Faithful Philly Forum

In recent weeks, Penn students could find members of the “World Mission Society Church of God” walking about the campus to let students know about their beliefs. Such events bring up an interesting talking point: “How are we as Christians to evangelize or to engage in mission?”  One thing I’ve learned is that mission can be or should be synonymous with dialog.  We have to be willing to listen to people and not only listen, but to learn as well.  In doing so, we will find ourselves and our faith enriched.  So often we get caught up trying to teach and preach to everyone, but this is a completely narrow way to go about mission work.  Of course we can still proclaim our beliefs, but we should also keep in mind the validity of the religion of others as well.  One question that I want to end with is offered by Paul Knitter (a professor at Union Theological Seminary), “Does Jesus have to be solely or only in order to be truly?”

There seems to be a lot of praying happening on College Green at Penn these days. I hadn’t been on a morning run through campus for a week, so saw for the first time today both the Penn for Jesus House of Prayer tent near Van Pelt Library and then an arch of balloons over Locust Walk at 36th Street with a sign nearby announcing the Muslim Students Association Islam Awareness Week.

The House of Prayer tent was up last spring and even garnered a favorable cartoon in The Daily Pennsylvanian. I am not on campus regularly, so I may have missed it, but I do not recall such a public witness by the Muslim Students Association before.

I see positive things in both of these efforts. First is the toleration that apparently is being shown, at least by not damaging their public displays, for both Muslims and conservative Christians, neither of which is a huge presence at Penn. I think too many undergraduates in particular combine a little smarts with a little education and have a know-it-all attitude that takes some experience with life to soften. It is too easy to reflexively oppose what is different and students, like so many others, want to “fit in.”

As for the two groups, I am pleased to see conservative Christians doing something other than confrontational “witnessing” that I find counterproductive and, as a Christian, embarrassing. If the Muslim Students Association is finding its public voice, that may be a sign that Islam is moving beyond a post-9/11 defensiveness and is dealing with the violence issues it has. All in all, I sensed a refreshing openness that perhaps signals a renewed place for the religious viewpoint in the public square. I hope this leads to a larger place for the Christian Association’s peace and justice focus in our civic and religious life.