THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, March 23, 1996 TAG: 9603230050
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E7 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: Issues of Faith
SOURCE: Betsy Wright
LENGTH: Medium: 86 lines
I SHOULD KNOW better by now. I can't get poetic with you folks.
Last week I tried and only a few people got it. The Reader Response was slight, and what there was of it seemed to address an entirely different topic from the one I thought I'd written about.
I thought I'd written about religious experiences and how no two people experience the same thing in exactly the same way. We may share some viewpoints and some perceptions, but most often two people can read the same Scripture, hear the same sermon, listen to the same hymn, and each will come away with his own perception of what that thing was all about. My theory is that this diversity of religious experience is a gift from God. It humbles us and makes us realize that no single human can fully know God.
Most of the few who responded didn't see that. They felt the column was about religious pluralism. They thought, like Judy Taylor of Suffolk, that I was ``endorsing syncretism.''
``Do you really believe,'' asked Taylor, ``that all paths lead to God, even Muslim, Hindu, Jew? In the light of this understanding, (was) then the cross a waste of time and effort? Why did God need to send his only son to endure such agony when we have these other ways?''
I've done this column long enough to know that if almost all the responding readers felt the column was about something else, then we better talk about that ``something else.''
What we are talking about here is salvation.
The issues of pluralism, syncretism, the meaning of the cross, judgment, the Great Commission . . . all of these, I believe, are off-shoots of the real issue, salvation. What is salvation? What does being saved really mean?
This issue is at the crux of the Christian faith. It is at the crux of how Christians relate to non-Christians. It is also at the crux of many of the world's problems.
So, this is what I propose. Let's do this column a little differently. Over the course of the next 14 weeks, let's explore salvation and it's branch issues of faith. Let's discuss together what we believe. Next week will be devoted to salvation. What is it? What does being ``saved'' mean?
I'll tell you first next week what I believe, then let others have their say. Please keep your answers as brief as possible. Stick to the topic and only answer the two above questions.
Then in the following weeks, we'll get into these branch issues:
On April 6 & 13: The meaning of the cross. Why did Jesus die on the cross? What does orthodox Christianity believe about the cross? What does the cross mean for non-Christians?
On April 20 & 27: The Way. What is the one true Way? Is there a single path to God? What do Christians and people of other faiths believe?
On May 4 & 11: Judgment. Who goes to heaven and who goes to hell? What is the Final Judgment? Is judgment the same thing as warning someone that they might go to hell if they are not saved?
On May 18 & 25: The past, present and future of the Great Commission. What is the Great Commission? How, in light of pleas for religious tolerance, do Christians fulfill the Great Commission? What is the difference between evangelism and proselytization?
On June 1 & 8: Religious syncretism. There are movements that hope to sychronize all the world faiths into one. Is this realistic? Is this of God?
On June 15 & 22: Living faithfully in a religiously plural world. This comes from a recent Virginia Wesleyan College lecture by Dr. Donald G. Dawe. I will bring up Dawe's ideas, getting into the issue of how we stay faithful to our own beliefs yet respect those of others. This will touch on the issues of the separation of church and state, religious freedom and free will.
Don't hesitate to send in your Reader Responses on these topics ahead of schedule. I would like to refer to some of your letters in order to spark a dialogue among readers, rather than just the usual one between me and the readers.
As always, my hope and prayer is that we each think about our faith, asking ourselves, ``What do I believe and why do I believe it?''
Then I hope to get us to think about the faith of others.
I pray this will be a time when we can learn from each other. Let us grow in knowledge, in understanding and in the grace of God.
Amen.
MEMO: Every other week, Betsy Mathews Wright publishes responses to her
opinion column. Send responses to Issues of Faith, The Virginian-Pilot,
150 W. Brambleton Ave., Norfolk, Va. 23510; call (804) 446-2273; FAX
(804) 436-2798; or send e-mail to bmw(AT)infi.net. Deadline is Tuesday
before publication. You must include your name, city and phone number.
by CNB