Free Republic

The president of a United Methodist-affiliated seminary says Christians who feel the need to evangelize people of other faiths have “an incorrect perception of what it means to follow Jesus.” The comment from Jerry D. Campbell, president of California’s Claremont School of Theology, was published July 2 by the United Methodist Reporter. “The correct perception [of following Jesus] is much more on [the] side of learning to express love for God and love for your neighbor as yourself,” he told the newspaper. Dr. Campbell’s remarks were reported in an article about Claremont’s plan to become an “interreligious institution” that offers...

“Do we regard the Christian way as the only way, so that salvation is not to be found outside it; or do we regard the other great religions of mankind as other ways of life and salvation?” - Religious Philosopher John Hick Pluralism, the belief that all religions are equal, contradicts the entire premise of religion. If all religion is equally true, what is the point of subscribing exclusively to one? People initially believe in a certain doctrine or religion because of faith and conviction that it is true. Likewise they reject other doctrine as false. Within respective faiths, most...

It seems like everywhere you look these days while driving on the road – especially on college campuses – an odd-phrased bumper sticker with religious symbols spelling “COEXIST” can be seen. This phrase contains the spiritual ideologies of the major world religions. Every letter in the “COEXIST” phrase has a symbol representing a religious system or spiritual ideology: “C” for the crescent and star (representing Islam); “O” being dotted with the Karma Wheel (Buddhism) “E” as energy in the relativity equation (Science); “X” illustrating the star of David (Judaism); the “I” representing the pentagram (Wicca/Pagan); “S” for the Tao symbol;...

The U.S. Supreme Court has accepted an appeal from a religion that you probably never heard of until it hit the news yesterday. Summum is rooted in gnostic Christianity (or, at least modern understandings of gnosticism) and ancient Egyptian religion (or, at least contemporary understandings of ancient Egyptian religion). It was founded in 1975 and has its headquarters in (of all places) Utah. You can get more information at the official Summum web site. The case before the Supreme Court is based on the fact that the small town in Utah has a large, stone monument in the city park...

Everyone is distracted by the Olympics. The squabbling here on the campaign trail consumes the media. Two presidential candidates and a lame-duck president all are weighing in on foreign policy. No wonder Vladimir Putin thought it was a good time to invade Georgia. Apparently the Russian prime minister knew exactly what he was doing but assumed no one in the West did. And he was right. Our pundits and politicians are all over the map as Putin is variously portrayed as villain, victim, patriot, tyrant -- and more still. The neoconservatives: We must make Russia pay a terrible price for...

During the days following the catastrophic terrorist events of September 11, 2001, President George W. Bush called for a national day of prayer. He urged people of all faiths to pray for America. Interfaith religious services were televised from the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C. and from Yankee Stadium in New York. These services included clerics from Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, and Hinduism. They offered prayers to the God collectively addressed as "the God of Abraham, the God of Muhammad, and the Father of Jesus Christ." Popular television personality Oprah Winfrey led the service held in New York City and...

ZENIT - The World Seen From Rome Code: ZE05121805 Date: 2005-12-18 Pope: Catholic Politicians Need to Be Aware of Christian Identity Urges That They Act Against Injustice and Tyranny VATICAN CITY, DEC. 18, 2005 (Zenit.org).- One of the challenges facing the Church is to help Catholic politicians recognize their Christian identity and act accordingly, says Benedict XVI. The Pope addressed this topic Saturday when receiving in audience a third group of Polish bishops making their five-yearly visit to the Holy See. Recalling the teachings of the Second Vatican Council's constitution "Gaudium et Spes," the Holy Father said: "Those who...

In this age of potpourri spirituality, Anique Olivier-Mason, 25, classifies herself generally as a Christian: she grew up Catholic and often attends a Presbyterian church near her home. But on a recent Friday night, she was attending Sabbath services at Larchmont Temple. Mrs. Olivier-Mason's husband, Joshua, is Jewish, and the couple became members of the synagogue, in Westchester County, last summer, committing to immersing themselves in the 800-family congregation. On this night, she stood by gamely as her husband, 25, bobbed, swayed and sang in enthusiastic Hebrew with others in the temple. With intermarriage so common, Reform synagogues like Larchmont...

Despite the lack of security in Iraq today, a democratic, pluralistic Iraq is the only acceptable outcome. Iraq's unity can be best secured through the involvement of all groups in the political process. The concerns being voiced by many in the international community, of the fear of Sunni marginalization and Shiite domination, were the same concerns that allowed Saddam to last as long as he did. Those arguments are reappearing today, to close the door of hope and opportunity for the Iraqi people. But Saddamism without Saddam is simply not an option. Iraq's people are already realizing their objective of...

America was not founded on the concept of a "wall of separation between church and state," it was founded upon pluralism. The "wall of separation" phrase does not appear in any of our founding documents; it is taken from a letter written by Thomas Jefferson. To base our laws on the correspondence of Jefferson, rather than the Constitution ratified by representatives of each of the original " united states ," is in direct opposition to our system of representative government. Jefferson was a brilliant man, but he also favored slavery and was fanatical about macaroni and cheese. However, slavery was...

