Celebrating our common humanity

Former American President Bill Clinton delivered the 2001 Dimbleby lecture with the title 'The struggle for the soul of the 21st century'. This topic should concern Christians and especially missionaries.

After an interesting review of the problems the world faces in the 21st century, Clinton poses the question as to what is more important in the world today: our differences or our common humanity?

He reflects on the Taliban and Osama bin Laden as 'people (who) think they've got the truth, and if you share their truth, your life has value'. He compares that with the views of himself and his audience and says 'most of us believe that no one has the absolute truth... because we believe as children of God, we are by definition limited in this life, in this body with these minds. That life is a journey toward truth.'

He speaks of how we put ourselves and other people into little identifying boxes. Although that has some use to us in navigating life, 'somewhere along the way, we finally come to understand that our life is more than all these boxes we're in. ...If we can't reach beyond that we'll never have a fuller life.'

Revealed truth

Christians believe that we do have a revealed truth about God and his purposes. We are in the business of leading people out of one belief and into another. And yet we would not position ourselves with the Al-Qaeda network in suggesting that the lives of those who don't share our box - and may never come to faith in Christ - are in any sense worthless or disposable. We believe that all are created in the image of God (Genesis 9.6) and we have a duty to 'do good to all' and 'to love your neighbour as yourselves' (Leviticus 19.18). No one who seeks to be obedient to the gospel should be involved in writing off the life of anyone.

More difficulty

But Clinton's remarks do invite us to look more closely at the basis on which we operate. Do we affirm our common humanity with other people who have different beliefs or do we stress only our differences? We will have more difficulty with this than those who believe, like Clinton, that no one has the truth and all are journeying towards it. If we believe that God has revealed himself in Christ and 'there is no salvation in any one else' (Acts 4,12), then we cannot help following the biblical statements that divide humanity into those who are being saved and those who are perishing. This is the theological understanding that drives our evangelism, but it should not be the only controlling feature of our relationship with other people. Indeed, if our consciousness of our difference from those outside Christ totally absorbs us, it will be counterproductive to successful evangelism!

We also need caution in our certainties about matters that are not part of God's biblical revelation, but rather the deductions or opinions of Christians. This is especially so when we know that people who share our core beliefs differ in their judgement on other matters. American Christians rejoice in capital punishment whereas most British Christians find it abhorrent. Many of us are surprised when someone tries to argue in the courts that the truth of Scripture stands or fails by his right to chastise the children in his school. Often Christians divide in facing the issue posed by Clinton as to whether what separates us from others is to be asserted above what unites us.

Always attracting

One current example of this would be attitudes to J.K. Rowling's writings about Harry Potter. Books have been written attacking it as devilish. Rowling's books have even been burned in some places. On the other hand, Francis Bridger, the evangelical principal of an Anglican theological college, has written a book to explain the gospel through these books and film. He likens the task of explaining the gospel to the Potter generation to the challenge that faced Paul on Mars Hill (Acts 17) and suggests that to use Potter for the gospel is akin to Paul's use of Greek philosophy and poetry.

The choice about Potter highlights this issue of our attitudes to the society in which we live. Do we work from a base that says we must always be attacking all that is contrary to sound doctrine or do we celebrate our common humanity and from that show the greater fullness in the gospel. In Potter terms, do we attack Harry's mother for being a witch or use her sacrifice of her own life for the salvation of her son's as a springboard to talk about One who gave his life that we might live and to show, with Paul's letter to the Ephesians, that the power of the sacrificial love of Christ is greater than any magic? Do we celebrate with others what is common in our humanity and lead on to the greater fullness of life in Christ or do we always want to present the Christian as different?

Forgiveness and film shows

Many Christians in Asia will have been presented with an issue like this at the end of the Muslim Fast month. Do they join in the feasting and asking forgiveness for their sins to one another or do they refuse the gift of the food ('food offered to idols'?) and immediately tell their neighbours that their hope for forgiveness is misplaced? The difference is demonstrated in the UK by those whose social activities are all centred around their church from those who go out to join a secular club so as to meet those not yet converted through a common interest on common ground.

Many years ago I knew a Javanese pastor who went around villages showing films. These weren't the Jesus film or some dubbed Western Christian story, but any film he could lay his hand on. Drama or documentary, it was all the same to him. As people watched the film and followed the story line, he would pick up what was presented and from there preach Jesus. There are many village churches in Central Java that started from film shows. Such evangelism is not unknown in Britain today, particularly in universities where Christians watch a film with their friends and then discuss it with the aim of presenting the gospel.

There are other aspects of Christian ministry that need to be considered in the light of Clinton's question about our celebration of common humanity. Missionary work that is only concerned with getting the message across is always likely to concentrate on what divides us from others. Work which involves someone in going to live among a people, sharing their life and enjoying their culture; work that reaches out in care to deal with the social needs of people at the same time as explaining the love of Christ to them - work like this concentrates on what unites us as human beings and it still becomes apparent that we have a new message to explain to them.

Final aim

To celebrate, as far as possible, our common humanity is to remember the final aim of the gospel, which is to establish a renewed humanity that lives to the glory of God for all eternity. We do not believe that the soul of the 21st century will be saved without the work of the Spirit of God in lives. We have a greater realisation of the power of sin than Clinton does. We know that it is only in the death of Jesus that humanity can be united (Ephesians 2.13-16), but we are also concerned to break down walls that separate and respond to hatred with love.

Some years ago I met some humanists who had begun to attend a Christian group's meetings. I asked them what attracted them to come along. Their response was that they found us more human than the Humanist Society. That is surely an accolade that we should aspire to - to be the people who are more concerned about others than ourselves; to be welcoming rather than condemning to those who differ from us; to show love and caring to all and to look to God through us to bring men and women to a knowledge of himself.

Ray Porter is OMF UK's East Region Director. He and his family spent many years ministering in Indonesia.