The Interfaith Gospel: When Religious Unity Comes At The Expense Of Truth

Something remarkable happened inside a Catholic Mass in Belgium this month.

During the September 16 opening Mass for the academic year at KU Leuven, a Catholic university, verses from the Qur’an were chanted in Arabic inside St. Peter’s Church. Archbishop Luc Terlinden, president of the Belgian bishops’ conference, was reportedly present. 

Even more significantly, the university later confirmed that the interreligious elements were not spontaneous. They had been deliberately planned in consultation with university officials and Flemish bishops.

The justification was predictable: dialogue, reconciliation, peace.

But Christians need to ask a question that increasingly seems forbidden.

Is there a point at which interfaith dialogue stops being dialogue and becomes religious compromise?

Because Christianity is not merely one spiritual tradition among many. At the center of the Christian faith stands an extraordinarily exclusive claim: Jesus Christ is Lord.

Not one lord among many.

Not one path among many.

Jesus Himself declared, “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.”

That claim makes genuine friendship with people of other religions entirely possible. But it makes theological fusion impossible.

And increasingly, some churches seem unable–or unwilling–to understand the difference.

Hospitality Is Not The Problem

Christians should love Muslims.

Christians should love Jews, Hindus, Buddhists, atheists and everyone else.

We should share meals. We should build friendships. We should defend people’s right to worship freely. We should help neighbors in need regardless of their religion. We should be able to sit across a table from someone who profoundly disagrees with us and treat that person with dignity and respect.

None of that requires pretending our religions teach the same thing.

There is an enormous difference between inviting a Muslim neighbor to dinner and inviting Islamic worship into a Christian service.

There is a difference between discussing the Qur’an and proclaiming it from a Christian sanctuary.

There is a difference between respecting another person’s beliefs and presenting contradictory religious claims as though they are complementary paths toward the same God.

That boundary is disappearing.

In February, St. Paul United Methodist Church in Fremont, California hosted its third interfaith Iftar. Organizers describe how participants eventually entered the church sanctuary, where the program included a Qur’an recitation and a presentation on the spiritual significance of Ramadan.

In March, Holy Redeemer Catholic Church in Washington hosted Jews, Muslims and Christians for what it called a “Celebration at the Table of Abraham.” The gathering included readings from Genesis and the Qur’an, and an imam recited from the Qur’an. Muslim participants later held night prayer. The pastor described the event as celebrating “our oneness in faith, going back to Abraham.”

In Australia, St John’s Camberwell Church hosted an Iftar in March that included a Qur’an recitation alongside a Gospel reading, followed by the Islamic call to prayer marking the breaking of the fast. Organizers celebrated the event as an expression of interfaith understanding and shared values.

And earlier this month, St John’s Church in Hyde Park, London, became the venue for Modest Fashion Week London, with reporting describing models appearing in hijabs and niqabs. The symbolism of Christian buildings increasingly becoming religiously interchangeable spaces is difficult to ignore.

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