Balancing Faith and Truth in Interfaith Dialogue: A Christian Guide

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A recent commencement address at a Catholic university, given by Harrison Butker, a field goal kicker for the Kansas City Chiefs, who is a Catholic himself, has stirred up quite a bit of controversy and discussion, apparently even amongst Catholics themselves. Much of what he said and shared was good and even right, and we can be thankful for his courage. But as Protestant Christians, who are Baptist by conviction, we wouldn’t, in our services, encourage or endorse any kind of interfaith dialogue with Catholics. That's because an eternal gap exists between our viewpoints regarding the Christian faith. But are there other spheres where Baptists and Catholics can come together and work towards common goals? Can we join forces to take a stand against the direction of the culture and politics? If we can, what principles should guide us? Are there things we need to be aware of that could appear as us compromising on our biblical beliefs? Join us this week on the Straight Truth Podcast as Dr. Richard Caldwell and Dr. Josh Philot converse about interfaith dialogue and discuss whether we can work together as those with common beliefs towards common goals, even though our religions and faiths differ.
Dr. Caldwell starts by reminding us that we have responsibilities as Christians in this life and how we relate to the culture. We are in this world and yet not of it. As we live in this world, we are to model and be examples of what the Bible teaches about being good and responsible citizens. We need to remember that we live in a world of unbelievers. Some of those unbelievers are religious. Some of that unbelieving religion will have a likeness to believing religion in certain tenets and concepts. Yet, it doesn’t mean that their religion is right. Because even when they’re right on something or some things, it’s still eternally misguided. So when it comes to joining arms with Roman Catholics or other religions to fight against the downward spiral of our culture and society, we need to be clear and not confuse people about our gospel distinctions. We cannot leave people with the impression that Roman Catholicism, Mormonism, Jehovah’s Witnesses, etc., believe what we believe as evangelicals about the gospel; to do so is to do damage to the gospel.
Therefore, so that we are clear about the gospel and not possibly seen to be compromising it, we will eventually have to get down to the specifics and what we are being asked to do or not asked to do. And this will need to be at the forefront of our minds. As Christians, our number one reason for existing in this world supersedes politics and cultural issues. We exist here as citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven, and as gospel ambassadors. Our preeminent issue is to glorify God with our lives. Sin issues will always be present in this world until Jesus returns, so to attack something that’s culturally relevant at this time isn’t preeminent. It is the gospel that matters the most. So, in the name of addressing cultural and political issues, we don’t ever want to cloud or make our position on the gospel confusing.
It doesn’t mean there can’t be partnerships. As Dr. Caldwell already reminded us, we have responsibilities to be upstanding citizens. Coming up in November, our country will be voting. We’ll be participating in that along with fellow citizens who are Christians, non-Christians, and others with various religious positions. But we participate in the political process as Christian citizens. In the same sort of way, you can have cultural issues where there’s similar participation, but never in a way that clouds the gospel.