Asymmetry of Power: Proselytization, Poverty, and Race

At the last session I was able to attend at the AAR Annual meeting, on inter-religious ritual participation organized by the Hindu Christian Studies group, I had an epiphany. The pioneering spirit that marks Americans can also be applied to the religious realm. Hence, someone not born into Hinduism seeks it as a new religious frontier or one that may provide a better sense of the Divine. Pioneering evangelical Christians like Brian McLaren and Rob Bell are trying to make space for Christians to practice pluralism. But I wonder how they will fit inclusive fundamentals into their theology. It may be that as long as Christians seek new Christians and there is imbalance—economic, power, whatever—between those preached to and those preached by, we will continue to have concern, hostility, and even conflict.

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