AN INTERFAITH COP27 – BEWARE OR BE THERE?
Between November 6th and 18th, 2022, the UN climate conference – COP 27 – will take place on the Sinai Peninsula, in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt. The summit will not only be attended by political leaders and climate experts, but religious communities and religious leaders will also have a key role to play in addressing climate change and climate justice. Most participants acknowledge that the changes needed to diminish long-term harm to the planet will demand more than just programs and projects, it will require deeper changes in attitude and transformations of heart. Understanding that the issue of the heart is the heart of the issue, has mobilised religious leaders to organise three subsequent interfaith meetings to address the ensuing changes of attitude.
On the website https://interfaithsustain.com/returning-to-mt-sinai/, ICDS describes these meetings as follows:
“To support, challenge and inspire discussions during COP 27 at Sharm El Sheikh, interfaith climate events will take place in Sharm El Sheik, London, Jerusalem, and elsewhere that will be heart-stirring, transformative and a moment of inspiration for religious communities and for humanity. Religious leaders will call for a re-examination of deep-seated attitudes and for identifying ways to transform these attitudes for the wellbeing of Earth, our common home.”
BEYOND COP27
In addressing the issue of interfaith meetings, Christians often express the fears of coercion and establishing a “new-world religion” But believers should look beyond the fears of compromise into the realms of opportunity. This does not only apply to COP27 but also to the recent gatherings in Kazakhstan where more than 100 foreign delegates from 50 countries, including representatives of Islam, Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism, Shintoism, Taoism, Buddhism, Baha’i, Jainism attended the event.
Pope Francis, in his speech at the Congress, highly appreciated Kazakhstan’s efforts in supporting dialogue between religions. “I would like to thank Kazakhstan here for its efforts in this matter: always try to unite, always try to provoke dialogue, always try to make friends. This is an example that Kazakhstan gives to all of us, and we must follow and support it. We will not strive for a feigned compliant syncretism, it is not needed, but we will preserve our identity, always ready to accept another, for a fraternal meeting,” the Head of the Catholic Church said.
But how should Christians respond to COP27 and the subsequent interfaith movements? And does Scripture provide an example for Christians to better understand the principles involved?
Firstly, the Bible may not address the current challenges of climate change and COP27 per se, but it does provide principles for how believers should respond. One such principle is a call for o BE LIGHT. The principle is a mandate of transparency. We need to be transparent in letting the light of Christ shine through us in a season of uncertainty. The Gospel is a transparent message! The word transparent comes from medieval Latin ‘transparentem‘ which means to ‘let light through. Christians are simply people who radiate the light of the Lord in darkness and let the light of His goodness shine through us, especially in darkness. Christians are called, by definition and by vocation, to be light. Not to provide light, but to BE light.
Matthew 5:13-16 “You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot. “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven. This implies that we are to be found where darkness exists. We are not called to shine at Christian gatherings but to provide the illumination of Christ where it is absent.
This is a powerful concept. We confess a life-giving, light-bearing Gospel and this should give Christians the confidence to be presented at every gathering! We need to be there!
Secondly, Christians should pursue the mandate to contribute to the well-being of those around us. Christians should not only attend interfaith meetings but be the ones who organise them. We should contemplate what it might mean for Christians to focus on contributing to the world’s faiths instead of dominating them.
These are the kind of gatherings where Christ should be represented, where Christians should contribute and where the church should play a role. We need to be there!
Thirdly, we should never feel threatened to meet, discuss and learn from other religions. We should never see it as compromising to fellowship with people of different convictions. Jesus set the example as He sat with despised tax collectors, met with a pagan Samaritan woman, healed the son of a hated Roman soldier and touched the defiled leper. Light is not scared of darkness. Actually, light looks at its best when it is dark. Salt is of little value in a salt container. It needs to be scattered to produce flavour. As Christians, we should pursue these gatherings and not view them, and those who attend – from within and outside the Christian faith – with suspicion and slander. We need to be there!
Lastly, we need to look at scripture. A very significant principle is conveyed in Acts 10 where Peter receives instructions in a clear vision from the Holy Spirit to meet with a non-jew, Cornelius, in order to reach him with the gospel of Christ. This was indeed a personal invitation to Peter to engage in an interfaith relationship with a non-Jew. A highly inappropriate act, to say the least. Matthew Henry writes the following:
“Cornelius had received positive orders from heaven to send for Peter, whom otherwise he had not heard of, or at least not heeded; but here is another difficulty that lies in the way of bringing them together – the question is whether Peter will come to Cornelius when he is sent for; not as if he thought it below him to come at a beck, or as if he were afraid to preach his doctrine to a polite man as Cornelius was: but it sticks at a point of conscience. Cornelius is a very worthy man, and has many good qualities, but he is a Gentile, he is not circumcised; and, because God in his law had forbidden his people to associate with idolatrous nations, they would not keep company with any but those of their own religion, though they were ever so deserving, and they carried the matter so far that they made even the involuntary touch of a Gentile to contract a ceremonial pollution. Peter had not got over this stingy bigoted notion of his countrymen, and therefore will be shy of coming to Cornelius.”
“Note, God knows what services are before us, and therefore how to prepare us; and we then better know the meaning of what he has taught us when we find what occasion we have to make use of it.”
Another scriptural example is found in Acts 17:22- where Paul addresses the Areopagus. This was indeed an interfaith meeting which Paul attended and used as an opportunity to proclaim that Christ is indeed the unknown God that they served. Matthew Henry writes as follows:
“Observe, how modestly Paul mentions this. That he might not be thought a spy, nor one that had intruded himself more than became a stranger into the knowledge of their mysteries, he tells them that he observed it as he passed by, and saw their devotions, or their sacred things. It was public, and he could not forbear seeing it, and it was proper enough to make his remarks upon the religion of the place; and observe how prudently and ingeniously he takes occasion from this to bring in his discourse of the true God. [1.] He tells them that the God he preached to them was one that they did already worship, and therefore he was not a setter forth of new or strange gods: “As you have a dependence upon him, so he has had some kind of homage from you.” [2.] He was one whom they ignorantly worshipped, which was a reproach to them, who were famous all the world over for their knowledge. “Now,” says he, “I come to take away that reproach, that you may worship him understandingly whom how you worship ignorantly; and it cannot but be acceptable to have your blind devotion turned into a reasonable service, that you may not worship you know not what.”
Yes, we need to attend gatherings of this nature. In the same way that the Pope attended the meeting in Kazakhstan and intervened on behalf of the persecuted church.
No, this does not indicate compromise or concession, It also does not imply coercion into establishing a new interfaith movement, a new world order, or any form of conspiracy-driven theory. It simply means there are Christian leaders who pursue the opportunity to change the world for the better by meeting with and talking to people of other religions who have equal contributions to make.