“Is Pluralism More Tolerant Than Christianity?” — The Resurgence

Religious pluralism— the idea usually phrased as “all roads lead to God” or “all religions worship the same God”— seems to be gaining more and more ground; a Pew Forum study shows that 70% of people in the US who express some sort of religious affiliation believe that many religions can lead to eternal life.

The Resurgence is running a series by John Dodson called, “Is Jesus The Only Way?” Their latest installment questions how tolerant pluralistic beliefs really are:

“The claim that all paths lead to the same God actually minimizes other religions by asserting a new religious claim. When someone says all paths lead to the same God, they blunt the distinctives between religions, throwing them all in one pot, saying: “See, they all get us to God so the differences don’t really matter.” This isn’t tolerance; it’s a power play. When asserting all religions lead to God, the distinctive and very different views of God and how to reach him in Buddhism, Hinduism, Christianity, and Islam are brushed aside in one powerful swoop…

“People spend years studying and practicing their religious distinctives. To say they don’t really matter is highly intolerant! The very notion of religious tolerance assumes there are differences to tolerate but pluralism is intolerant of those very differences! In this sense, religious pluralism is a religion of its own.”

The previous post in this series specifically questions the guise of humility given by the idea of religious pluralism:

“Very often I hear people say: “Who am I to judge someone else’s religion, to tell them that they are wrong?” This implies, of course, that maintaining Jesus is the only way to God is arrogant. I’ll be the first to admit there are angry, arrogant Christians who rudely insist that Jesus is the only way to God. I’d like to apologize for those kinds of Christians. Arrogant insistence on your beliefs actually runs counter to the life and teachings of Jesus. However, just because someone is arrogant doesn’t make them wrong…

“When religious pluralism says that there are many ways to God, it is not humble. It actually carries an air of arrogance about it. How? Religious pluralism insists that its view—all ways lead to God—is true while all other religions are false in their exclusive teachings. Religious pluralism dogmatically insists on its exclusive claim, namely that all roads lead to God. The problem, as we have seen, is that this claim directly contradicts many religions.”

At face value, it sure sounds more tolerant and humble— “You have your beliefs, I have mine”… “You have your truth, I have my truth”… No one gets fussy or offended and we can all get along. But behind those ideas are two very large intrinsic errors— a complete redefinition of tolerance as untenable inclusivity, and of truth as something indefinite, essentially sacrificing both things in the name of being inoffensive, because we have deemed that to be more important than absolute truth, even when that truth regards the eternal state of your soul.

But maybe since that same Pew Forum report shows that only about half of Americans consider their beliefs to be “very imortant,” perhaps not enough of us care to defend what we believe.

When Jesus said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me,” was he speaking an absolute truth or are his words subjective? And if what he says is truth and bears eternal consequences for the souls of every person you know and love (including yours), then is it tolerant, humble, or loving for Christians to withhold this truth for fear of offending our loved ones?

We do need to have religious tolerance, if by tolerance we mean being kind, friendly, and peaceable to those with other beliefs and using all manner of grace, humility, and love when engaging in dialogue, but in the end we can’t all be right. This isn’t the 1st grade where everyone wins so no one’s feelings get hurt. This isn’t a game— it’s life-or-death truth, and it’s worth defending.

To check out the previous three posts in the Resurgence series, “Is Jesus The Only Way?” click here.