Can a Person Be Tolerant of Other Faiths, Yet True To His Own?
By Sally Bishai (01/22/06)
I first pondered this question in my Christian Ethics class back in college. My Catholic professor said that his best friend lived a more Christian life than he himself did.
His best friend's name? Ahmed.
Professor Ahmed-friend blithely informed my impressionable class that he was sure that Ahmed was going to heaven, that God couldn't be so heartless as to relegate such a paragon to eternal flames.
He went so far as to say (and may God forgive him for saying it) that he wouldn't want to worship a God that disregarded such a good heart for the mere sake of staying true to His own teachings.
I pondered it for a while, and then came to the conclusion that maybe God had some secret stratagem for making His judgments, come J-day, that I myself didn't know about... and that I should just keep on keepin' on.
If I wanted to hang out with Jesus for eternity, anyway.
Yes, it was a cop-out at the time.
But then, a few semesters later, I met an Indian girl that I got to be close friends with. I'll call her Choka, because she loved chocolate.
Anyway, one day Choka and I were taxiing around town, looking for sparkly shirts to wear to the International Student Association's yearly shindig. For some reason, we got around to discussing religion, and she told me that she believed in Jesus, since she'd gone to a Catholic school.
I was more than pleased to hear this, until she informed me that she also believed in about 30,000 other gods (and, as everyone knows, believing in Jesus as the Son of God has to accompany the whole "Thou shalt have no other God but me," bit).
She must have picked up on my feelings, because she asked, in a silent tone that didn't betray her feelings, if I thought she was going to hell for the 30,000 gods thing. (This was back in my more "You must be born again!!!" days, emphasis on the exclamation points.)
I had pretty much walked into that one, so I chose my words carefully.
"Well.. as you know, Choka, I was born into this faith. As you also know, I am stubborn enough to never in my life accept something that was handed to me without questioning it. Hence, I am a Christian because I have examined the facts--as well as the facts behind other faiths--and chosen this one. Meaning, I choose to put my trust in the Person behind the Bible, Jesus Christ, as well as His teachings therein. You know I believe that the only way to get to heaven, per the Bible, is to believe that Jesus Christ is my saviour, that He died to save me from my sins, that He rose on the third day, and that He is the Son of God. You know that I believe that a faith that inspires works is important, that the works won't get you anywhere. Good intentions won't get you anywhere. And you know that the Bible calls us to love."
She paused, still silent. Then she said, in a tone that was softly deceptive, "Then you believe I'm going to hell."
I couldn't answer that because, even though her beliefs didn't match what my perception of salvation was, I thought that maybe--as before--there was something about Judgment Day that God was keeping from me.
So I said the only thing I could say--"Choka, I am not God, and I can't judge whether any human is going to heaven."
I know what she had wanted me to say. She was hoping I'd toss out a fiery "Yes, I think you're going to hell!"
I may even have said that later on in the day, I can't remember. But. This leads me back to the question that I began with, the one that asked whether a person could tolerate other faiths whilst being true to his own.
See, as far as I know, the beliefs of the Big Three (Christianity, Judaism, Islam) are mutually exclusive.
Meaning, a Christian has to believe that Jesus is the ONLY way to Heaven; if not, he's just a non-believing believer, or vice versa.
A Muslim MUST state that there is no god but Allah, and that Mohammed is the messenger of god, or else he's not a Muslim.
And many of the Jewish faith state that a Jew who believes in Jesus as the Messiah is not a Jew. (Much to the chagrin of the many Messianic Jews out there.)
So. If I believe one thing for my own life, can I tolerate people of other faiths?
Sure I can. I can love them and hang out with them and meet up with them to go power-walking in the mall at 6 a.m.
BUT. At the end of the day, if I am true to my Abrahamic and mutually-exclusive faith, I CAN NOT modify my beliefs to believe that "all good people are going to heaven," or "she was born into a religion that I disagree with, and that my faith disagrees with, but she's definitely getting into heaven."
Which all means that:
1- I can't just believe what I want and expect it to be true,
2- I can't think that people of other faiths ARE (unequivocally) going to heaven if I belong to one of The Big Three, and
3- maybe God does have some form of judgment that He hasn't seen fit to share with me.
So. While I might never preach (unbidden) at my friends for 18 hours, secretly hoping they'll convert, I can clarify my faith for them when they ask me about Jesus over cinnamon rolls and that 6 a.m. power walk...
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