GRACE TOWARD THE RELIGIOUSLY DIFFERENT

By Job Ayuba, 20^th December, 2016

 

Religion at its best is seen in human compassion. Its beauty is seen when a human being put aside his interest to serve the needs of others. What matters in religion is not my right but human responsibility for others and all creations. The most important principle of the religious life is self-sacrifice. Sacrificing oneself for the benefit of others is the essence of the religious life.

In our time, what is conspicuous in the human landscape is difference – human diversity. We define people by how different they are from us culturally, racially, economically, and religiously. We suddenly discover that others are different from us and we find it difficult to handle such difference that we just want to recreate a monolithic world. But the question is: how should such a monolithic world look like? Should it be structured with a common culture, and if so, what should that culture be? It is the contest of human difference and human sameness. The world should be like me a little bit. When it turns out to be different somehow I should insist it becomes like me anyway. It is like I have suddenly realized I am that Nietzschean “superman” and all of us are now that Orwellian “Big Brother” watching against difference.

This same mindset has crept into our practice of religion. The quality of the religious life has been affected by our tendency to see how different other people are religiously. And we interpret that difference as less humanity – which occasions reduced human dignity. If the other has less humanity then killing that other has less consequence for me, and it is an act of favor for the world. A much better incentive to kill the religious other is to see it as a religious duty approve by divine revelation and carrying the promise of divine reward. That is the state of religious thinking in our world today which daily continues to destroy human lives and afflicting pains to families around the world.

An attitude of grace will change how we see others who are different from us. In demonstrating grace, God gave his son for those who deserve only his wrath. A holy God should have no relations with sinners. But grace moves holiness to reach out to the sinner (who is different) for the good of that sinner. As those who believe in God, we should also reach out to those who are religiously different from us for their good. They are the objects of God’s love and it is our responsibility to love them as God does. Without an attitude of grace the world will progress in its path of violence. Healing our religions of hate and bigotry may be the way to save humanity and the world.