John Morehead is Custodian of the Evangelical Chapter of the Foundation for Religious Diplomacy. If you haven't yet, please read Part 1 of our conversation here. – Paul
Paul: Many Evangelicals consider loving confrontation as the extent of faithful interfaith conversation. How do you respond?
John: Confrontation, is not necessarily bad or wrong. It depends upon the kind of confrontation. I think this runs in a spectrum from peaceful and uncompromising, to uncivil, to coercive and violent. I advocate and practice peaceful and uncompromising forms of confrontation or contestation.
There are several dynamics that tend to inform our confrontational approach at engaging other religions. Evangelicals are very boundary-conscious, that is, we want to make sure we have a clearly defined sense of "us and them" in terms of our doctrinal boundaries. If we think of the titles for many popular volumes in Christian bookstores on the "cults," they tend to draw upon the imagery and metaphors of exposé and warfare. We tend toward a combative posture toward culture, and in particular to other religions with whom we strongly disagree. As I've said previously, there's nothing wrong with disagreeing, and we shouldn't ignore our differences, but the way in which we engage others over them is important in many ways. When we use primarily confrontational approaches, no matter how loving the intent, many times people in other religions don't see us as exercising compassionate caring about their eternal destiny. Instead, they think we are more concerned about them as evangelistic objects than having genuine concern about them as human beings, whether or not they convert. In addition, they often feel as if we are attacking them and their cherished beliefs and practices.
The apologetic confrontation approach that is so common among Evangelicals in relation to "cults" has also become a way of encountering the adherents of the world religions. This has led us not only to have a negative view of the religions, but also their adherents as well. We then gravitate toward biblical passages of confrontation to support a model of engagement, such as Jesus' rebuke of the Jewish religious leaders or Paul's concerns about false teaching. However, we need to reconsider the biblical texts we are using. Jesus confronted the scribes and Pharisees, sometimes in very strong language. But this was his rebuke of Second Temple Judaism's religious insiders. When he engaged the marginalized and outcasts within Judaism, as well as Gentiles and Samaritans, he used a very different approach. Likewise, Paul was concerned about the purity of the church and dealt sternly with false teaching, but in Acts 4 and 17 when he engages pagans a very different approach is utilized. So as a good starting point, Evangelicals need to reconsider the biblical foundation for interreligious engagement, where the teaching and example of Jesus are very important, particularly with the idea of love for neighbor, stranger, and enemy, as well as the practice of hospitality. Religious diplomacy dovetails nicely with the way of Jesus in interreligious engagement.
Why has it historically been difficult for many Evangelicals to dialogue peaceably with other faiths?
There are a number of factors here. For Evangelicals dialogue is problematic because it has been done largely by liberal Protestants, and so for conservative Evangelicals the process is suspect. I don't use the term or engage in the practice of dialogue. As I said earlier, I advocate and practice interreligious relationships and conversations in the way of Christ and draw upon a process of religious diplomacy. In addition, we might keep in mind that historically Evangelicalism forged its identity in distinction to both Christian fundamentalism as well as Protestant liberalism. This has given us a strong emphasis on boundary definitions and defense, which can contribute to more combative approaches with other religions.
Beyond those considerations, there is the very real fear of spiritual contamination and compromise. We need to maintain our spiritual integrity as Evangelicals, but this doesn't have to result in either shying away from engaging the other religions in the way of fundamentalism, or confrontational approaches as many Evangelicals do. Instead, we can pursue another way, the love of neighbor that maintains our convictions while also maintaining a peaceful tension in our irreconcilable differences with others.
Is that changing?
I think so. There is now a movement within Evangelicalism for a different way of engaging other religions. There are also notable figures within Evangelicalism who are doing this and leading the way. Here I have in mind people like Skye Jethani of Leadership Journal, Bob Roberts of Northwood Church and his Global Faith Forum, Rick Warren of Saddleback with his efforts at reaching out to the Muslim community, and Joel Hunter of Northland Church. The Evangelical Chapter of the Foundation for Religious Diplomacy was created to prepare Evangelicals for a different way of engaging the religions as well. So there are promising changes underway, and I believe this will continue to gain momentum, hopefully with interreligious engagement becoming a signature issue for Evangelicals much as we have addressed other important global challenges.
Tell me about how dialogue with other belief systems has impacted your faith.
I was once a part of that subculture of Evangelicalism that refutes the "cults" using confrontational apologetic methods. I really thought this was the way to go about things. But I read the Bible from a different perspective, started studying missiology and earning an MA in the discipline, and I read works on the history of Christian mission. It seemed to me as if in general Evangelicals tended to pursue a more confrontational stance in regards to other religions in the U.S. than we did in missions contexts overseas. Then I started developing relationships with those in other religions, and reflecting more on the example of Jesus with those outside his own Judaism. I eventually came to the conclusion that my paradigm wasn't appropriate anymore, and that the way of confrontation wasn't the best way to meet the challenges of pluralism and a multifaith world.
As a result, my faith has not been undermined, but strengthened. I continue to value being a messenger of the gospel as an important facet of my faith in terms of evangelism or missions, but I also have a stronger sense of the importance of being an ambassador and an agent of reconciliation as Paul talks about in 2 Cor. 5:20. Interreligious encounters have resulted in a better understanding not only of those in other religions that I share our world and neighborhoods with, but my own faith journey as well.
Let's end with a passion question. As a Christian, why are you so personally committed to fostering religious dialogue?
I am passionately committed to preparing Evangelicals for new ways of interreligious engagement through religious diplomacy. This has application to sharing the gospel, but it is also broader than that. We live in a world where religious differences often fuel not only disagreement, but violent conflict. This takes place not only between Christians and Muslims, but also between Buddhists and Muslims and other religious traditions. Os Guinness has said that "How we deal with our deepest religious and ideological differences in public life will be a defining issue for the future of humankind," and I think he's right. I want to see Evangelicals address religious differences as one of our greatest contemporary challenges, and to do so in the best ways possible.
This passion drives my thinking and action.
John W. Morehead is the co-editor and contributing author for Encountering New Religious Movements: A Holistic Evangelical Approach, and the editor of Beyond the Burning Times: A Pagan and Christian in Dialogue. John has also provided expertise to the Lausanne Committee for World Evangelization issue group on "The Church and the New Spiritualities." He has been involved for many years in interreligious relationships and conversations in the contexts of Islam, Mormonism, Paganism, and Atheism. He is the Custodian of the Evangelical Chapter of the Foundation for Religious Diplomacy (http://www.EvangelicalFRD.org).
