The Whole Truth

I was reminded this week of a very dear uncle in Argentina.  He was one of seven children born to Henry Booth and his wife. Henry was a missionary from the UK working with the Salvation Army in Argentina.  This particular uncle was christened William after the founder of the Salvation Army, William Booth.  He was known affectionately as Tío Willy (tío means uncle).  Many of the descendants of Henry followed in his footsteps and became full time ministers in the church.  Tío Willy was different.  As an adult he didn’t commit to organised religion.  He also remained single until quite advanced in years, eventually marrying a lady who had been a constant companion for many years.  Although I’m part of the family only through marriage, I have very fond memories of him.  What I do remember very well about Tío Willy was that everybody loved him.  He was always fun to be with.  He played with his nieces and nephews and as the years passed with their children also.  But amidst all the banter and fun there was always a wise comment that stayed with us, as cousin Tommy reminded me this week.  He ‘preached’ but in a different way and I think we probably remember his words more than the many sermons we heard.

E Stanley Jones

I was also reminded this week of a book I read about 50 years ago about another missionary, E Stanley Jones.  Julie Hogben is reading his life story and commented on it in her blog.  Thanks Julie for the reminder of this remarkable man. Often missionaries went to countries with a bit of empire spirit, going to convert the ‘heathens’ to a Western way of thinking, dressing and behaving.  E Stanley Jones was greatly influenced by the words of a Hindu judge when he said to him, ‘We want you, if you come in the right way’.  He discovered that a better way was to become more like those he had gone to teach and be with – being one of them and learning to understand their ways and lifestyle.  He was also greatly influenced by Ghandi with whom he became great friends and wrote a book about him and how he was a man who changed things for the better for his fellow Indians but by peaceful protest.  Ghandi was not a Christian but had great wisdom and truth.  It was this book and Ghandi’s example that influenced Martin Luther King to peaceful protest in the USA against racism.

Once on a long train journey E Stanley Jones, ever the eager evangelist, spoke to an English-speaking Muslim and shared with him the Sermon on the Mount.  When he had finished he expected the Muslim to seek conversion to Christianity and was surprised when he said, ‘We have the same thing in our Sacred Book’.  I also know of a person in my extended family who has become a Muslim of her own free will.  She had been born into and brought up in a Christian home with both parents being church ministers but wanted to learn about Islam and decided that it was how she felt she was able to express her spirituality in a better and more fulfilling way.  There is sometimes an attitude among non-Christians that all religions are the same and that only the paths to God are different.  As a Christian I can’t go along with that but believe that Jesus, the Son of God is the true way.  However I do think that we miss much by dismissing all non-Christians out of hand without really knowing much if anything about how they think or what they really believe.  I sometimes wonder if I had been born into a Hindu home in India would I be a Christian today?  Or if I had been born in Russia or China, would I be a Christian?

Someone once said, ‘everything in the Bible is true but not all truth is in the Bible’.  I do think that we can look and learn from the wisdom of others, even though they walk a different path.  It’s quite arrogant on our part, I fear, that we in the west think we have a monopoly on the truth.  For too many centuries western Christianity has sought to impose its way of thinking on others with a rather patronising, colonial attitude while at the same time missing some great truths and practices from which we could learn much.  We need only to think of history – the Crusades, the Inquisition and the massacre of whole tribes of New World Indians in order to ‘convert’ the world to our Christian beliefs and ways.  God is in all and loves ALL His creation, even those who are NOT like us and He appears where He wills.

I close with the words of E Stanley Jones in his book ‘The Christ of the Indian Road’.

Christianity is actually breaking out beyond the borders of the Christian Church and is being seen in the most unexpected places.  If those who have not the spirit of Jesus are none of His, no matter what outward symbols they possess, then conversely those who have the spirit of Jesus are His, no matter what outward symbols they may lack.