This document discusses building strong religious identities through hospitality rather than hostility. It argues that religious differences alone do not separate people, but rather that people build identities in opposition to others. The document proposes examining core Christian doctrines not as markers of hostility against other faiths, but as "healing teachings" meant to bring unity. It provides examples of reinterpreting doctrines like creation, original sin, election, and the Trinity in a way that could promote solidarity across religious differences. The goal is to develop a strong Christian identity based on benevolence rather than enmity toward other faith traditions.

2. We are increasingly faced with a choice , I believe, not
between kindness and hostility, but between kindness and
nonexistence. (p. 12)

4. Us.
Them.

5. Neighbor? Us.
Them. Enemy?

6. Neighbor? Us.
Hostility? Hospitality?
Different? Same?
Them. Enemy?

20. Can there be peace among
passionately faithful people?

22. Starting Point:

23. We already know how to do 2
things quite well:

24. We already know how to do 2
things quite well:
1. how to have a strong Christian
identity that is hostile toward
people of other religions.

25. We have the only way.
STRONG-
You are going to hell.
HOSTILE
We are God’s chosen.
You worship false gods.
resistance is futile.
you will be assimilated - or

26. We already know how to do 2
things quite well:
1. how to have a strong Christian
identity that is hostile toward
people of other religions.
2. how to have a weak Christian
identity that is tolerant (benign)
toward people of other religions.

27. it doesn’t matter what you believe.
all religions are the same.
all roads lead to god.
only sincerity matters.
doctrines divide.
weak-benign
keep religion private.

28. We haven’t yet learned ...
to have a strong Christian identity
that is benevolent
toward other religions.

29. Because I Follow Jesus, I love you.
I move toward “the other.”
I break down walls of hostility.
i stand with you in solidarity.
you are made in God’s image.
strong-
i am your servant.
benevolent
I practice human-kindness.

30. A Popular
Misconception:
Our religious differences
keep us apart.

31. Actuality:
It is not our religious
differences that keep us apart,
but rather one thing we all
hold in common:

32. Actuality:
We build strong religious
identities through hostility
toward the other.

33. Give people a common enemy, and you will
give them a common identity. Deprive them
of an enemy and you will deprive them of
the crutch by which they know who they are.
- James Alison

34. "Historically, the amity, or goodwill, within the
group has often depended on enmity, or hatred,
between groups. But when you get to the global
level, that won't work... That cannot be the
dynamic that holds the planet together... But
what would be unprecedented is to have this
kind of solidarity and moral cohesion at a global
level that did not depend on the hatred of other
groups of people."
(Robert Wright, Nonzero: The Logic Of Human
Destiny, quoted in Evolutionaries: Unlocking The
Spiritual And Cultural Potential In Science's
Greatest Idea, by Carter Phipps)

35. Can Christians today build a new
kind of identity ... based on
hospitality and solidarity, not
hostility, to the other?
strong-
benevolent

36. But how?

37. Four Challenges
1. Historical
3. Liturgical
4. Missional

38. Four Challenges
1. Historical
2. Doctrinal
3. Liturgical
4. Missional

39. Must doctrinal differences
always divide us?

40. Doctrine can mean
“loyalty test”
- our tribal paint, tattoos,
feathers, and accent that
distinguish “safe us” from
“dangerous them.”

41. But doctrine can have another meaning ...
another purpose:
Doctrine can mean
“a healing teaching.”

42. What might happen if we took a
second look at our core
doctrines - not as hostile
identity markers, but as
healing teachings?

43. healing teachings
intended to bind together what
has been torn and broken
(re-ligion)?

45. The Healing Teaching of
Creation

46. We are all connected.

47. The Healing Teaching of
Original Sin

48. Tree of Life (good) - life as
creatures
Tree of Knowledge (good and
evil) -
life as gods

49. The Healing Teaching of
Election
(or chosen-ness)

50. uniquely blessed
to be a blessing:
us for all of us

51. The Healing Teaching of
Incarnation

52. God joined with human
flesh ...
all humanity taken up into
God in
solidarity

53. The Healing Teaching of
the Deity of Christ

54. Not
“Jesus is like God”
but
“God is like Jesus”

55. The Healing Teaching of
the Holy Spirit

56. Pentecost Sermon (Paul Nuechterlein)
For me, another clear sign of hope comes through the
irony of God raising up a faithful disciple of Jesus
Christ who was a Hindu and remained a Hindu. I'm
talking about Mahatma Gandhi, who said this, among
many other things, about Jesus:
Jesus expressed, as no other could, the spirit and will
of God. It is in this sense that I see him and recognize
him as the Son of God. And because the life of Jesus
has the significance and the transcendency to which I
have alluded, I believe that he belongs not solely to
Christianity, but to the entire world, to all races and
people...

57. We might ask, So why didn't Gandhi simply convert to Christianity?
But I think the better Pentecost question would be, Why should he
have to convert? Why should he have to change religions? Why
should he have to play into religion into the negative ways that
bring division? Did Jesus come to offer us a new religion to add to
our ways of dividing into differing cultures and languages -- the
Tower of Babel reality? Or did he come to help each of us within
our own religions and cultures to find the one true God of unity? I
think that Pentecost shows us the latter. We can welcome, as many
Christians are coming to do, the diversity of religious practices that
help lead to the experience of our oneness in God. Christians are
learning from Hindus and Buddhists and Muslims and indigenous
religions the effective religious practices of how to become closer to
the God of Jesus Christ. That's the Pentecost pouring out of the
Holy Spirit on all peoples, so that their experience of oneness
transcends their many languages and cultures.

58. Finally, the greatest sign of hope to me is how Gandhi helped
deepen our understanding of the Spirit of Truth, the Advocate. He
had his own name for it in Sanskrit: Satyagraha, he called it, which
translates as Truth Force. Satyagraha moved him and many millions
of people over the last century to learn Jesus' way to peace through
loving, nonviolent resistance to evil. Like Jesus on the cross, in this
way to peace we risk taking that old way of sin, righteousness, and
judgment on ourselves in order to reveal its futility, its wrongness,
and offering instead God's way of grace and forgiveness. Pentecost
is Satyagraha poured out on us so that we may bring peace to our
lives as family members, co-workers, neighbors, citizens, and, yes,
as both Jesus and Gandhi compelled us to do, as children of God --
all of humanity, children of God. Amen
Rev. Paul J. Nuechterlein
Delivered at Prince of Peace Lutheran, Portage, MI, May 27, 2012

59. The Healing Teaching of
the Trinity

60. diversity without domination
plurality without subordination
Fatherness that honors son-ness in equality (& ends patriarchy)
Son-ness that honors fatherness without rivalry (& ends patricide)
Fatherness and son-ness that uphold Spiritness without
homogeneity (ending absolutism)
A God who generates the next generation of God!

61. The Healing Teaching of
Inspiration of Scripture

62. “Manifold witness”
The plurality of truth
Unity around key questions -
arguments over best answers

63. Expanding the Dialogue
Differences within and among
Incommensurability
Complementarity
Point-Counterpoint
Scholars & Mystics

64. Four Challenges
1. Historical
2. Doctrinal
3. Liturgical
4. Missional

65. 65