Book Review: Why Did Jesus, Moses, the Buddha, and Muhammad Cross the Road?

Today, 9/11/2012, marks the release of Brian McLaren’s book Why Did Jesus, Moses, the Buddha, and Muhammad Cross the Road?: Christian Identity in a Multi-Faith World. The date, of course, is significant. It’s been 11 years since the tragedy of 9/11 – a tragedy that had religious overtones, but also political and economic overtones as well.

The question I often ask myself about religion is simple: What needs to stay and what needs to go? Jesus might have asked, “What’s the wheat in religion and what’s the chaff we need to burn?” Brian’s book has helped me discern an answer to that question.

Bob Koehler and I interviewed Brian about the book last week on our podcast Voices of Peace. At the end of the show, I asked him about the title of his book. “So, Brian, why did Jesus, Moses, the Buddha, and Muhammad cross the road?” Brian responded, “To get to the other.”

Of course, one can get to the “other” to do harm or to do good. But the point of Brian’s book is that Christians need to have a strong identity based on the love of Christ. Christ loved the “other.” He loved people as they were and for who they were.

For Christians, that’s the point of our religious identity in the post 9/11 world. Some bloggers are suggesting that Brian is somehow watering down Christ. That Christ would help people, sure, but Christ would also demand that they worship him, or he’d send them to hell. That’s not the Christ I see in the Bible. Brian has helped me see that Christ had no superiority complex. He didn’t get into a rivalry with people by demanding that they worship him; rather, he did things like wash 1st century filthy, nasty, sandal-wearing Mediterranean feet! Jesus came to serve, not to be served! It’s true: Jesus did come to convert us, but he came to convert us away from a life of hell on earth. Away from a life of violence over and against others and into a life of love and compassion that is for the flourishing of others.

Christian tradition has always emphasized the cross, but has frequently gotten the cross wrong by stating that the Father demanded the violent death of the Son. That understanding of the cross, often referred to as penal substitution, is wrong. It’s a myth based on a god of violence; it’s not the Gospel, which is based on the God of love. So, the Father didn’t demand the death of the Son; we humans did! We are the ones who demanded that Jesus be crucified, and we continue to demand crucifixion in various forms of violence today.

The Gospel Jesus proclaimed invites us to stop our hostility and violence against one another. His early followers learned from him that God is love and violence belongs to us alone. Brian claims that the violence we witnessed 11 years ago and the violence that continues to rage leaves us with a choice. “We are increasingly faced with a choice,” writes Brian, “not between kindness and hostility, but between kindness and nonexistence.”

Kindness or nonexistence.

How can we be kind and love the “other” in a post 9/11 world? However Christians answer that question, Jesus was right: Our future depends on love and compassion. Brian is leading the way in helping us answer that question in our 21st century context. And so I hope you read his book!