Read this article at the Examiner.com here.

In the Gospel According to John (14:6) we read this statement by Jesus:

“I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

For scholars there has been various interpretations of this passage. For those of the more liberal stripe, like ‘The Jesus Seminar’ or Bart Ehrman, it is argued that these words were likely never actually said by Jesus. For those with a more conservative reading it has been argued that Jesus claimed to be the only way to God. In conjunction with the rest of the Christian canon this would mean that the only way to God is by trusting in the work of Jesus accomplished by his death and resurrection.

This answer often leads to the tricky question about those who have never heard about Jesus and therefore have never had the opportunity to reject or accept Jesus. What about those people? When Christianity was mostly limited to Europe this question was not so prominent. Paradoxically as Christianity became globalized, globalization began to challenge the exclusive claims of Christianity. As Todd Miles of Western Seminary has noted there was once a time when the heathen were “over there” somewhere. Christians assumed all pagans to be uncivilized, needy, and likely even immoral. Now Christians rub shoulders with Buddhist, Muslims, Hindus, and thousands of varieties of “religious others” every day. We find these people are often very moral (sometimes more so that ourselves) and usually civilized. These people are pious. These people are “good”. These people have thought through their religious views and at times these people have decided the prophet Mohammad makes more sense than the Christian New Testament.

Therefore Christian scholars such as Amos Yong, Clark Pinnock, and Veli M. Karkkainen–amongst others–have reexamined the Christian Scriptures to see if there is any hint of hope for those who do not hear about the gospel or who already have a religious persuasion that appears sufficient. The conclusions reached by these scholars should not be deemed “universalism” because it is not argued that all will be saved by God in the end (Hitler, apparently, finds little sympathy with most people). It is not even necessarily “pluralism”, per se, because it there are few conservative–especially evangelical–scholars that would argue that Buddhism, Christianity, and Islam are essentially different paths up the same mountain to the same deity that all understand in part but not fully. Rather, it is affirmed that Jesus is the only way to God, yet death and resurrection of Jesus may result in the salvation of those who do not even know about Jesus as well as those who do not fully understand what Christians are trying to say and therefore opt to remain in their own religion.

Some scholars, such as the aforementioned Karkkainen, Pinnock, and Yong, have argued that since the Christian God is described as a Trinity that God may save through other religions by the work of the same Holy Spirit that saves Christians while applying the effect of the work of Jesus to those people. Some argue that if a person lives by faith to their fullest knowledge God will count those people are righteous much like those Jews who believed in YHWH God before Jesus arrived, or those random non-Jews like Jethro, Job, and Melchizedek who somehow knew the true God outside of the religious world of Abraham and his descendents.

If the Holy Spirit is fully God, as Jesus is God, as the Father is God, then the Holy Spirit fully saves people as much as Jesus and the Father. God is one, therefore the Trinune God must save as one. Yet the work of Jesus and the work of the Holy Spirit do not always look the same. Rather, the Father uses the Son and the Spirit to rescue humanity from different angles.

At this point you may be asking “What does this have to do with U2″? I know, I know it has been an essay on a Christian ‘theology of religions’, but I think that some of these positions being reached by Christian theologians jive well with the American culture of which we are part. Many Americans will claim to be some sort of Christian. Most of those believe Christianity is the best of all religions. It is the best way because it is built on the person of Jesus. But most American Christians will not go as far as to say that Christianity is the only true religion. If there is a seemingly Christian, especially biblical, more specifically evangelical understanding of the religions of the world that holds out hope that they may too someday be saved then our culture will eat this up quickly!

U2 has promoted this movement called ‘Coexist‘ for sometime now. It is an effort to unify Buddhist, Christians, Jews, Muslims, and people of various faiths around the idea of mutual respect and civil engagement. In a post-9/11 world where many Christian Americans saw Muslim terrorist fly planes into the World Trade Center buildings, and then subsequently watched on television as our “Christian” president told a “Christian” nation that we were invading Afghanistan and then Iraq, we are prime for any movement that signals a truce. Let us be and we will let you be as well.

At the beginning of the 360 Tour concert in Chicago, IL, on Saturday evening September 12th, U2 opened with the song ‘Breathe’ from their newest album. The song usually has a line that ends one of the verses that says, “I can breathe, breathe now”. Bono ended the song saying, “Spirit breathe, Spirit breathe”. Bono is well known for praying, or singing Psalms, or even hymns like ‘Amazing Grace’ at U2 concerts. For many Christians, including myself, this is very enjoyable. Yet we know when thousands of thousand of people are packed into Soldier Field there is a good chance that thousands and thousands of those screaming fans are not Christians. Yet there is no offense taken by Bono’s prayers. Is this because everyone is fine with Bono being a Christian of sorts? Or is this because Bono may be praying to the Christian God but you are welcome to direct your own prayer toward your own god because when it all boils down to it the Holy Spirit is working through all religions to bring us to a place of unity “Where the streets have no name”?

It is most evident that the entertainers of this world are very influential as regards public opinion. Brad Pitt may not be the most brilliant man in the world, but his good looks get people to sign on to the ‘One’ campaign. George Clooney makes us all want to go to Africa to help HIV/AIDS victims. Madonna and Angelina Jolie make us want to adopt orphans from Asia. Christians see these good deeds and we ask, “What is the difference between these people and myself? These people are even better people than me!” And if it comes down to loyalty to Jesus we Christians will always (?) side with Jesus. But now we have a reason to believe that Jesus has sided with us, and them, and through the Holy Spirit pretty much everyone in the world. This is the world-view most of us now share and we now ask ourselves this question, “Why do we even proclaim Christianity anymore? Let’s live and let live.”

Also: Read my December 21st, 2005, post: ‘Is Bono anti-Christ?’ here.