefit freedom of religious expression for the various movements in other lands.

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Are Christian and Muslim Convictions Compatible with American Values?

This piece was originally published at Patheos on January 31, 2013.

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???????????????????lAre Christian and Muslim convictions compatible with American values? I suppose it depends on which convictions one is talking about, and what American values one has in mind.

I find it inconceivable that Christianity and Islam could ever affirm secularism as a reigning ideology. Here I am referring to the attempt to bracket consideration of God from public life. The more secularism as articulated here becomes entrenched in American society as a reigning value system the less compatible Christian and Muslim convictions will be with America’s value system. Please note that I used the words “public life” in a prior sentence. While many Christians are comfortable with privatizing or compartmentalizing their faith, biblical Christianity sits uncomfortably with compartmentalization of the faith in view of its claim that Jesus is Lord over all domains. I believe the same abhorrence for the bracketing of the faith from public life is found in large segments of Islam. Christianity can make space for what we might call the secular (in contrast to that which is deemed sacred, as in sacred art, etc.) and for secularists and can operate alongside secularists in pursuit of democratic values, but public faith requires that we speak to those shared democratic values from our Christian heritage and biblical vantage point in pursuit of the common good. Wouldn’t the same hold true for Muslims?

iStock_000008529485XSmallI do believe Christianity and Islam can operate well within a pluralistic world. Of course, the history is very spotty for both religions, but adherents of both religious traditions have often had to operate among other faiths and can make space for other perspectives to operate. America has always valued a form of pluralism, as exemplified in its doctrine of the separation of church and state. As long as such separation does not entail compartmentalization, and as long as public witness to Christianity and Islam does not move toward religious totalitarianism, these faiths can flourish and help the country to flourish. We Christians and Muslims will need to learn how to work together in cultivating public theologies and civil society in cooperation with those of other religious persuasions and secular vantage points. We will need to generate new narratives that do not compromise but champion the narratives of our respective traditions and our country’s fundamental values of liberty and justice. The American experiment with religion that shaped the civic sphere in light of Protestantism, Catholicism and Judaism will need to expand, not retract and be reduced to a secular experiment. Only by coming together as various religious and secular traditions in the effort to cultivate a just and equitable society will we ever be able to embody our country’s founding ideal of making this a nation by all the people for all the people, whoever they may be.

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Christian-Muslim Whack Jobs and Work for the Common Good

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This piece was originally published at Patheos on January 29, 2013.

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Christianity is not one-dimensional or monolithic. Nor is Islam. I don’t like it when all Christians are lumped into one category. For example, Catholics, Orthodox and Protestants differ on substantial points concerning Christianity. While many Christians will acknowledge that there are different Muslim communities (such as the Sunnis and Shiites), they may not be willing to account for differences concerning how various Muslims live. For example, given how the news media and Hollywood at times portray Muslims as hostile and violent people, and given certain events from history, we may tend to think that the Muslim tradition or Islamic beliefs lead to violence. Some critics of Christianity make the same assessment of our religion: Christianity at its core is destructive and fosters hatred and intolerance of those outside the camp. Not all Christians attack the homosexual community and many speak out against hatred of gay people. So, I would want to challenge the claim that all Christians hate gays and lesbians. The same goes for how we approach people of diverse ethnicities and religious traditions. One size of Christian does not fit all.

I believe Muslims feel the same way, based on my personal interaction with them. We need to guard against saying all Muslims act in the same manner. Moreover, when we find Muslims operating in a different manner than what we believe to be uniform for Muslims, we should not say they are out of step with true Islam, but allow them to define how they see and practice Islam. For example, the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community has developed an initiative titled Muslims for Peace. While persecuted by other Muslim groups as heretical given their claim that Jesus has already returned metaphorically through the founder of their movement, and while Christians may find their peaceable posture inconsistent with Islam as they perceive it, the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community sees itself as an orthodox Muslim tradition due to their adherence to all pillars of Islam. Just as I don’t like it when some other Christian groups consider Evangelical Christianity as counterfeit, so I don’t like it when Christians, including Evangelicals, view the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community in this way.

The former president of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community’s mosque in Portland, Oregon said that Muslims and Christians need to move beyond who has been guilty of the most hatred and bloodshed in its treatment of the other. Mr. Richard Reno claimed that we need to get beyond who has committed the most “whack jobs” (See the chapter by the title “Whack Jobs” in my book, Connecting Christ: How to Discuss Jesus in a World of Diverse Paths, Thomas Nelson, 2012) and focus on core theological differences between Muslims and Christians such as what we make of Jesus, whom both religions honor, albeit in very different ways. More will be said about this matter in a future post.

Values I share with this Muslim community include promoting peace between religions, thoughtful reflection on the theological and ethical convictions that unite and distinguish us (see the exchange with Mr. Reno on Christianity and Islam in my book, Connecting Christ), and civil discourse that celebrates free speech and religious expression (see for example the op-ed piece in The Washington Post by Mr. Harris Zafar, the National Spokesperson for the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community entitled “Making Islamic Sense of Free Speech” ). Mr. Reno, Mr. Zafar and I, among others in our immediate Muslim-Christian circles, are moving beyond claims about who has committed the most whack jobs to ways of working together in pursuit of the common good.

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White Evangelicals, Islam and American Values

This piece was originally published at Patheos on January 26, 2013.

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120723 CP Color BlindAccording to the Public Religion Research Institute’s survey, “What it Means to be American: Attitudes towards Increasing Diversity in America Ten Years after 9/11,” “Nearly 6-in-10 white evangelical Protestants believe the values of Islam are at odds with American values, but majorities of Catholics, non-Christian religiously unaffiliated Americans, and religiously unaffiliated Americans disagree.”

If the percentage is accurate, what does this say about American Evangelicalism? That white Evangelicals’ skin color often shapes their perception of Islam? Could it be that white Evangelicals are biased against Arabs and that this prejudice shapes their view of Islam, even though there are, I believe, more Asian Muslims than Arab Muslims? Could it be that white Evangelicals often have nostalgic and/or narrow views of what it means to be American—’white and Christian like me’?

Some white Evangelicals might think they are simply more spiritually and culturally discerning than other Christian groups and the broader populace, and that they understand better what Christian values, American values, and the values of Islam really are (the last set of values being viewed as out of step with the former two). But do Christian values and American values really line up well together? It seems as if many white Evangelicals think they do. Still, could it be that what has gone on for so long is really a subsuming of Christian values under those of America? If so, perhaps the conversation with Islam will cause the church to perceive well where their real fight can be found–not with Islam, but with the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms (Ephesians 6:12) that often distort the church’s vision and cause it to align itself with this power or principality rather than the person of Christ and his kingdom reality.

These questions reflect my own consternation with what I find to be a certain kind of cultural hegemony within American Evangelicalism. My hope is that Evangelicalism in this country will become increasingly diverse and expand its vision, missional values, and public witness to the kingdom of God in Christ in view of the Bible even while developing greater openness to various people groups and religious traditions in American society today.