How Christians Refer to Each Other Matters

Recently, the Wooster City Chamber of Congress sponsored a religions roundtable as part of their yearlong leadership Wooster program. This event invited participants from seven religious traditions (Jewish, Muslim, Catholic, Mennonite, Nazarene, Mormon, and Unitarian Universalist) to present their faiths to leaders from local businesses. Each presentation lasted twenty minutes, providing an overview of the history, beliefs, practices, and local expressions of these religious traditions.

I was able to attend this roundtable as a presenter for the Mennonite tradition. It was an incredible experience as I was able to learn from and interact with a wide range of leaders in the community. They had many questions and insights about the Mennonites. I tried my best to answer and respond to them (not being raised as a Mennonite did not help in this regard).

Looking back on the whole experience, which lasted about four hours, I am struck by two details: first, the incredible respect shown by the participants for their neighbors of different faiths and second, the use of the term “religion” by many for describing the various Christian and non-Christian traditions. Most of the participants in the program were affiliated with a Christian church. When referring to Islam or Judaism they often spoke of them as other “religions.” This made perfect sense to me. What caught me off guard was when they described the different Christian traditions (Protestant, Catholic, and Orthodox) as different religions. From my perspective, they are different expressions of the same religion: Christianity. I made this point several times during my presentations. It resonated more with some participants more than others.

During the presentations, many of the participants seemed to appreciate the language of traditions, expressions, forms, and streams of Christianity. Some however preferred to use the term “religion” for the different Christian groups and one person even mentioned the term “sect.” As I mentioned earlier, all terms were used with the utmost respect so there was no sense that anyone was berating the various churches. Aside from the enjoyment of dialoguing with so many interesting people, I left the roundtable event with one question in mind: how can I effectively share with others a vision for the common foundations that many churches share in the scriptures and the ancient creeds without sounding dismissive of their significant differences?

Whatever the answer may be to this question I do believe that the way Christians refer to each other matters. Paul reminds us that we need to make “every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” because “there is one body and one Spirit…one hope…one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all” (Ephesians 4:3-6). Perhaps, if we can recognize these powerful foundations of our faith in Christians of other traditions we will begin to think of them as part of our broader family and as part of one Christian religion.