A Hindu, a Rabbi, a Muslim, and Matt walk into a...

Today marked a new experience for me.  I was one of four people invited to be on a religious diversity seminar/panel (although henceforth I will call it a symposium because that sounds big time).  Every time I begin the story, I feel like I'm telling a joke about some religious types walking into a bar.  Anyway, Dave and I walked in the building on Lawrence Technical University's campus and headed toward the room where the symposium was to take place.  The first thing I saw was a table with a guy sitting at it with a banner that said, "LTU Friends - OUT!"  What more could you want at the diversity symposium than the gay and lesbian association!  The really good news was that they were giving away free cookies and wow, they were delicious!  I make some small talk (consisting of "hi" and "good cookies").  Next was my meeting and hanging out with the other speakers.  We mostly shot the breeze but at one point the Rabbi said, "Well, today should be interesting."  And then the Hindu responded with, "Well, it should all sound the same."  This is where I knew that I was in trouble.  I'm pretty sure my comments would not sound like the Hindu man's comments.  Anyway, before we began, the moderator introduced the order (each of us have 15 minutes to give an overview of our beliefs) and she reminded everyone to pick up the free stickers that were offered.  You know, the ones that say “coexist” with different religious symbols making up the letters.  The set up was obvious, we were expected to get along and present a religion that can coexist with the other ones without offense.  Bad news for me...

 

The man representing Hinduism said virtually nothing.  At the end of his 15 minutes, he said that Hinduism is great but pretty much whatever you believe will eventually get you to the same good place.  Up next was the Rabbi.  He spoke well enough but didn't seem to be very Jewish to me.  I gotta be honest; my guess is that Father Abraham was none to happy with that presentation.  By this time, the students were out of it.  The Hindu and Jewish presentations had a similar affect as Tylenol PM.  It was then that I realized I had to pull out the big guns. 

 

Thinking quickly with my razor wit, I picked up on a story the Rabbi told about Moses and transitioned into the burning bush narrative.  Then I went Gaffigan with it.  You know, where he ends his routine with, "Moses, we think you've been burnin' some bush."  While I may not be invited back, it did the trick; the students were with me and awake (it could have been that they thought they were getting weed or something).  I moved into talking about how Christians are portrayed in pop culture using Angela from the Office as the example (I did dip into Ned Flanders as well).  The point being that pop culture sees Christians as judgmental, hypocritical, mean spirited, backward, and self-righteous.  Angela is really nothing like Jesus, nor should the person who follows Jesus be like Angela.  I moved on to what we do believe about the Bible (our one and only authoritative foundation), God, Man, Creation, and the Fall.  When I arrived at the Fall, I dropped the big one.  I said that because of sin, every human born has a default setting of hell when it comes to eternity.  That landed with a thud.  It was like I said the most outrageous claim that could be made.  I moved quickly to redemption and salvation through Jesus Christ alone, that only through him can our default setting be changed to heaven when we die and enter into eternity.  From there I wrapped it up and I think I made some sense.  My goal as I went into this was to a.) help the students who attended to realize that alot of what they see and hear about Christians is not who Jesus is and that being disappointed or disillusioned with someone who claims to follow Jesus is not a valid reason to reject Christianity and b.) show that there is an urgency about the Christian message that must be dealt with because if it is true, there are ultimate consequences.  I finished and then the young woman representing Islam finished off.  Again, she watered down what I know to be true about the faith and mostly talked about how great Islam is for women. 

 

That was the end of the presentations which opened the floor to questions.  Apparently, no one wanted to stay any longer than they had to and no one asked questions.  The moderator was about to dismiss when a female student dressed in Muslim apparel raised her hand and said, "I have a question for Matt."  This was it, the moment of relative truth; I could answer a question in the symposium... Then, she asked, "Who is Angela?"  My response, "She is a character on the TV show, the Office."  To which the Hindu man added, "She's not in the Bible" (his comment is much funnier if you read it with a thick Indian accent).  And with that, we were done.

 

The really cool thing about today was that after the moderator dismissed everyone, two young women came up to me and we talked about Jesus and Christianity for about 20-25 minutes.  This was the girl who asked the question and her sister.  They are Muslim but they are still seeking for truth.  They were really interested in what I had shared.  I ended up giving them my Bible because they didn't have one and Dave prayed for them that God would show himself to them as they searched for Him. 

 

As I look back on the diversity symposium, I am really thankful and humbled that I could be there.  I felt good about the way things went but I doubt that I will get invited back.  I guess that's okay... people didn't always want Jesus back either (not that I am putting myself in his class but I sure do try to reflect him in the best way I can).