Religion plays an increasingly cross-cultural role in human affairs. On the one hand, the influence of religion in international and internecine violence grows. On the other hand, as politics focuses ever more single-mindedly on acquiring and managing power, and economic institutions rule out everything but monetary profit as a motive for action, religion is often the only player left standing in the filed of ethics and morality.
If religious traditions are to step up to world leadership in filling this ethical vacuum in human affairs, they must be cognizant of two things. First, they must get their own houses in order, eschewing any explicit or implicit support of violence, and practice what they preach in terms of peace, love, and brotherhood. Second, they must find ways to see as complementary the twin tasks of inter-religious cooperation (on issues of world peace and humanitarian concern) and self-advocacy (that is, championing the universal truths of their own traditions to all who show interest).
For its part, Christianity and Christians have notable track records on both counts: (1) An admirable humanitarian record, especially in the areas of medical care, education, and the championing of individual human rights; (2) A missions effort that has seen the tradition grow from the stammering utterances of twelve frightened men in a small upstairs room in Jerusalem to the largest religion in the world, almost two billion strong.
Christianity's weaknesses, perhaps, have roots in an inability to see the complementary nature of these two tasks--that loving one's neighbor does not vitiate the need to preach the gospel, and that preaching the gospel does not preclude wholehearted loving of all humanity. Indeed, it might be said that an overemphasis on growing the tradition has led to a poisoning of the political and cultural soils necessary for human flourishing. And that "love is all there is" is a recipe for weak faith and, ironically, a lessening of the gospel's power to heal.
So what is the Christian mission to people of the world's religions, Hindus, Buddhists, Muslims, and others? At least five issues need to be addressed in order to begin to answer this complex question:
Issue #1. Christians need to acknowledge their relative failure to influence or penetrate cultures dominated by world religions such as Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, and Islam, and ask the question of why? Have we been using the wrongs goals to measure our "influence?" Have our so-called influences been of the unintended sort (i.e. political and material instead of spiritual)? How we been over-reliant on methods of domination? Do we need new goals? New methods?
Issue #2. What should be our response to the (resurgent) "mission" efforts of the world religions (Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam)? Should religious self-advocacy be a thing of the past? If not, do we need a list of "fair practices" against which to measure all religious self-advocacy efforts, and avoid the obvious abuses?
Issue #3. How can we cooperate with other religions on issues of public concern without compromising our unique identity and mission as Christians. Or perhaps a more fundamental question is should we cooperate?
Issue #4. What can we, Christians, do about the excessive, and often destructive, entanglement of our religious beliefs and institutions with world political and economic affairs even as other religions have their own, different, set of concerns with this problem? If it is stipulated that we should be in a position to leaven the public issues of the day with Christian values, what are the limits of these interactions, when the other world religions don't seem to have the same set of limitations, but perhaps different ones?
Issue #5. What is a Christian response to the internal religious "wars" being fought within ours and others' traditions among modern, postmodern, and fundamentalist parties within each tradition? How do these "religious wars" spill out over the boundaries of each tradition to effect other world religious traditions? How do they affect public life? How are they affecting inter-religious initiatives with other religious traditions?
What are the other core issues with which we need to deal?
--Terry C. Muck Wood Hill, 2004