I’ve suggested in the past that the Golden Rule is a good guide to interreligious interaction. Ironically, people who subscribe to it as a core principle in their lives, having been taught it through their religion, sometimes feel that their commitment to that religion means that they should approach the religious ideas of others in a manner radically different from the way they want their own to be treated. I still think that the Golden Rule applies here just as everywhere else. Perhaps it is worth noting that there seems to be a corollary with a willingness of some Christians to love their enemies who are simply hostile people in the workplace, or outsiders to their faith, but not people who are fellow Christians that disagree with them about matters of theology. In both instances, it seems that a set of beliefs has been turned into an idol to such an extent, that defense of it is felt to completely override the core ethical teachings that are, at least in theory, a part of that very set of beliefs.
Of related interest, Randal Rauser wrote the following in a discussion of whether the Qur’an is more violent than the Bible:
The Bible and the Qur’an both have violent passages and the religious communities formed around both texts have justified many acts of violence in the name of those texts.
The three-fold lesson: don’t throw stones in glass houses, deal with the log in your own eye first, and treat others as you’d like to be treated.
Hendrickson had a post about how Christians should approach controversial books.
https://academic.logos.com/teaching-outside-your-tradition-four-suggestions-toward-transformational-pedagogy/
Keith Giles also blogged about what Christians and Muslims share in common.
Finally, Pete Enns shared an infographic that I think deserves to be circulated, about how to communicate with those we disagree with.
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