I just got done perusing some new figures and poll
information that suggest a growing population of Muslims in America and
continued downward trend of mainline Catholics and Protestants. There was also a decline in those who claim Judaism as a religion. Finally, there is a rise in
atheism. America is beginning to looking more and more
like her European cousins every day.
(You can read the original article here.)
As a progressive, what concerns me most are radical
expressions of these minority religions taking root in American soil, and not
for any reason usually given by conservative Christians who fear the loss of
majority status and power. As I find radical conservative Christianity an often
idealistic and sanitized vision of the divine message given to humanity, I’m no
more fond of radical expressions of Islam, though I will say I don’t believe
most expressions of Islam are radical. While Christianity has suffered the loss
of its romanticized uniqueness and exclusivity under the microscope of modern
scrutiny beginning primarily during the European Enlightenment (with Judaism
soon following), faithfulness to core values of Islam as markers of truth
remain strong while critical scholarship of Islam is fairly new and mostly
unwelcomed.
While there is an understandable psychological fear of loss
of culture, loss of identity, and the kind of pushback we witness in far-right
conservative media on a daily basis here in the States, those of us who
continue to be optimistic about interfaith dialogue have less to worry about.
I say this not because distinction is unimportant, but
rather because I approach the question as a person who sees himself within the
grip of time and from a place of historical relativity. And by relativity I
mean humility – we simply don’t know it all. Our knowledge, our truths are
relative in span of history.
Despite those who prize its transcendent value, it’s hard to
debate the fact that Christianity has always been a religion that sees itself
as a prophetic extension of another religion (Judaism) that explains some of
its most important characteristics (doctrines) through the lens of Greek
philosophy and neo-pagan thought. That’s not to say there is nothing original
about Christianity, but far less than is often admitted by its adherents as it
owes a lot of itself, its socialization, its ethical awareness, and its
prophetic vitality to its neighbors.
Therefore, in seeing Christianity as a sort of syncretistic
experience in antiquity, an individual involved in interfaith dialogue may not
be as put off immediately by what we can learn from our neighbors if in fact
one day we find Christianity to be a minority expression. If anything, we can
see that Judaism lives on though it has been a minority most of its existence
with sporadic periods of dominance, which were few and far between. Yet Judaism
has managed to survive. It is as diverse in its expressions as Christianity is
in its expressions. And this leads me to my second point; namely, that there is
no one expression of Christianity for which we have to fight to protect against
cultural collapse. With the amount of variety directed to major doctrines such
as the virgin birth, ethics, resurrection, the way of salvation, the
differences are not small or simply nuanced, but completely up for grabs. So
when one thinks about the campaign to save Christianity from its cultural
despisers, one wonders what Christianity he has in mind.
Merry Christmas!
