SURPRISE, SURPRISE
THE POPE'S A CHRISTIAN!
by Bishop David Chislett SSC

The world of our childhood and youth very much conditions us for the rest of our lives. When I became serious about following Jesus in my early teens, I took it for granted - growing up in the poorer suburbs of Sydney's "wild west" - that I was about to cop a fair bit of ridicule on all sides. That went with the territory.

It wasn't just that our suburb had a well-earned reputation as a rough area. We also knew from the Bible that Jesus had taught his followers to expect people - otherwise good people - to sneer at us, and even hate us on account of him.

It was drummed into us at Youth Fellowship that Jesus taught us - and then demonstrated by his example - how we should respond even to full scale persecutions (which ours were not). We were to show his love, kindness and forgiveness to those who "defamed" him and us, even praying for God's blessing on their lives!

(Years later the world would be gobsmacked by Pope John Paul II who did just that when he visited and forgave Mehemet Ali Agca, the assassin who tried to kill him in 1981.)

It was also drummed into us that we should work hard at learning to communicate our faith in a logical and reasonable manner, respecting those around us who held other world views.

Now, trying to live in love and communicate reasonably with people who hate what we stand for - and the Lord we love - is probably the hardest thing about being a follower of Jesus. Just look at what happens in good old laid-back Australia's liberal democracy when we raise awkward questions on bioethical issues.

And woe betide politicians who argue for particular values to undergird research and development - or any other area of behaviour - if they are known to be practising Christians! Such people on both sides of politics have my greatest admiration. They deserve our prayers.

But it's not just political life. Do you remember the National Gallery of Victoria's 1997 exhibition of Andres Serrano's "Piss Christ"? This was literally a photograph of a crucifix submerged in urine. Christians of all kinds were deeply hurt. No-one would dream of doing that with a picture of their - or any one else's - mother or lover, even with artistic licence. Not a few raised the question of what would have happened if, instead of a crucifix, a rainbow serpent or a sacred symbol - or book - of any other religious tradition had been treated the same way.

The "Piss Christ" controversy became history. But not without raising the question of how people of different cultural, religious and philosophical convictions can relate together in what really is becoming our shrinking global village.

This is an issue we cannot escape. It is why Pope Benedict used a particular historical anecdote in his 12th September Regensberg lecture. He was emphasizing the need for all people of whatever religious conviction to be guided by reason. In fact the real target of his criticism was not Islam, but the West - a point missed by the world's journalists, most of whom obviously reported on the lecture without actually reading it through! Benedict was lamenting the way in which Western societies are impoverishing themselves by moving away from both reason and religion.

But there was a sad irony in the reaction of some Muslims to what the journalists had fed them: "We are going to show our objection to being caricatured as violent by blowing up churches in Gaza"!

I have to say in all honesty that I am now confused about Islam. The only Muslim people I've known personally have been good neighbours, good parents, good friends, good citizens and peace loving people. I have always thought that to see followers of Islam as inherently or necessarily violent was as mistaken as thinking that all Christians are like the Ku Klux Klan.

Now, however, it is becoming more and more difficult not to ask searching questions about Islam itself. All men and women of goodwill would love to be persuaded by the teachers of Islam that the indiscriminate violence and terror we witness today is an aberration, and not a necessary or abiding aspect of Muslim expansion.

It is obvious that in order for our world to be a safer place we must dialogue meaningfully with those - like Muslims - with whom we disagree. Pope Benedict and his predecessor have participated in that dialogue with great respect. But, according to commentators, Benedict - ever the realist - has now become insistent that this include working towards a "reciprocity" of religious freedoms. The current lack of this reciprocity is best illustrated by the fact that on one hand the Saudis have a 65 million dollar mosque in Rome (the largest in Europe), in the shadow of the Vatican, while in Saudi Arabia Christians are still arrested for carrying a Bible, a crucifix, rosary beads, praying in public, or having a prayer-meeting at home.

Saudi Arabia may be an extreme example. But in very few Muslim countries can Christians expect the same basic freedom of religion that Muslims are given in the West. The Pope believes that in adapting to the realities of modern life, all religious traditions and cultures must make generous room for each other and avoid vilification.

That is not to deny the place of robust debate in weighing up philosophical and religious ideologies. And it is a fact of life that a certain "bruising of the sensibilities" is the price of the freedom to have such a debate. Pastor John Piper pointed out this week that "Islam, in its most sacred writings and authoritative teachings, belittles Jesus Christ, not just occasionally in the news, but constantly by its dominant claims. Islam denies that Jesus Christ was and is God, a central truth of the New Testament and the Christian Church. Dominant streams of Islam deny that Jesus died on the cross and therefore deny . . . the claim that his death atones for sin . . . Therefore, defenders of Islam daily defame Jesus Christ and insult the glory of his gospel."

To Christians what Islam says about Jesus is as offensive as any insult that can be dished out to Muslims. But we and they must learn how to stand up for what we believe on the one hand, while on the other relate together in peace and harmony for the sake of our children and grandchildren.

Multiculturalism, and freedom of religion are not for the faint-hearted, because, as always, freedom carries with it responsibilities: in this case - as Pope Benedict reminded us at Regensberg University - the responsibility to ensure the future of human life by not taking leave of reason.

From the Patmos House Pew Bulletin, 1st October, 2006