Will we be remembered for what we
create or for what we destroy? McMurry Assistant Chaplain Tim
Palmer captured my imagination with this question during a McMurry University
mission trip to India. At the time he raised the question, we were touring the
Ellora Caves near Aurangabad, in the state of Maharashtra, India. These are not
naturally occurring caves. Over a period of centuries, Hindu, Jain, and
Buddhist artisans painstakingly carved full size temples into the side of a
mountain. Later, many of the statues in the caves were defaced by Mogul
warriors who feared idolatry.
Religion
at its worst identifies itself through an enemy, through what it hates or
destroys. I’m
not singling out a particular religion. Few major religions can claim
innocence. There are groups of people in virtually every religion that find their
identity in opposing others, sometimes violently, sometimes simply with a
holier-than-thou silence. I realize as I write this article—or as you read it—that
if we are primarily thinking of those “other” religions that define themselves
through opposition to an enemy, then we’ve missed the point. We have to look at
ourselves first.
A major dimension of human
development, of course, is self-definition through opposition, thus the
“terrible twos” and adolescence. Destructive problems arise, however, when
biological adults continue to define their religious identity at a “terrible
two” or adolescent level. I’m not ignoring the fact that there are major
problems in the world that we must resist. There is much in the world that is hurtful, violent, and destructive that
we need to resist, nonviolently. But there is a huge difference between resisting
that which is destructive, on the one hand, and, on the other hand,
constructing our religious identity through what we oppose or hate. Mission
trips and study abroad opportunities can teach us to identify ourselves through
what we love rather than through what we oppose or hate.
In his newest book, Why Did
Jesus, Moses, the Buddha, and Mohammed Cross the Road?: Christian Identity in a
Multi-Faith World, Brian McLaren invites us to a creative rather than a
destructive way of dealing with religious difference. He answers the question
posed in the title this way: to get to the “other.” They crossed
the road to get to the “other.” He asserts, I think accurately, that if
Jesus, Moses, the Buddha, and Mohammed met on the road, they would learn to get
along with each other much better than many of their followers have. And they would
lead us to encounters where we would discover each other as God’s children
rather than as enemies.
McMurry in Motion initiatives to
India and elsewhere help us to experience the reality that all God’s children
are just that, God’s children. All are sisters and brothers. While in India, we discovered sisters and brothers of diverse faith backgrounds at St. John English School, at New Beginnings Children's Home, among a group of people with leprosy, and in the diversity of Indian culture. The Rev. John Dongerdive, and all the leaders of Life Light Ministries (the umbrella ministry for St. John and New Beginnings), exhibit genuine faith while, simultaneously, working in loving relationship with people of other faiths.
Students, and all
of us who participate in McMurry study abroad and mission initiatives, have the
golden opportunity to learn to work together with the religious and cultural “other”
to create a better world. If “mission” is essentially about sharing God’s love,
then surely loving and finding community with the religious “other” is central
to our mission. More, it is a means of taking responsibility for creating peace
in the world. Will we be remembered for what we create or for what we destroy?
