When asked what I love most about living in New York City, my first response is always its diversity. And while New York is diverse in many ways, racially, economically, culturally, just to name a few, the most inspiring to me is the religious diversity found in this city. The very fact that I can pass a Buddhist center offering free yoga sessions, greet a Muslim woman smiling with her eyes, and watch a Hindu boy pull at his mother’s sari, all on my way to work, fills me with a great sense of harmony and well being. During the winter holiday season near Columbia University where Harlem and the Upper West Side meet, as I walk under trees leafed in tiny, white lights, I might find a street vendor selling a wooden kinara of Kwanza candles next to an electric Hanukkah menorah with frosted blue blubs while smelling fresh Christmas evergreens for sale just steps away. I will receive invitations to both a Winter Solstice party from Radical Faeire friends and a simple holiday meal with friends who are agnostic and atheist. While I am confidently, unapologetically Christian, my city and personal life abounds with strangers, friends and acquaintances from a potpourri of beliefs, religions, faiths, and spiritualities.
Like the city itself, my church home, The Riverside Church, is also quite diverse, which is one of the main reasons I became a member in 2002. Its mission states, “The Church commits itself to welcoming all persons, celebrating the diversity found in a Congregation broadly inclusive of persons from different backgrounds of characteristics, including race, economic class, religion, culture, ethnicity, gender, age, sexual orientation, family status and physical and mental abilities.” Riverside proclaims that we are three “I”s – International, Interracial, and Interdenominational. This was especially important to me after September 11, 2001 when fear evoked the vast prejudices in our country and further segregated groups of people. Hearing Rev. Dr. James A. Forbes, Jr. preach about the heavenly banquet where ALL are loved and blessed spoke directly to my heart and profoundly moved my spirit. Interestingly though, because Riverside professes such inclusivity, it seems some congregants have added the “I” of interfaith, which makes for a great challenge and theological dilemma for a Christian congregation. How does a Progressive Christian church maintain its Christian identity while also being broadly inclusive of persons from other religions?
Progressive Christianity, thought generally to be the living of the principles of Jesus Christ through social justice action and the questioning of fundamentalist absolutes, seemed forced to become more liberal during the presidency of George W. Bush and the rise of religious conservatism in power. Doors were opened wide for any and all to come in and worship during a time of growing intolerance and religious prejudice. However, it seems that in the process, by being “inclusive” of all faiths, some Riverside members began to lean closely to a kind of Unitarian Universalist religion and away from traditional Christian faith. Truly, to become a member of Riverside one must profess publically that “Jesus is Lord.” When I made this public proclamation of faith, I meant that I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, the embodiment of God’s unconditional love for humanity which redeems me. Once I became a member, however, I discovered that among the members there are variances on what “Jesus is Lord” actually means to each. As this is something not clarified in membership classes and perhaps only discussed in elective educational courses offered, the differences among members intensifies confusion as to our collective identity, breeds misunderstanding, and ultimately leads to conflict.
While there are many reasons it was made virtually impossible for our sixth senior minister, Rev. Dr. Brad Braxton, to continue his tenure at Riverside, including racial disharmony, compensation concerns, and stylistic differences, to me this conflict over Riverside’s Christian and fully inclusive identity seemed to be at the root. Following a rather conservative, “old-time religion” sermon preached by a visiting minister a short time after Dr. Braxton was installed, Riverside tensions exploded. The sermon, given with the best and most caring intentions, flavored with a literalist translation of Biblical texts, reopened old wounds of spiritual abuse, and the Riverside congregation erupted with varying emotions, myself included. However, the ultimate catalyst for the polarization of the church was the visiting minister’s assertion that Jesus Christ was the only way to God. Some members absolutely affirmed this position, fully vested in their salvation solely through Christ, while others thought it to be too narrow and totalitarian, especially for Progressive Christian theology. Beliefs and opinions therein were every shade of gray. Suddenly, with everyone expecting personal confirmation of their own, Dr. Braxton was placed in a very precarious position. How was he to affirm that we, as a Christian church, do believe that for us Jesus Christ is our way to God while also being inclusive of those to whom Jesus Christ is not their way to God in our “broadly inclusive” church? At the time, I wrestled with the issue myself and attempted to find my own solution. The verse in which Christ says that we should not be ashamed of Him (Mark 8:38 & Luke 9:26) kept resurfacing in my mind while my belief that because God so loves the whole world, no one can be rejected by God’s love did also. In a church as progressive and liberal as Riverside, it was a great challenge and an almost impossible tight rope on which to balance. Dr. Braxton answered from his heart’s conviction. He disapproved of the manner in which the visiting minister relayed his message; however, he unabashedly proclaimed Riverside’s Christian identity as a church of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Unfortunately, to Riverside, a congregation of deep-seeded conflicts and lingering scuffles, no solution would satisfy, and Riverside was thereby forced into some real soul-searching about our religious identity. Prayerfully, through open discussions and private conversations, we at Riverside are working through some healthy but very uncomfortable growing pains, learning what it means to be a unified and diverse community while God determines our future.
The dilemma of identity is not one solely of The Riverside Church in New York City. All across America religious or spiritual identities of persons are becoming vague and greatly individualized. In a recent report from the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, today Americans are mixing and matching their religions like never before. During a forum on “The Varieties of Nonbelief” at the Graduate Center of City University of New York, one of the panelists, Susan Jacoby, noted that the largest growth in such surveys is in the category of “Unaffiliated” where moderate and progressive Christians seem to be identifying themselves. It seems that Americans, like Riversiders, are affirming their religious differences AND are looking for a place where they can maintain these differences within a unified community. As I prepare for Christian ministry and begin my theological education, this movement fills me with so many questions for which I am hopeful I will find answers and solutions. Do there exist Christian “non-negotiables” in order to be a member of the Christian community, and if so, what are these? In what ways does the Christian community include all religions according to the inclusive love of God through Jesus Christ? How do we as Christians validate every faith journey? And if Jesus Christ’s love is not the central message of our Christian faith, then what is?
For me, personally, my spiritual voyage is a Christian one with Jesus Christ at the helm of my ark. I understand and experience God’s unconditional love and saving Grace through Him, and when I help or offer hope to someone through ministry, it comes from my Christian foundation. Nevertheless, I have found wisdom and guidance through other faith traditions which have enhanced my Christian faith and caused bountiful spiritual growth. Therefore, I do not sit in judgment of voyages different from mine or the ways in which God leads others Home. I do fully accept and affirm that there are other seas and currents by which to travel. I hope that theological education can help me better translate this. In the meantime, I can only suggest that perhaps the answer to the inclusive Christian identity dilemma lies in a very subtle difference between being inclusive and being non-exclusive: Anyone and everyone is welcome to board my ark and join me on my voyage Home to God; however, the only nourishment I can offer is what I have aboard my ark, and that is Christ. Something other might also be nourishing, but in order to receive it, you will have to travel a few oceans over.
~ Excerpt, Divinity School Application Statement, 2010
