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Encore Issues | PW | PC(USA) |
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The Bible and by W. Eugene March There once was a time, not so long ago, when Presbyterians in North America had only vague notions about people of other religious traditions. We read or heard about Hindus or Taoists or Muslims through missionaries and other people who traveled abroad. Some of us knew a few Jews, but practically none of us had personal knowledge of those of other non-Christian faiths. Such a time is quickly disappearing. Of the world’s population of approximately six and a quarter billion (and still counting), it is estimated that some five billion people profess membership in some form of organized religion. Of the “religious,” approximately 42 percent are members of some branch of Christianity, while 58 percent are non-Christian. Further, some billion and a quarter profess no religious affiliation at all. After 2,000 years of mission endeavor, only about a third of humankind has been brought into the Christian fold. In 1996 the World Almanac estimated that there were more than 38 million non-Christians living in the United States, one of the most “churched” nations in the world. Such a figure would represent nearly 15 percent of the population, or one out of every eight or nine people one might meet. Many of these people are concentrated in urban areas, but more and more suburban and even rural areas are seeing an influx of non-Christians. More and more Christian children are being schooled with non-Christians. More and more often our malls and medical facilities are being serviced by people from other parts of the world who profess other than Christian religious allegiances. Our neighborhoods are changing, but all too often our theology is not. As conscientious Christians, what are we to make of our non-Christian neighbors? Are they simply a challenge to our evangelizing prowess? Are they to be suspected and feared or embraced as a divine gift? Does Christ’s commandment to love our neighbors actually apply to non-Christians? How are we to live with the Hindus next door or down the street, or the Muslims in our school? What does our Christian faith tell us about other human beings who do not share our religious convictions? What does the Bible tell us about our non-Christian neighbors?
Learn what answers the Bible holds for these questions in the full text of this article in the May/June 2005 issue of Horizons. Call 800/524-2612
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