Last week I attended a Presbytery meeting in which a good friend of mine was examined for ordination. He is an exceptional human being and one of the most gifted and called persons in terms of ministry. He has had to wait twice as long as usual to be ordained because he is gay. Fortunately, he was approved with very few people voting no and those who did vote no certainly did not vote no because of any kind of lack. Somehow they believe the fact that he is gay means he should automatically be excluded from being ordained despite his obvious call and gifts.
When a person is being examined for ordination, people can ask questions from the floor. It is an opportunity for the person being examined to demonstrate the depth of their faith and knowledge and call. One of the questions asked of my friend had to do with interfaith dialogue and relationships. The questioner described a situation in which one had a relationship with someone in the community who practiced the Hindu faith. The Hindu person believes there are many paths to God so the questioner wanted to know how the Christian candidate would respond to the Hindu person.
Someone who does not know what is going on in the wider Presbyterian Church (USA), might think it was a fairly simple question. In fact, there is a deep chasm in the Presbyterian Church regarding the issue of salvation and Jesus. There are many who believe being saved by Jesus is the ONLY path to God. They believe it passionately and their ministry stems from this deep belief. The result of this belief in terms of interfaith dialogue is that every person of another faith is someone who needs to be converted. They may be respectful of the other person’s beliefs, but the underlying concern is that of conversion. There are many others in the Presbyterian Church who believe there are many paths to God and they have chosen the path of Jesus. I am one of those people. I have found that I am able to understand God most fully through Jesus and Jesus’ life on earth. My interfaith dialogues, then, are not about conversion but about understanding how people of other faiths experience God and know God most fully. In those dialogues, I have something to learn and something to offer. I am curious about how other people have found their way to God. In any faith, it is extremism that I find troubling and frightening. In a world as diverse as ours, I don’t think God would limit divine love and experience to one path.
My friend knew when the question was asked that it was a theological “test” of sorts. Rather than talk about whether or not there might be many paths to God, he simply stated that it is through Jesus that he most fully knows God and he is able to claim that in interfaith dialogues. What a wise answer! Progressive Christians have often struggled with how to articulate belief about Jesus because of centuries of aggressive conversion tactics that those from other faiths have experienced. Just mentioning Jesus puts some people from other faiths on edge so for a long time progressives used God language instead. Ironically, it seems that our friends from other faith traditions are the ones who are encouraging us to use our Jesus language since that is our truth! How incredible it is when people can gather together to talk about their faith traditions and backgrounds and stories. May we continue to find ways to be in dialogue and worship and service together as people of many faiths.