9/4/16 Edward about 30
How should we feel when we find out others are “exploring” other
religions? In a sidewalk outreach
conversation after church today, a man named Edward told me he was exploring
Buddhism. I asked about his background
and found out he had been raised Roman Catholic and had lived in a heavily
Christian Bible Belt community, but didn’t like the hypocrisy of Christians and
now favors the spirituality of Buddhism with its practices of meditation. I guess I could have felt rejected and
defensive and immediately reacted with some sort of strong argument for
biblical Christianity and against Buddhism.
But while there is a place for a strong defense of our Christian faith,
this was early in our conversation and I needed to do more listening than
talking, finding points of agreement rather than giving the impression that I
was looking for an argument. Is there
anything positive we can find to agree on when we learn that others are
exploring other religions?
There is one thing that we can point to that the various world
religions have in common, something that all religions agree on and that we can
use to affirm those who are exploring or favor other religions. We all have the same problem. The problem common to us all is we all have a
sense of right and wrong and we all knowingly break it. We all have a conscience – we are all “with
knowledge” – the general knowledge of good and evil. We have all knowingly done the bad things we
know we should not do, and we have neglected to do the good we ought to
do. Edward and I talked a while about
this and, despite our different religious beliefs, we had a lot to agree on. This is an important point to make in
beginning a Gospel conversation not only because it gives people of different beliefs
something to agree on, but also because it provides the basic foundation for sharing
the Gospel.
People of different religions may share the same problem, but they all
claim different solutions. These fall
into two categories. One side says we
can save ourselves – through following religious rituals and rules. The other side says we need a savior outside
of ourselves – and as far as I know there is only one of the world’s religions
that has a savior. Others may have
prophets or teachers, but only Christianity has Jesus. The good news of Christianity is that we have
a savior, but this also points to the bad news that we will are sinners who
need saving. As I talked with Edward,
finding points of agreement early in our conversation helped prepare him to
hear the Gospel without immediately feeling rejected or defensive about his
beliefs. And this could only happen by
refusing to feel rejected or defensive myself.
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