We live in a pluralistic culture. Charlotte, in the 1950's, was described by Look magazine as the city of churches. Today we look for the defunct Look in the dusty archives of the public library. Charlotte is indeed a cosmopolitan aggregation of mosques, synagogues, Buddhist and Hindu temples, and a plethora of ethnic Christian churches including Coptic, Eastern Orthodox, and the Church of Metaphysical Science. The Archbishop of Canterbury was perhaps surprised to learn a few years ago that there are far more Moslems in the United States than Episcopalians. We are living in a post-Christian era, in a culture that provides a diversity of ways to worship God.

Johnny Hart, an evangelical Christian and prolific cartoonist, can certainly testify to this fact. His strip, entitled simply B.C. , is received by as many as 100 million newspaper subscribers. This Easter his caveman character was depicted at sunrise watching the expansion of a long shadow as its rays interfaced with a large cross on a hill. As the cross' shadow enveloped the two figures in the cartoon, Hart rendered his belief in the reality of Christ's victory over death. Some newspapers have subsequently dropped the B. C. strip because of a flood of protests from non-Christians who resented this activity of proselyting.

The inescapable irony of our contemporary culture is that, while we are becoming more diverse and pluralistic, we are also becoming less tolerant. Freedom of religion has become freedom from religion. Consequently, we are not talking with each others about matters of faith. We huddle in our diversity of ethnic, religious, and ideological groups and harbor prejudices toward one another.

The tragedy at Columbine High School is perplexing. We may never fully assess the motivating psychological factors that engulfed Eric Harris or Dylan Klebold. The cruel violence they performed was an attack upon everything that is holy in the human family. But it is obvious that these troubled young men considered themselves to be excluded and ridiculed. They displayed no signs of conscience or moral compunction when one of them held a gun to the head of Cassie Bernall and asked this junior classmate if she really believed in God. She accepted her death sentence by replying, "I do."

Rage infests many troubled souls around the world. The deepest hatreds are fueled by religious and ethnic intolerance. The strife in the entire Balkan region is related to the emergence of Islam in the Eighth Century and its threat to Christianity. These religious rivalries catapulted into the gory First Crusade and the conquering of Jerusalem, conducted precisely nine hundred years ago. After the failure of the Crusades, Serbian Christians have not trusted western Christianity in Europe's resistance to aggressive Islam. The Serbs have for centuries inherited the legacy of Byzantium and its militant pursuit of territorial control over the disputed Balkan turf -- including the bogus nation-state of Yugoslavia created by the Allied victors at the Treaty of St. Germain in 1919.

The concept of religious hatred should be an oxymoron. How can people of authentic faith harbor hatred? When we believe that God only accepts and eternally saves me, mine, and my kind ; it is not far removed to conclude that God condones the ethnic cleansing of all the rest!

Shortly after the birth of the church at Pentecost, followers of the Way were subjected to ethnic cleansing. The first account of the effort of the majority to snuff out this burgeoning movement is told by Luke through his description of Stephen's stoning. A zealous Jewish patriot named Saul (Hebrew) or Paul (Greek) led the cruel assault upon this humble deacon and servant of Christ. But the blood of Stephen, who forgave his executioners, became the seed of the early church.

How did a religion based upon the pacifistic teachings of Jesus and the witness of a reconciling Stephen become a religion of intolerance, condemnation, and militant crusades? Ethnic cleansing was the political agenda of the first Europeans who entered the western hemisphere. The armies of Cortés conducted such a barbarous campaign in the new world that an estimated twenty million Native Americans were obliterated by those who confiscated the gold and built churches in the first forty years of Spanish conquest. The Pope finally issued a decree from Rome suggesting that these pagan Indians might too have souls. But his mild protest came far too late. In the same era, Martin Luther's writings in condemnation of the Jews resulted in the burning of synagogues throughout Germany. His legacy of intolerance was used by the perpetrators of the holocaust in the Twentieth Century. Yes, the Christian Church has presided over a history of shameful violence and intolerance!

Much havoc has been caused by pulling out of context the words of Jesus in today's lectionary text. "Jesus said to [Thomas], 'I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.'"1/

Did the Jesus whom we meet in the four gospels thereby condemn to hell everyone who follows another path to God? Did Jesus intentionally establish a body of believers (the Church) with its principle mission to judge, condemn, exclude, and eliminate? Did the one who spoke with authority from the hillside of Galilee, saying, "Do not judge, so that you may not be judged,"2/ change his mind and mission?

I think not! I believe firmly that Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. But I believe this in the context of Jesus whose arms were always open to receive all those whose spirits are one with his Spirit, though they know not his name. I embrace, therefore, the teachings of Justin Martyr of the First Century who wrote, "We have been taught, are convinced and do believe, that God approves of only those who imitate his inherent virtues, namely, temperance, justice, love of human kind, and any other virtue proper to God who is called by no given name."3/

Do I believe that Christ is the unique revelation of God? Yes. Do I believe that the Way of Christ is a higher way? Yes. But only as it is the Way of Love that embraces with compassion and without condescension those who do not choose our way.

Karl Rahner, an influential Catholic theologian, uses a term that resonates with me. He refers to the vast number of anonymous Christians out there. These are the holy pagans in our midst who confess Christ unconsciously or anonymously.4/

The young Mahatma Gandhi explored the Christian faith with great appreciation but was refused entrance to Afrikaner worship in South Africa due to his skin color. This man, who arguable was the most Christ-like human being in this century, was asked by his friend E. Stanley Jones how the church could more effectively minister in India. Gandhi replied, "First I would suggest that all of you Christians, missionaries and all, must begin to live more like Jesus Christ. Second, practice your religion without adulterating it or toning it down. Third, emphasize love and make it your working force, for love is central in Christianity. Fourth, study the non-Christian religions more sympathetically to find the good that is within them, in order to have a more sympathetic approach to the people."5/

Christ is alive and relevant in all times and seasons. His spirit runs ahead of us and is implanted into the hearts of many who know not yet his name.

My family was deeply blessed by our close neighbors in Greensboro. They were always surprising us with acts of generosity and kindness. They were the first there when someone was hurting or in need. Michael and his wife Lynn (both lawyers) were consistent champions of social justice in the city. Their daughter Rachael was a young student of Hebrew and ordered her life by Torah. She attended the after-school program at Christ Church and was loved by all the children. When we departed for Charlotte, Michael presented us with a pictorial biography of one of his heros -- Mother Teresa of Calcutta.

I shall always love our friends, these Jewish neighbors in Greensboro. That friendship will surely be continued in this live as well as in our heavenly abode which Jesus, the Jew, has prepared for all who know him truly in their hearts.

Footnotes:

1. John 14:7 NRSV

2. Matthew 7:1 NRSV

3. Justin Martyr, "The First Apology," The Fathers of the Church: The Writings of Justin Martyr , ed. by Ludwig Schoop (New York: Christian Heritage, Inc., 1948), Chapters 10, 14.

4. Karl Rahner, Theological Investigations , Volume 6 (London: Darton, Longman and Todd, 1969). See also Yap Kim Hao, Doing Theology In a Pluralistic World (Singapore: The Methodist Book Room, 1990).

5. E. Stanley Jones, Gandhi: Portrayal of a Friend (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1948), pp. 51-52.