Religious pluralism in the United States and other lands: a challenge for Baptists and other Christians in the 21st century: my paper concentrates primarily on prospects rather than retrospects for two reasons

Baptist History and Heritage, Wntr-Spring, 2001 by Alan Neely

First, I have dealt with this subject in a number of previous essays. Second, Baptists, like other evangelicals, have given their primary attention to evangelism, missions, and personal conversion rather than to interreligious dialogue and other nonevangelistic endeavors. By and large, Baptists have been far more concerned with their responsibility to take or proclaim the gospel to all people, including the followers of other faiths, than to study thoroughly or consider objectively what other people believe.

Until the last half of the past century, except for missionaries, businesspersons, and government representatives, Baptists had little direct contact with peoples of other faiths. After World War II, however, migration from-Asia and Africa to the West began to change the demographic character of most predominantly Christian countries, including Western Europe and North America. The most dramatic upsurge of Asians and Africans entering the United States, however, came after the change in the immigration laws in 1965. And though no one knows precisely how many Muslims, Buddhists, and Hindus there are today in the United States, it is generally conceded that there are at least six million followers of Islam, a million to two million Hindus, and a slightly lesser number of Buddhists. Moreover, these numbers continue to increase, and the visible evidences of other faiths are all around us. You may be surprised to know, for example, that the largest Baptist university in the United States, Baylor University, located in Waco, Texas, had in their student body last year 72 Muslims, 68 Buddhists, and 67 Hindus, (1) a momentous change from a generation ago.

Unfortunately, if most Baptists have any knowledge of other faiths, it is academic or anecdotal. Southern Baptists through the Interfaith Witness Department of the Home Mission Board did during the 1970s attempt some interfaith dialogues. But during the 1980s, these efforts were dropped in favor of evangelism.

Given the fact that this country--as most countries in the West--is becoming increasingly multicultural and multi-religious, how we Christians relate to non-Christians will determine whether we are able to live together in a truly pluralistic society or whether we will become a tangle of competing, mutually suspicious, antagonistic neighbors. Because of these possibilities, I want to concentrate on the future of Baptists and peoples of other faiths.

Three years ago I was invited to give the Scherer Lectures at the Chicago Lutheran Seminary, lectures sponsored by the Theological Consortium composed of the Lutheran and McCormick seminaries, as well as by the Chicago Theological Union. The theme I chose was the challenge of religious pluralism in North America. The two lectures were subsequently published in the Lutheran school's journal, Currents in Theology and Mission 25 (April 1998).

In the first lecture, I addressed the question of whether genuine religious pluralism is desirable or even possible in the United States. In the second discourse, I tried to allay what I consider to be instinctive as well as incited fears about religious, cultural, and ethnic pluralism by accentuating the missiological possibilities that a genuinely pluralistic context offers.

This last September, I had the privilege of giving "the Baptist Lecture" at Andover Newton Theological School in Newton Centre, Massachusetts, and it is the essence of that lecture that I am offering here today. It is not, however, exactly the same because of things that have happened within the intervening months. Today, I will focus specifically on Baptists and why the multiplicity and growing numbers of peoples of other faiths in this country represent a particular challenge for Baptists. It would be a mistake, however, to assume that only Baptists are challenged, and it would be a mistake to conclude that Baptists in other lands do not face the same or similar challenges. Our roots are those of Christians and Protestants in general, but we are also beneficiaries of a specific heritage from Congregationalists in terms of church polity, and Presbyterians and Congregationalists in terms of theology. We are Congregationalists in polity and modified Calvinists in theology, that is, most Baptists hold to a modified form of Calvinism. Moreover, migration in the world today is as high or higher than anytime in history. Thus the incidences of peoples of multiple faiths living in close proximity to each other is not diminishing. It is increasing.

Pluralism Defined

One of the terms often used imprecisely in church circles is the word "pluralism." What is pluralism theologically speaking? It is not a passive or even intentional toleration or formal acceptance of others--be they Asian, African, European, Latin American, Hindu, Buddhist, Muslim, or Jew--because we believe that basically all human beings, cultures, and religions are essentially the same. This appears to be how some understand pluralism. What is it, then?

Philosophically, pluralism rests on the assumption that ultimate reality is many, multiple, that is, more than one or two. There is evidence that some of the early Greek philosophers were philosophical pluralists, such as Empedocles in the fifth century BCE. (2)