Christian Exclusivity

I know the doctrine and it seems pretty exclusive in a world in which exclusivity often leads to violence. If we think everyone else is going to hell, what kind of people will we become? Is Jesus really the only way? If it is, then what is the “way?” Is it the way Christianity or is it the way Jesus lived his life?

As a clergyperson, I am puzzled by the way my faith approaches other faiths. We work awfully hard for conversion and someone to come to believe in only Jesus. Is God that narrow? Would God really turn my friends away at heaven’s gate because their names are Moses, Mohammad, Krishna, or Joji? I have trouble with this. I have trouble because I have come to understand God as a benevolent creator who calls to love one another; in short, that God is a god of peace. Exclusivity leads to separation, forced conversions, and violence. After all, most of us Christians can’t call each other brother and sister because of our theological differences – and we call ourselves disciples of Jesus?

So what about this statement Jesus made (and is cited by almost all Christian exclusivists), “I am the way, the truth and the life, no one comes to the Father but through me? (John 14:6)

Is Jesus really saying that unless you are a baptized Christian you don’t get to God? Or is he saying something else? St. Paul tells us that Jesus is one “in whom the fullness of God resides (Colossians 2:9). Surely, this means we should “practice” Jesus; that he is, therefore, someone to follow and emulate. But when I look around at my friends who practice faiths other than mine, I can also see Jesus in them as well, whether or not they specifically know or follow Jesus. I see Christ living in many other people (Galatians 2:20).

When I was a trustee for the International Peace Council I accompanied a number of other religious people from a number of other faiths on a peace march in Cambodia. It was in 1996 and it was done to raise awareness in the world about the manufacture, proliferation, and crippling effect of land mines. In the city of Phnom Penh, I was struck by the number of amputees on the streets and in the marketplaces – all victims of landmines during the Khmer Rouge era.

As we left Phnom Penh and walked the dusty roads of rural Cambodia, we were led by the late Maha Ghosananda, leader of Cambodian Buddhists. Each day at noon, we would stop for a meal and rest. Each day, Ghosananda would sit under a tree in the village, with all the villagers around him, and teach.

During the Khmer Rouge persecution and killings, Ghosananda lost all his family members, and thousands of his fellow monks. Yet he continued to preach peace and reconciliation, not hate, until the day he died on March 12, 2007 at 83 years of age.

For a number days, I watched this routine in every peasant village in which we stopped. Suddenly, it came to me, this is just like Jesus? As I watched Ghosananda, he was truly Christ-like, although he was a Buddhist. Is there a difference? Is he not with God? Did he not follow the way of Jesus?

Ghosananda once said, “If we cannot be happy in spite of our difficulties, what good is our spiritual practice?” He believed “loving kindness” would overcome the world and he eschewed all forms of violence. So did Jesus. When I do my Christian practice, I need to keep this in mind. This humble man was always a simple monk, despite being a leader of millions. He always had a smile on his face… and he may have been the closest person to Jesus that I have ever or will ever see.