Can We Really Coexist?

I understand I’m getting crankier in my old age, but let’s be honest; bumper stickers and the people who love them need to be herded onto an island somewhere in the south Pacific and forced to listen to New Kids On The Block CDs for the rest of their lives. (I was going to torture them with Celine Dion but the more I think about it, people who cover their cars with bumper stickers probably love Celine Dion; NKOTB is a much safer and evil choice.) It’s bad enough that there are many sticker lovers who own very nice and expensive automobiles and they seem to have no problem desecrating their brand new BMW, but then they compound that with a sticker that is usually so inane as to make you wonder how man made his way to the top of the evolutionary ladder; something that says “My kid is an honor student at so and so high school” or the dope who still has his “John Kerry for President” on the aging but still in good shape Honda Accord or let’s not forget the classic but stupid “Watch my backside – not hers”.

But what caught my eye the other day (and not for the first time) is the “COEXIST” bumper sticker where all the letters in the word are in the shape of religious symbols. The “C” is in the shape of the crescent moon of Islam, the “T” is the cross of Christianity, etc. The only weird one is the “E” which they turned into the symbol for relativity (E=mc²). It’s not a religion but I’m guessing their giving props to the agnostics of the world. The rest of the word is rounded out with Judaism, Buddhism and Taoism. And for the first time I really sat there and thought about it (it was a long light and I’ve got a long commute to work), and I said to myself, “C’mon, seriously?”

Let’s forget the Wiccans, Buddhists, and the Taoists. Those religions have always seemed to be pretty harmless to me. And when it comes to claiming to have cornered the market on sacred truth, those three can’t hold a candle to the others. Hell, as far as I can tell they’re the only groups of this bunch that actually try to coexist. It’s the Big Three that make this particular bumper sticker laughable.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I would love nothing better than to see everyone get along. And to be fair, I know lots of Jews and evangelicals that do get along. For reasons that are nobody’s fault, I just don’t happen to know any Muslims. But I’m going to assume that there are many Muslims out there that get along with the other major groups of believers.

But here’s the thing: each of these 3 major religions claim to have (as I said earlier) cornered the market on sacred truth. And each of these truths are vastly different. Because when you get right down to it, one of the main reasons (if not the only reason) to be a believer of any kind, is your hope for eternal life. That’s it. And anyone that tells you different is lying. And Christianity, Islam and Judaism all have different ideas, or truths if you will, on how to accomplish that. Not to mention a whole belief system on who is evil and why, and who is not going to have everlasting life and why. So the only way for these groups to “COEXIST” is for each of them to just wink at their core beliefs and not really take them seriously.

The Jews come up with Yahweh. And somebody back around the time of Solomon writes one of the greatest works of literature known to man – gives us the Garden of Eden, Abraham, Moses, the whole bunch of them. Then the Christians come along, have the audacity to actually re-arrange the Jews’ beloved Hebrew Bible and turn a brilliant, charismatic wandering Jewish sage named Jesus into the son of Yahweh (who by this point in time doesn’t even resemble the really cool Yahweh of the books of Genesis and Exodus). So now the Christians, who have pretty much stolen the Jews’ watch and proceeded to tell them what time it is (old Rabbi joke), despise the Jews for not being enlightened enough to recognize their truth, and the Jews are pissed off that the Christians have not only co-opted all their great stories and most of their ideas, but they’ve actually “been fruitful and multiplied,” when in fact the Jews were the ones who Yahweh made the covenant with.

Enter the Muslims! They find a little sliver of the story in the Hebrew bible to call their own. But their truth, in the form of Allah (kind of a Yahweh on steroids) calls for a much more negative stance. They get to kill anyone who doesn’t believe in their truth. And don’t take my word for it, it’s in the Koran.

So there you have it (in a small nutshell, I grant you). Three sacred truths with just enough in common to make some people think they can COEXIST. Unfortunately, when one truth says the only true path to everlasting life is to believe in and be saved by the son of God, and the other truth says you only have to trust in the covenant between your Creator and you, and the third believes there is nothing but the Word of Allah or Koran and you are obligated to destroy anyone who says you’re full of it, you see the problem.

I would love all these ideas to COEXIST. And sometimes I see them do exactly that. One need only peruse websites like www.firstthings.com and www.commentarymagazine.com to find learned, intelligent writing on the topics of Christianity and Judaism and how they complement each other. Unfortunately one also has to read the comments from readers after they have read these articles. I offer the following which was written as part of a thread responding to an article on the website www.firstthings.com whose topic was “Why Are the Jews Chosen.” The reader writes:

“Let us not be confused however, that the majority of ethnic Jews do not believe in God's own Son, Jesus of Narazeth (0 AD). God's Word has shown numerous blessings and cursings on the Jews throughout their first 2000+ years of Biblical history (Abraham/Ishmael to Jesus/Destruction of Temple 70 AD). God obviously is continuing his covenant to bless Israel with their lands today - but only partially. Israel must one day turn towards God again through His Son. We as believers in God through Jesus must support Israel and pray for their acceptance of Jesus. Otherwise, Israel, I believe, exists only as a stumbling block for all nations-- non-believing, ex-christian nations, Muslim nations, and secular Jews. These factions can not correctly make sense of God's work in the world. Jesus, the perfect Rabbi, God's only Son, teaches from the Torah that Gentiles have now been grafted on to the remnant of Israel. Jews as well as Gentiles are invited to the great marriage feast. For those who put their faith in God through His Son, the New Jerusalem awaits - a truly blessed and eternal covenant."

Based on that quote, which is not out of the mainstream of christian or especially evangelical thinking, I defy any reader to convince me that there is a Judeo/Christian heritage that can be the basis for peaceful philosophical or theological coexistence. Forgive me for not adding an example from the Muslim camp, but one need only look in the newspaper to see how that part of the equation is working out.

As a sect of one when it comes to religion, I suppose my wish is that all of these people who actually take their religion seriously (which by definition means they can’t get along), shift their search to wisdom instead of sacred truth. The world would be a much happier place.