Religious Stew Gregory Koukl When choosing ice cream, you choose what you like. When choosing medicine, you have to choose what heals. Religious pluralism is the idea that when it comes to religious issues, all roads lead to Rome. In other words, it doesn't really matter what philosophy or religion you follow, as long as you've got God in there somewhere and you're following your religion sincerely. This is an approach to religion that is quite popular now, but it admits of a serious flaw. Forgive me for stating something so obvious, but there is a difference between choosing...

THIRTY FIRST THOMAS VERNER MOORE LECTURE The Thirtieth FIRST Annual Thomas Verner Moore Lecture will be given by Rev. Jacques DupuisSeptember 25, 2004, at 8:00 PM Co-Sponsored by St. Anselm's Abbey, the School of Theology and Religious Studies at CUA, and the Law, Philosophy, & Culture Initiative of the Columbus School of Law of CUA. Topic: "Jesus Christ Universal Saviour and the Ways of Salvation" Jacques Dupuis, S.J., is widely recognized as one of the most important theologians of our time, especially as regards issues of religious pluralism. Born in Belgium in 1923, he entered the Society of Jesus...

Competing Ethical Systems James Hitchcock Through much of its history America has been assumed to be a religious nation, and indeed a good deal of the time a Christian nation. God has been invoked with great regularity by public officials, by politicians seeking to become public officials, on money, and in many other contexts. If much of this religiosity has been superficial and even sometimes hypocritical, it has nonetheless expressed the aspirations of probably the vast majority of Americans over the past two centuries. This religiosity reached its peak just prior to 1960. Quasi-official public ideology in the 1950s...

The Virtue of Tolerance by Rev. Robert A. Sirico, Acton President The holiday season is a time for love of children, compassion for the poor, and good will toward all—and a good deal of religious acrimony. Every year we hear stories of lawsuits and bitter fights over which religious symbols can be displayed in public. This year the big issue concerns cases in New York City, and Palm Beach, Florida, where symbols of the Islamic and Jewish faiths are freely displayed but Christian ones are not permitted. The Thomas More Law Center is assisting plaintiffs who claim that this...

The Myth of a Value-Free EducationDr. Ronald H. Nash Americans love myths. By "myth," I do not mean the old-fashioned myths that my generation read in grade school. Many Americans would find reading at that fifth-grade level too difficult these days. What I mean by "myth" is what older generations used to call a fiction. One of the more influential myths presently affecting the American family is the myth of a value-free education. A value-free education is described as one in which students are supposed to be free from any coerced exposure to the values of anyone. One way the...

Navy blues RELIGION: Are evangelical chaplains who refuse "to preach pluralism among religions" too "narrow" for the Navy?By Lynn VincentSHEATHED IN LILAC CHIFFON, the barefoot bride padded across the grass carpet of a small tropical garden. Her groom, dressed in U.S. Navy crackerjacks, waited near a towering coconut palm, the masts of a dozen yachts reaching for the sky in the harbor behind him. Wedding guests in attendance at the private ceremony behind the Island Palms Hotel in San Diego then listened as Navy Chaplain Patrick Sturm joined the couple in marriage. "Have Christ as the center of your love,"...

Pluralists of the World Unite!Albert Mohler In The Communist Manifesto, Karl Marx and Frederick Engels called for the laboring classes of the world to join the communist revolution and promised assured liberation:  "Workers of the world unite!  You have nothing to lose but your chains."  In similar fashion, the prophets of religious pluralism promise world peace and true spiritual happiness if Christians will just abandon Christianity and join the pluralist revolution.  Ready to join? Of all the doctrines revealed in the Bible, the exclusivity of the incarnation of Jesus Christ stands as the great embarrassment to liberal theologians.  The...

<p>DENVER - A Republican proposal to boost pluralism in academia in Colorado has enraged the left, prompting cries of McCarthyism and calls for an investigation.</p> <p>The flap erupted last week after word surfaced that Colorado Republican leaders are throwing their support behind the "Academic Bill of Rights," a document drawn up over the summer by Los Angeles-based conservative activist David Horowitz.</p>

REUNION ALL ROUND Ronald Knox, Essays in Satire OR JAEL'S HAMMER LAID ASIDE, AND THE MILK OF HUMAN KINDNESS BEATEN UP INTO BUTTER AND SERVED IN A LORDLY DISH Being a Plea for the Inclusion within the Church of England of all Mahometans, Jews, Buddhists, Brahmins, Papists and Atheists, submitted to the consideration of the British Public It is now generally conceded, that those differences, which were once held to divide the Christian sects from one another, (as whether or not Confirmation were a necessary ordinance of the Church), can no longer be thought to place any obstacle against unity...

If the relationship between Christianity and politics was the burning issue in Catholic theology in the 1970s and 1980s, with liberation theology forming the front line, the new mega-issue in the 1990s became the relationship between Christianity and the world religions. Its battle zone is the so-called “theology of pluralism.” “Pluralism” is a complex impulse that takes many different forms, but at its core is the idea that more than one religion can communicate saving knowledge about ultimate reality, and no religion has a superior saving knowledge. In other words, Christianity can be a true religion, but not the true...