Richard Mouw on Dialogue

Fuller Seminary President Richard Mouw speaks candidly about the importance of inter-religious dialogue. His views are controversial in some circles.
       Those Christians who value evangelism over anything else fear that dialoging with other world religions compromises the Truth of the gospel.
       Those Christians who value dialogue and justice more than anything else fear that other world religions will be alienated by Christians who try to cram God down the throat of non-Christians.
Listen to how Mouw addresses this issue in the lead article from Theology, News and Notes.

"It is important to value both evangelism and dialoguing without reducing the one with the other. The two activities have a complementary relationship. Christians can engage in evangelization while at the same time hoping to gain new understanding through dialogue with other religions, so when "evangelism" and "dialogue" become the watchwords of two opposing camps, it leaves me very uncomfortable."

       It leaves me uncomfortable also. I have two concerns or critiques of we Christians in this regard:
1) I am concerned that we who value evangelism are fundamentally insecure in our beliefs so we refuse to listen people of other faiths. We become narrow-minded and end up having the attitude, "God said it, I believe it, that settles it."
2) I am also concerned that progressives who value dialogue jettison the uniqueness of Christ and His Kingdom. We can be so accommodating that we lose the core of our beliefs in Jesus.