New Testament Reading—Acts 17:22-31
In thinking of the wide variety of ways in which humans conceive of God, even within the same religion, I have sometimes wondered if our reality is a polytheistic reality. It’s not so much that there are individuals who worship multiple gods. It’s that our society worships multiple gods. Some gods are strict, fatherly gods, and some gods are nurturing, motherly gods. Some gods condemn LGBT persons, and some gods affirm them. Some gods want war, and some gods want peace. Some gods want loud drum music to praise them, and some gods don’t. You get the picture. When I was an undergraduate, I recall even writing a paper in favor of polytheism, although I myself had no intention of worshipping more than one God. I simply thought people really do worship different gods, perhaps even in the same church. I figured why not simply admit to this.
I was reminded of this paper this past week when I had another one of my wild and wacky ideas. All week I was gradually getting more and more intrigued by the new blockbuster movie “Watchmen” that opened in theatres this past Friday. Before going to see it, I actually watched an animated version of the comic book series on which it is based. Although I ultimately found the actual movie disappointing, “Watchmen” has its interesting parts. It presents an account of what would have happened during the 1970s and 80s in the United States had certain superheroes known as the Watchmen existed. For example, a superhero named Doctor Manhattan enables the United States to win the Vietnam War and keep Richard Nixon in the White House for multiple terms. In one scene from the comic book, Nixon is seen giving the victory sign amid celebrations in Vietnam.
The premise of the “Watchmen” gave me this idea: what if during the last thirty years each religious group had its own superhero god? I can imagine it now…All the progressive Christians rally around their superhero “Rainbow Jesus.” Fortunately, his racial and sexual identity are ambiguous so we all feel represented by him. Other progressive faiths worship superheroes like Rainbow Muhammad, Rainbow Moses, and Rainbow Buddha. In the broader pantheon, there are still more gods with names like Super Savior, Macho Moses, and Iron Buddha.
All of the superhero gods act according to the prayers sent by their followers. As a result, a lot of religious leaders attempt to direct their flocks to pray in certain ways. The Rev. Barry Fallbad leads a mass organization called the Super Majority, and every night he exhorts its members through a television broadcast to pray for Super Savior to make their Super Nation the sole superpower in the world while all the other nations are condemned to hell. The rainbow religions are not nearly as well organized. Any time one of the rainbow gods tries to take the lead the others accuse that god of imperialism. Finally, however, they figure out a way to band together without any superhero taking the lead by him or herself. The rainbow people decide to rule by consensus through a special internet voting system. Anytime all of them can come to a common agreement on an issue, they launch a collective prayer to their rainbow gods. Soon the prayers achieve some notable results. They create pockets of peace and harmony throughout the world, even in places like Israel and the Bronx. Gradually, the number of people who pray to the rainbow superheroes increases because others see how well their followers get along with each other. Peace and harmony begin to spread throughout the world. Eventually, even Super Savior decides to ditch Rev. Fallbad, and the world lives happily ever after.
I quite like this fantasy. However, as a metaphor for how religions can get along today that might be part of its problem: it’s my fantasy. It ultimately has more and more people believing in my superheroes and my beliefs. One of the conundrums of seeking to address religious diversity in a way that brings about peace and harmony is that it always seems to lead to the imposition or dominance of a particular fantasy or view. Traditionally, for Christians, this view has been the Super Savior view that Jesus is the one and only pathway to the Kingdom of God and others simply need to wise up. This is the view Paul suggests toward the end of our reading for today. At first, however, he baits the gentiles with complements about how religious they are and how their poets believe some of the same things about God that can be found in his faith, but in the end, he throws down his gauntlet. He essentially says, “God let you have your ignorant views in the past, but now the time has come to change your ways before Jesus judges us all on the last day.”
