Exclusivism, Religion's Bugaboo

Here in El Paso, I've been attending the First Baptist Church on Sundays recently.  At their Adult Sunday School session this past Sunday, we got talking about Chrisitianity's exclusivism, as suggested by the Bibilical passage "I am the Way...no man cometh to the Father, but by Me."

Some in class stood up tall for Chrisitanity claiming its Truth leads to everlasting life.  I pointed out that the Baptist ministers and lay preachers I grew up listening in my youth were of the type referred to as the "hell and damnation" preachers!  They still exist today: you can see them in the homeless shelters run by funamentalist groups.  These gospel zealots tell the poor and hapless, seated as if members of a congregation--though in reality they are waiting to be fed but must hear the sermon first--that if they miss the opportunity now being presented them to be saved, they are bound for eternal fire and brimstone.  "Don't bother yourself about the food of bread and beans we'll be handing to you, my brothers and sisters,  benefit from the spiritual food I'm giving you,  Now is the day of salvation!" the preacher shouts out.

There's no doubt in my mind that some of our military abroad--in Afghanistan and Iraq--are of the same  fundamentalist persuasion, convinced of the rightness of their Chrisitan beliefs, all founded on Scripture to be sure--the preacher, holding up Jesus and eternal salvation on one hand and the Devil and hell on the other; and then insisting that each listener reach for one.

During the discussion, in retort, I too cited Scripture: Mathew 7:1: Judge ye not that ye be not judged!  "There's no place for exclusivism in Christianity." I explained,  "You preach the Christian message; and if it falls on deaf ears, move on!--as Paul and his entourage did in the Early Church.  But you don't go around condemning people for not accepting the Christian faith!"  I also alluded to Scripture where Jesus was persecuted from the beginning of His ministry--a Jewish crowd in Nazereth, composed in part by religious  orothodoxists (whom St. Paul called "Jewish legalists") wishing to throw Him of a cliff.  He was ostracized by the very Jews he was brought up with, because of His teachings that starkly differed from those traditionally held.
     
Well, I wasn't very popular among that Sunday School adult class.

In Iraq, the indigenous Christiana and in Egypt, the Coptic Christians are suffering today from persecution at the hands of Islamic zealots, who blindly follow Islam as the only true faith.

The opposite to exclusivism is religious tolerance.  So long as religious believers, no matter the religion, are convinced they are privy to the Truth; and they are granted the right to pronounce judgment on those who don't believe as they without social consequence in their exercise of that right, there will be religious bigotry pervasive in that land.  I note that in Egypt, many Moslems, including the Egyptian government, are coming to the aid of the Coptics.