Years ago a friend of mine sent me an article from a young adult Christian magazine about Bono and how he was saying that all faiths lead to Heaven during the Vertigo tour.  In particular, the magazine referenced this part of the concert in which Bono says (in his over-dramatic kind of way), “Jesus, Jew, Mohammad . . . it’s true . .  all sons of Abraham.”  As you can tell from the footage Bono was not saying that all faiths lead to Heaven, but was stating how the Jewish, Christian and Islamic faiths have Abraham in a progenitor role, how Abraham is considered the father of the people of Israel.  In short, he just wanted people of these faiths to get along, you know, coexist.

It’s funny, but that article lead me to the author’s website where I engaged in some interesting conversations in a comment forum, and out of that mess I ended up creating an invaluable friendship with someone who lives half a country away.  Heck, now it’s one of those as iron sharpens iron friendships. But that’s a story for some other time.

I’m reminded of all this because one of my faithful readers was nice enough to inform me that the pastor of his church put together a multi-faith weekend with his church, Temple Shalom in Dallas, and the Islamic Center of Irving.

My first thought . . . man, this guy has balls, big giant brass balls.  Maybe I didn’t have a ‘typical’ evangelical experience, but I always felt that evangelicals really didn’t think it was a good idea to mix and mingle with other faiths, and for those that did, many frowned upon them if they did so without the intent of  leading them to Christ.  I may not be explaining myself real clear here, but I think you get the general idea of what I’m saying.

But I keep thinking about this pastor and the extreme risk he is taking, and I applaud him for it.  I’m sure many of his fellow brothers and sisters in Christ at first may have been worried or skeptical about this, but the man is clear about the overall  intent of attending two different non-Christian services as evident by this blog post of his that I slightly edited:

First, it wasn’t an interfaith worship service.  Last night was the Jewish worship service and we Christians and Muslims watched – and, where we were comfortable, participated.  If we wanted that, we would have one service – but that would not be honest to who we each were.  I LOVED the music, the recitations – keep in mind they use, for us Christians, the Old Testament – so obviously I was OK with that.  So whether I read Psalms in my church or in their synagogue – it touched me.  I’ve never been to a synagogue – so watching people worship in the faith of my ancient roots and history was very moving to me.  I did feel a connection.

Second, the people were so gracious at Temple Shalom.  They went out of their way to welcome us – I felt like they probably felt overrun by us – we had a few hundred there – not sure how many – but lots.  They kept coming up to our members and introducing themselves to us.

They thanked us for coming – I was told again and again they never dreamed an evangelical pastor from Dallas would ever enter a synagogue let alone with his congregation.  It made me sad – what impression have we given these people?

Third, this was about our 3 congregations members – not religious leaders, theologians, etc., so the conversation was so different from what I’ve experienced when we bring together religious leaders of different faiths.  Everyone wanted to get to know one another.  No one was positioning for anything – they’d probably never see one another again – they simply wanted to talk.  And talk they did – asking every conceivable question possible before the service and then during the Q & A.

Fourth, we positioned it as multi-faith.  So it was not impolite to disagree and anything was up for grabs.  They started with me – the first question was do I believe in eternity and how do you get there?  My answer: yes – and Jesus.  The Imam – yes – heaven or hell – and you believe in one God, and follow the teachings of the Prophet Mohammed.  The rabbi – only 1% in the Bible talks about life after death – if you were living in the past you offer sacrifices.  We all disagreed and no one got upset or uptight.  They asked about the Bible, the Trinity, why do think we can’t get along.  It was more of a “relational” conversation than a “theological” conversation – I believe that’s what’s been missing and is exactly why religious leaders on interfaith can’t make much headway.  We need to live with the differences and be OK with them.

Full Blog Post

It’s amazing what can happen when you decide to extend a little grace.

If you are interested, here’s a Dallas Morning News article and a CBS11 television report about the event, and here’s Pastor Roberts’ blog where he details more about the event and other services.

I’m sure some of you will also applaud this effort, and some of you may frown upon it, but I think it’s important to actually reach out, extend grace, show respect towards one another, and despite any differences, love one another.  This stuff wouldn’t have meant much to me when I thought the whole world existed only around Mineral Wells and Abilene, but now that I’m in a culture pot, I’m learning the importance of not only extending grace, but respect, despite any differences.  Perhaps by acting like Christ, I can draw them closer to Christ.