Today, many of us no longer hold such views, but even ways of addressing religious diversity that we might consider more open tend impose a particular view as well. The particular view could be the view that all religions have the same goal. We all want to find and grasp divine reality or what is ultimately meaningful in life. This view is popular among those who believe commonality is the grounds for dialogue between religions. Still, there are a couple of problems. First, are we supposed to assume that the Nazis had the same end goal as everyone else? And then, what do you do when those of another faith do not want to believe there is any commonality? There is only one way, and it’s theirs. By contrast, one could address religious diversity by saying that religions are simply different and have different ends. As one person put it, the religions of the world “might really be apples and oranges, and not differently colored apples.” This view is popular among those who believe that recognition of differences makes for more lively and honest dialogue. The problem with this view is that it excludes the people who hold the first view and believe that there are commonalities. Thinking about all this can make one dizzy.
Well, should we all just throw our hands up in the air? In the end, we might both agree and disagree with our scripture from Acts. Since the days of Paul a host of different religions have interacted a lot more and learned a lot more with the end result being that it is easier to regard other faiths with more openness. Many of us Christians can witness and appreciate the lives of Muslims, Hindus, Jews, and Buddhists who we see have found a path of genuine peace and love. Some might even say a path of salvation. At the same time, we are able to agree part way with Paul. Jesus is profoundly meaningful for us. We can say that while Jesus is not the one and only for everyone, he is the one for us. As a theologian once remarked, “When we judge or feel something to be really right or true, it grabs us. And the grip is not necessarily weakened if we also know that there may be other truths that grab other people in an equally powerful manner.”
Since the days of Paul, we have also done a lot of reflecting about God, and many of us have come to see the harm and arrogance of claiming that God will judge and damn people of other faiths. Still, this does not mean we need to refrain from passing all judgment ourselves. As one scholar suggested, while our encounters with other religions might lead us to believe that there is indeed more than one path to the mountaintop, there are also some paths that we might conclude do not go up the mountain at all. They might even lead us down into the valley of death.
Such judgments might at times lead to some surprising conclusions. We might find ourselves agreeing with Gandhi. With Gandhi, we might praise the beatitudes and those who identify with the poor, love their enemies, and practice peace. Indeed, Gandhi said, “If, then, I had to face only the Sermon on the Mount and my own interpretation of it, I should not hesitate to say: ‘Oh yes, I am a Christian…” Gandhi, however, then added, “But I can tell you that, in my humble opinion, much of what passes as Christianity is a negation of the Sermon on the Mount.” He had seen Christian missionaries grasping Truth with clenched fists as if they were the only ones to possess it. He had seen them then use this Truth as a club. With his own eyes, he saw preachers in his hometown pour abuses on the gods of his faith. Likewise, what were then regarded as the so-called Christian nations of the world also seemed to fall short of Jesus’s words in their neglect of the poor and their violence.
In addition to agreeing with Gandhi, we might also find ourselves arriving at a startling conclusion among a group of Seventh Day Adventists as they listen to a 90-something year old environmental activist named Hazel Wolf. After Wolf finishes speaking, a member of the audience questions her atheism. She defends herself saying that people often have the same persuasion as their parents, and her parents happened to be atheist, while their parents were Christians. Just as there are good Christians and bad Christians, there are good atheists and bad atheists. A good atheist, she insisted, is compelled to care for the earth just as a good Christian is. She then said, “And just in case I’m wrong, I have some insurance. Because Jesus said to the man, ‘You fed me when I was hungry, clothed me when I was naked, visited me when I was in prison. If you’ve done this to the least of these, you will be on my right hand in heaven.’ Well, I’ve worked for child welfare, worked for Medicaid to take care of the sick. The only other time I came to this town was to visit the prison up on the hill. So I just might be seeing you guys in heaven.” The audience loved her.
The final and perhaps most important area in which we might agree with Paul is in his recognition that part of our experience as religious persons is that while our search for God is at times a groping search, God is ultimately not “far from each one of us.” God is beyond us, but also close at hand. God is a mystery, but also as close as a hug and as near as a friend. God is unfathomable, but also as real as a mother’s love and a father’s tenderness. After all the dizzying questions, after all the challenges that come with being open to other faiths, in the end, there is still the God in whom “we live and move and have our being.” Amen.