Interfaith Exploration

The tradition of our faith teaches that Jesus was Jewish.  We assume he was raised as a Jew the same way other boys would have been raised.  When Jesus started teaching there is no indication that he intended to start a new religion.  The assumption is that he had hoped to reform the Jewish faith.  His issues were mostly with the religious leaders of the day, not the religion.

After Jesus’ death and resurrection, the disciples still would have been considered a Jewish sect.  Eventually however, the followers of Jesus began to call themselves People of the Way and then Christians and it became a separate faith.

So in Lamb Biff tells how Jesus practiced faiths other than Judaism and found meaning in each of them.  He takes in the “truth” of these faiths and absorbs it into his own faith and subsequent teaching.

How do you feel about this?

A recent editorial in The Christian Century states that a Pew Forum Survey found that 70% of Americans are accepting of other faiths and believe that many religions can lead to eternal life.  (Christian Century July 29, 2008, p.7)

Do you agree with that?  Do you think Jesus (not in Lamb, but in Scripture) would agree with that?

Is respecting another religion the same as letting it change or revise your own religious beliefs?

Come on folks, what do you think?