Christ Church Unity, Kansas City, MO, says, “We honor all faiths.” This affirming and inclusive statement stands near the heart of a minor social movement: the Complaint Bracelet (”21 days to a complaint-free life”), invented by the church’s pastor, Rev. Will Bowen. Bown has been featured on The Today Show and Oprah, and, more than 5.5 million people have reportedly worn one of these bracelets. I found out about it from a friend of the family who is wearing one this week. Every time she catches herself complaining, she shifts the bracelet to her other wrist. The goal is to keep it on the same wrist for 21 days.
I can see some value in that, but more on that another day. Just now I want to think about this statement, which I ran across while researching the bracelet’s background. “We honor all faiths.” Why do they say that, and what could it possibly mean?
I would be interested to hear from someone in the Unity Movement on this. Their own online literature provides information, but also raises more questions.
First. why would they say it? They have their own doctrine. The name Jesus Christ features prominently in it, but their understanding of Christ diverges markedly from historic Christianity and from the Biblical understanding of who he is. Why would they want to honor all faiths when they have their own, which they apparently consider to be true?
And what does it mean? Could it mean, perhaps, that they honor persons of all faiths? Are they saying they acknowledge the universal brotherhood of humanity, all created in the image of God, or something of the sort? That would be a fine statement, but it’s not what it says; it says “we honor all faiths,” not “persons of all faiths.” The Unity movement’s website includes a diversity statement, but it’s about diversity within the Unity movement.
Could it mean that they honor all beliefs? That interpretation closer to what the words actually say, and it would be in keeping with the tenor of a tolerant, pluralistic world that sees truth in all religions. But this is problematic, for religions disagree. To genuinely honor historic Christianity as a belief, as trust in an actual person who lived in history and who had an actual identity, one must honor not only the Christian’s life of trust, but also the things Christians believe about the actual person of Christ. Likewise to honor Islam as a belief, one must not just honor the Muslim’s way of life, but also what Muslims believe regarding Muhammad and his writings.
Beliefs have content, propositions some of which are regarded as right and others as wrong, some things to be believed and some things to be rejected. The content of a faith cannot be separated from the acts of a faith. If this church’s statement means they honor all beliefs, it must mean they honor the content of all beliefs. This is problematic, however. Is it possible to honor Jesus Christ the way historic Christianity has honored him, and at the same time to honor Muhammad as Muslims do? No; for Christians see Jesus as the Second Person of the Trinity, God in the flesh, born of a virgin, who died on the cross to redeem us of our sins, who rose again, and whose apostolic followers completed God’s authoritative revelation to us in the words of the Bible. Muslims say no to just about all of that, and they say that Muhammad said no. If you honor (support, give high regard to, or encourage) the Muslims’ belief about Jesus, you dishonor Christians’ beliefs. And vice versa.
More to the point, if you honor (support, give high regard to, or encourage) Unity’s beliefs about God, you dishonor Christians’ beliefs, for they too are not in agreement; Unity’s beliefs are much more in line with New Age pantheism than Biblical Christianity. To affirm the faith of Unity is to say that historic Christianity is really quite wrong about Jesus Christ, the central person of our faith. Is that the kind of thing they mean by honor for all faiths?
Maybe, though, they disagree that there actually is disagreement between faiths after all. Unity’s doctrinal statement says,
Unity honors the universal truths in all religions and respects each individual’s right to choose a spiritual path.
I think we’re coming closer to it here. Unity sees universal truth in all religions, and that is exactly what they honor. There’s our answer! But we must chase this down, too: Just what truths do all religious universally agree on? The nature of God (or the ultimate)? The nature of reality and its relation to God or the ultimate? Where the world came from, and where it is heading? The explanation of the human condition? The ideal spiritual state? The way to achieve that ideal spiritual state?
What looked like an answer leads to questions with no answers. I still don’t know what it means to honor all faiths….
They “respect each individual’s right to choose a spiritual path.” This, finally, does make sense. If there is one thing that virtually all religions agree on, it is that there is a spiritual path for individuals to walk. It seems Unity may be honoring something like the religious impulse. But hasn’t that religious impulse been directed into all kinds of violence? Timothy Keller has convincingly explained (mp3) how this religious impulse needs a proper grounding and channel of humility, found through the way of Jesus Christ, or else it turns deadly sour.
At any rate, it’s quite a long descent from “we honor all faiths” to acknowledging merely that humans everywhere have some kind of religious impulse. Examined closely, “we honor all faiths” seems not to mean much at all. So I return to my question, why would they say it?
I suggest two reasons. The first is that they haven’t examined it that closely, and/or they don’t expect anybody else to do so. Its meaninglessness matters little if it can give the right impression, produce the right effect.
That effect or impression is the second reason. In a world of relativism and pluralism, where tolerance is the one cardinal virtue, to be regarded as tolerant is better than to suggest that your beliefs are what you actually believe, and that you don’t believe what you don’t believe.
