c. 1999 Religion News Service
(David P. Gushee is director of the Center for Christian Leadership and associate professor of Christian Studies at Union University in Jackson, Tenn.)
UNDATED _ My denomination, the Southern Baptist Convention, finds itself embroiled in a dispute on many fronts concerning its evangelistic plans and activities.
Religious leaders in New York and Chicago, and now even the White House, have expressed concern about religious intolerance and the possibility of violence connected to those plans.
Christians believe God sent his Son into the world to redeem it. Christmas is the season in which we celebrate the awesome meaning of the birth and earliest days of the Son on this planet.
Good Friday is when we remember with sorrow that the authorities of Jesus’ day nailed him to a cross. On Easter Sunday we celebrate the miracle of the Son’s resurrection and the promise of eternal life for all who believe in Jesus and follow him.
These hallmark days on the Christian calendar have never been understood by the church as merely sentimental or private festivities. The Bible tells a story that relates to all creation and to every person. According to the New Testament, human beings are sinners who need a Savior. The creation is groaning due to the effects of sin. Jesus was sent as Savior of the world.
The church was commissioned by Jesus to go and make disciples of all nations.
There have always been millions of people who do not believe this message. Some of these are deeply committed adherents of other religious faiths, such as Hinduism, Islam, and Judaism. Most historic faiths make sweeping claims about the truthfulness of their holy writings and the universal applicability of their deepest beliefs.
Some of these faiths are likewise evangelistic and thus actively engaged in the effort to win converts.
Evangelistically minded Christians are not claiming that persons of other religious faiths must be prevented from believing their faith or sharing it with other people. Nor are we asking the government to suppress the religious beliefs of those of other faiths. Nor are we interested in coercing anyone into some forced profession of Christian faith. Nor is any form of violence even remotely under consideration.
What Southern Baptists and other evangelistic Christians are doing is what we have always done _ believing the core truths of our faith and in obedience preparing to spread that faith as effectively as possible. Most of the Southern Baptist documents that have created such a stir in recent months are simply the same kinds of internal prayer guides and mission strategy statements that have for generations been used in the evangelistic work of Christian groups.
When Christians prepare to reach out in serious evangelistic efforts they have considerable preliminary work to do. Documents like prayer guides are part of that effort. Normally they do not circulate outside the group involved in the missionary effort. But there is nothing sinister about them.
What is really happening here is a fundamental clash of world views. That clash is not between, say, the Muslim world view and the Christian world view. Both of these faiths, radically different in content, do at least have real substance and truth claims that are not infinitely elastic.
The current clash is actually between a world view in which there is such a thing as absolute truth and another in which there is not.
Humility and teachability are virtues Christians are always called to exhibit. There are exceedingly painful historical memories that do motivate some who have expressed concern about Christian evangelistic efforts. It is appropriate to respond to such concerns with great sensitivity and with a reiteration of an absolute rejection of any form of coercion or violence in the spread of the gospel message.
But those who would call Southern Baptists or any other evangelical Christian group to renounce their evangelistic efforts will run into a brick wall, because this is a decision we are not free to make.
DEA END GUSHEE
