Related articles and links |  1 of 2

When Lutheran leader David Benke declined an invitation to participate in an ecumenical prayer service in 1999, other participants left an empty chair at the altar to represent the loss of his perspective. Benke, a district president of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, is now under fire for participating in the nationally televised memorial service, "A Prayer for America," held September 23 at Yankee Stadium. Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Sikh, and Hindu clergy participated in the service. As a result, five lcms pastors have charged Benke with syncretism, and the charge could lead to his expulsion from the denomination.

Whether Christians should be involved in interfaith services has become a more frequent and urgent question since the terror strikes on September 11. Many Christians, both ministers and laity, wish to extend hands of peace and goodwill to our Muslim neighbors. Depending on individual circumstances, the message of Benke's empty chair at the ecumenical service can also apply to an interfaith gathering: The community is poorer if it is deprived of a clear evangelical Christian witness. Whenever it is possible to maintain our distinctive witness, we should participate.

Those who oppose interfaith services argue that they are, by definition, syncretistic. Their concern is sometimes well founded. The gospel is diluted when the public gets the message that all religions are essentially the same or worship the same God. That danger depends largely on the choices of an event's organizers. How willing are they to welcome free expression of widely diverging beliefs?

So how can evangelicals participate in interfaith services in ways that are true to our consciences? The key lies in the distinction between worship and witness. The Reformation traditions address the purity of worship by asking, Is the word of God rightly proclaimed? and Are the sacraments rightly administered? If Christian leaders were to celebrate Communion in an interfaith service, they would rip that ordinance from its proper context and confuse the non-Christians who are present. Likewise, Christian leaders achieve nothing for the gospel by participating in a service in which non-Christian worship rites predominate.

Nevertheless, leaders can and do honor Christ when they add a distinctly Christian voice to a multicultural civic event such as "A Prayer for America." Christians can offer what the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) calls a "respectful presence" to those of other religions. A pcusa document describes this attitude as "authentic attentiveness to the symbolic expressions of other religious communities," and adds that "respectful presence goes beyond mere tolerance." When communities gather to mourn or to celebrate, our fellow human beings are expressing their deepest sorrow or gratitude. That merits a "respectful presence" even when the rites they use may be disagreeable.

Christian leaders attending interfaith services can bear witness to Christ in the hope that some will respond to Jesus' claims of being God incarnate. That does not mean every prayer must contain our essential doctrines, or that a minister must turn an invocation into a sermon. Nevertheless, in some situations, we can and must explicitly witness to the truth and uniqueness of the gospel by speaking of Jesus and his claims.

Because the implications of a worship service are not involved in most civic events, giving an invocation or benediction at a graduation ceremony or a city council meeting is an appropriate expression of religion in a civic context. From a civic perspective, all religions are equal. Because Christianity's influence on American society is weaker than in the past, we should ensure that our chair is not empty when religion is represented in the public square.

next page... |  1 of 2

March 11 2002, Vol. 46, No. 3