THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, June 22, 1996 TAG: 9606210074
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E5 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: ISSUES OF FAITH
SOURCE: BETSY WRIGHT
LENGTH: 82 lines
Last Week's Issue of Faith: How should Christians live faithfully in a pluralistic world?
This Week's Reader Responses:
From Cecil P. Tiller of Gatesville, N.C.: ``I believe we are to `contend for the faith,' (Jude, v.3). I believe in the separation of church and state: no state church (government by state) and no church state (government by church).
``I believe in religious freedom. Everyone has the right or freedom to believe what they want, and how they want, even if that belief is wrong. This is free will . . . I believe the Bible, because by faith I believe it is the Word of God.''
From Carolyn L. Smiley of Virginia Beach: ``I think the key issue is respect. If we feel we are right about something we often don't approach others with respect, but rather a smug self-righteousness that is a turnoff to someone who doesn't share our `enlight-en-ment.'
``. . . I think it is imperative that people respect (the faiths of others) even though we may disagree totally with their ideas. I just don't think it's my job to `straighten out' everyone's ideas to conform to my understanding. I do think it's my job to love them, as much as I am able, as they are. I think a person's religious beliefs are the most personal and private aspects of their soul.
``. . . I am more impressed with those who have tried to live their faith quietly, saying very little. Actions speak louder than words. Respect doesn't mean agreement. I sure don't have all the answers and am constantly struggling to understand the `why's' in life.
`` . . . I certainly don't know who God loves and who he doesn't. I think it would be rude and presumptuous for me to tell anyone how God feels about them. Sometimes I am not sure how God feels about me! . . . I have more respect for someone whose faith is far different than mine, but they try hard to live it, than those of my own faith who rant and rave and treat others with disdain and contempt.''
From Art Timmins of Zuni: ``In (last week's) column you state that when unbelievers ask, `Do you think I am going to Hell?,' you cannot lie and tell them `yes.' Well, if you tell them `yes,' you are not lying because in Matthew 12:30 the Lord says `He that is not with me is against me; and be that gathereth not with me scatterth abroad,' and also in John 14:6, the Lord says, `I am the way, the truth and the life; no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.'''
From Nandor Lazar of Norfolk: ``It seems to me that God has a lot of salespeople. The problem is that different organizations have different (sales) catalogs.''
From John W. Morrison, command chaplain, USS Theodore Roosevelt: ``As Command Chaplain on board USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN 71), I post and hand out copies of your column to my fellow chaplains and our Lay and Fellowship Leaders. We have three faith traditions and eight different Christian groups meeting on board. Your words help us to learn how to practice and witness to our beliefs within the highly pluralistic confines of a Navy Ship. . . .
``I particularly appreciate your mission statement on how Christians should live faithfully in a pluralistic world, as restated in your June 15 column. I believe as a Christian I am called to witness for Christ with my life. Actions, attitudes and behaviors win hearts and minds, nurture family values, and change nations, much more so than words, doctrines, theology or denominations. . . .''
From Maynard Hatcher of Portsmouth: ``. . . The author (of `The Jew in the Lotus,' Rodger Kamenetz), recounts the experiences of eight eminent Jewish scholars as they respond to an invitation to attend a conference with the Dalai Lama in Dharamsala, India . . . (One scholar), Yitz Greenberg (said), `All religions, not just Judaism, are now being placed in a new situation. At first I thought the culture was forcing us. But I've come to believe this pluralism is God's will. Can you learn to propagate your religion without using stereotypes and negative images of the other? If we can't, all religions will go down the tubes because we're a source of hatred and demolition of other people.' ''
From Rabbi Israel Zoberman of Congregation Beth Chaverim, Virginia Beach: ``History is witness and victim of the tragic toll religious strife has claimed in the name of God, while violating all that is sacred and discrediting the human enterprise to represent the holy. In light of such a dismal record of imposed suffering and in the face of a changing reality offering new opportunity as well as resurrected fear, we are duty-bound not to repeat painful mistakes and to labor together across faith, ethnic, racial and national lines towards the dawning of a world community worthy of Divine Presence which the Rabbis taught we either enhance or diminish according to our deeds.'' by CNB