Monday, November 19, 2007

Love and Good Faith

Is it okay for a Baptist church to refuse to let other faiths pray on its property?

In a time when everyone is desperately trying to find something to be offended by; in a time when people are up in arms over every little thing, we have an example of good faith and understanding by an interfaith group, the Institute of Interfaith Dialog, in Austin Texas, when their Thanksgiving celebration had to move because the church who owned the property where it was being held learned that Moslems would be praying there. Their response can be seen here.

The celebration was taken in by a synagogue (the headline could have read: Moslems Kicked Out By Christians; Taken In By Jews). The response by the Interfaith group was absolutely correct. They showed complete respect for the beliefs of the Baptist church and in no way condemned their decision. Instead, they found another group that would let them hold their celebration, then turned around and invited the church leaders to come participate in the interfaith dialogue the Institute of Interfaith Dialog is involved in. I hope they go. But if they don't, no one should condemn them. That is their right as well, and we should respect it. Besides, from the Baptist perspective, shouldn't they want to go and make sure that people there hear the Word?

Personally, I recommend everyone read Frederick Turner's book Natural Religion.

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