By John W. Morehead
My long-time friend and ministry colleague Paul Louis Metzger asked me to write a series of articles dealing with the broad topic of “holistic ministry” regarding other religions. Given that some of my perspectives and specific suggestions on this may be unusual to some readers, and outside of the evangelical Christian norm, I thought it would be helpful to begin the series with a discussion of my spiritual journey. By taking this approach the articles that follow will have a biographical context. This should not seem strange in that all the views that we hold, including doctrinal ones, come as a
result of our journeys and are not free floating and abstract ideas.
I was raised in a largely agnostic home where we didn’t discuss God or religion much. But we did have a family history on my dad’s side of the family that connected us to the (then named) Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (RLDS), now known as the Community of Christ, the largest of the splinter groups of Latter Day Saints Restorationism that formed after the death of Joseph Smith Jr. and headquartered in Independence, Missouri. The RLDS have a similar founding history to the more familiar LDS Church located in Salt Lake City but differ significantly in their understanding of what Joseph Smith taught.
I was a baptized member of the RLDS Church for seven years but would eventually come to doubt aspects of LDS Restorationism through Christian “countercult” apologetic critiques and leave this “cult” for evangelicalism. I continued to be influenced by countercult perspectives and eventually worked for Watchman Fellowship for a time, one of the largest and oldest countercult ministries.
But during this time, I expanded my reading in order to understand the “cults” and how to respond to them, and this included looking at the history of Christian missions, cross-cultural missiology, as well as academic studies of new religious movements (the term used in reference to what Christians label “cults”). In reflecting on all this it dawned on me that Christian missionaries in other countries tend to use a very different approach in sharing their message with those in other religions than American Christians do stateside, particularly where the new religions are concerned. Missionaries overseas tend to learn the language and culture, embed themselves in the lifeways of various people groups, and share their message in deed and word. In the American context with new religions a more aggressive posture is taken, one which emphasizes doctrinal contrast and refutation of what are seen as false teachings, and all framed in a largely confrontational approach.
This was a glaring contrast which eventually led me to leave countercult ministry to pursue a cross-cultural missions approach to new religions. This involved not only coming to a new understanding of the new religions, now viewed more as unique religious cultures rather than deviant counterfeits, but also a new way of looking at the biblical text and developing a new theology of encounter. This theology led to the development of various resources, such as an anthology volume unpacking methodological issues and feature case studies, to material that helps former Latter-day Saints move into a more traditional Christian faith. As much as I enjoyed creating these culturally sensitive evangelistic and discipleship resources, eventually I saw their limitations as I asked myself, “How do I live as a Christian among those who I have shared with but who aren’t interested in the Christian message? What does it look like to live faithfully as a disciple amid religious pluralism?”
These questions, combined with further reading and reflection, would eventually lead me to an approach called “religious diplomacy.” This involves having conversations and developing relationships with those in other religious traditions where we consider not only our similarities, but also our irreconcilable differences. Through theologically and scientifically informed conversations we can pursue trust-building and maintain a peaceful tension despite differences over beliefs as well as group values. I began this approach as the Director of the Evangelical Chapter of the Foundation for Religious Diplomacy (FRD) which goes by the name Multifaith Matters, and in 2023 I took on the additional role of Executive Director for FRD.
The topics I will address in this series and the perspectives that I bring to them come as a part of my personal journey. Eleven posts will follow this biographical prologue that touch on key topics that respond to issues that I think are important as they intersect with the ways in which evangelicals understand and respond to other religions. This includes the use of scripture, the example of Jesus, eschatological or “end times” considerations, the relationship between reason and emotions, how our desires for doctrinal purity fit in the mix, the continuing influence of our post-9/11 context, depersonalization in evangelism, an overemphasis on conversion as a goal, our appreciation for former member testimonies in defining the “religious other,” religious freedom and Christian privilege in the public square, and the need to pursue not only dialogue but also compassionate lifeways among others.
I hope you find this series informative and challenging, and I welcome feedback from readers.
John W. Morehead is the Executive Director of the Foundation for Religious Diplomacy, and the Director of its Evangelical Chapter (Multifaith Matters). You may contact him at johnwmorehead@msn.com.