Who are the Chosen People

Several years ago, a student of mine told her classmates the story of one of her high school friends who had died in a car accident. She was very fond of him and described him as a fine person but, she said, "He was not a Christian, so I know he did not go to heaven."

Every head in the class swiveled in her direction. The other students were incredulous. One, who came from a family in the funeral home business, said she did not know how anyone could help the bereaved unless they believed that each and every person was loved by God and would go on to another life.

Others stated that they simply could not believe a person would be sent to hell for not being a Christian. I ended up reminding the class that it has not been so long ago that her statement would have been thought unremarkable. It has been the orthodox position among many Christians (but not all!) throughout the history of the church.

If you listen to the news, you can believe that fundamentalism is in the saddle the world over. Radical Islamists, conservative Protestants and Catholics seem to be ruling the roost. Moderates are on the defensive. They are constantly called upon to explain why anyone should regard them as really Muslim or really Christian or really Jewish.

Three women, a Christian, a Jew and a Muslim, wrote The Faith Club about their experiences of trying to come to terms with their own traditions and each other's. They were living in New York, probably the most diverse and cosmopolitan city in the United States, and yet each had been made to feel that perhaps hers was merely a watered down version of the true faith: tepid, worldly, contaminated. 

Moderates, conservatives and non-believers are all tempted to think that the world's religions are defined by whatever the most conservative adherents say they are instead of there being alternative ways of interpreting these ancient traditions. Conservatives are described as having "a lot of faith" or "really strong faith." As opposed to what- Only a little bit of faith- Weak faith- How is faith measured anyway-

The most conservative expressions tend to be the least tolerant of people outside the boundaries of their group. In reaction to their political power there has been a spate of books proclaiming that only atheism can deliver us from the evils of religion which are fueling conflicts and even shooting wars around the world. But I don't think atheism has much of a chance to win out over religion. I see something else happening among young people. They are making friends across every conceivable barrier: religion, race and ethnicity, nationality, social class, sexual orientation, political party. Intolerance raises their hackles. The young who want tight boundaries for their group have to either retreat into a world limited to people like themselves or put up with hostility from their peers whose boundaries are much more permeable.

The odd thing about the student who thought her young friend had failed to make it into heaven was that she didn't anticipate how the class was going to react. She didn't know that she was going to be virtually alone in her belief that heaven was limited to Christians. It was as if she had wandered into class from her grandparents' generation and didn't know the rules had changed.

It is true that there is a rise in the political power of conservative religious traditions around the world, but it is also true that there is a rise in appreciation of religious traditions outside one's own. Both are happening at the same time. In fact, they are fueling each other. It was 9/11 that brought together the women who ended up writing The Faith Club, and it is the globalization of religion that may be energizing the efforts of the most traditional elements to stem the tide of what they regard as syncretism or heresies polluting the purity of the faith. Where all this will end is anyone's guess, but my guess is that our children's children are going to be much more hesitant than their forebears to assume that any group is regarded by God as Not-My-Chosen-People. I hope they can nourish the best of their inherited faiths, carefully pruning the unhealthy branches rather than taking an ax to whole trees.   

Patricia Hunt is a Mary Baldwin College
chaplain and Staunton resident.