Long

time ago, the church house was called the "meeting house." Television

has shown us in the old days when town hall meetings took place at the

meeting house, the church, which had a steeple, bell, stained glass windows

and everything.

Today

city council chambers, school cafeterias, hotel ballrooms, and civic auditoriums

serve as meeting houses. Not much need any longer for the church meeting

house to meet those kinds of needs.

Perhaps,

at times, we should reclaim that idea. If that kind of idea were at work,

perhaps all the negative stuff between a Methodist minister and Jewish

rabbi could have been avoided.

It's

not that I believe the Jews, nor the Nation of Islam, nor the Hindus,

nor the Buddhists have it all wrong. It's just, in my Biblical perspective,

they don't have it as clearly as possible namely that Jesus is the face

of God. I believe that each of the above has something worthwhile to say

to me and, should I say, to my congregation.

But

why are we afraid of one another? A good Buddhist should not be afraid

of me as a Bible-believing, evangelical Christian. And I am not afraid

of a committed Buddhist.

Certainly

they believe differently than I. I believe that there is given no other

name under heaven by which anyone can be saved other than Jesus Christ.

I believe that Jesus Christ is the way, the truth, and the life and that

no one can reach the Father in heaven but by Jesus. Those are some of

my unshakeable beliefs.

Even

as so far as River's Edge Community Church, my home church, is concerned,

we are rooted and grounded in the historic, conservative, Biblical faith.

Deep down in our soul we believe in "the blood, the book, and the

blessed home." But included in that is that we should be a love and

a light for all people.

Jesus

wants me and you if you are a Christian to love all peoples regardless

of their race, cultural identity, religion, non-religion, economic status,

or gender preferences. And yes, that introduces and includes homosexuals.

Truly, not the same as another religion but a stretch for many Christians

to love (yes, we should hate the sin and love the sinner a concept that

many of the homosexual community think impossible of us fundamentalists).

When

I was in a Baptist seminary, my professor invited a conservative rabbi

to speak to our class. We learned a lot about Judaism. He taught us a

lot. Guess what? Not a single class member converted to Judaism. But we

did learn.

Jesus

said that others will know we are his followers by our behavior of love:

loving our enemies, making friends with our opponents especially opponents

in legal affairs, praying for those who persecute us and on and on. Man!

Jesus was a radical revolutionary.

Could

it be that God wants us to find out about one another and not be threatened

white and Jew and Buddhist and Hindu and Muslim? Why not invite your friends

over to your mosque, temple, shrine, or even the meeting house, the church?

The Rev. Dr. John Hatcher

is pastor of River's Edge

Community Church

in Fayetteville.

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