Real Ministry

I spent some time today at a place called Inter-Faith Ministries. Inter-Faith Ministries is an organization which brings together people of different faiths - Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Christians and more - to promote justice among other things like feeding, housing and clothing the homeless. The saddest thing I heard all day was that there were some "Christians" who refuse to partner with the Ministry to help some people who could really use it. These "Christians" will not support an organization that brings people of different faiths together. I hated to ask, but I did anyway: was it only Christians who had such problems working with those of other faiths? Yes it was, the beautiful woman giving me a tour said.

Come on - no one's asking you to worship a different god. They're just asking for your help. You're not going to "catch" something by rubbing shoulders with someone of a different faith. If you are so concerned with the truth, how are you going to communicate it to people you are too intolerant to be near? If everyone there is doing something Jesus said was good to do, what's the problem?

Something strikes me about people who actually work with the poor and broken (as opposed to the religious people who stay in churches pretty far away from the poor): they have far less scruples. Their concern is the people they are working with, rather than policy or right belief. They don't have time for small moral issues because they are so worried about righting huge moral issues, like feeding those who are starving.