A Faith of Many Rooms is a beautifully written, authentic and intelligent invitation to Christians to cast their views wider than their own faith, in line with what the Gospels actually teach. God is love, and even if you don’t know much about other religions, there is always cause to live alongside others in peace. One contentious issue in England is the use of Halal and Kosher meat (unstunned, not in line with Compassion in World Farming veterinary guidelines for welfare). However there is an easy solution to this that still enables peace between religions, as it’s okay to be vegan if you’re Muslin or Jewish.
If your faith feels too small, make it roomier. Not doing so is the very reason why people are leaving the Church in droves, due to the hypocrisy: Jesus was a peaceful man who lived simply, yet often the very people at the head of our churches are millionaires or billionaires, hunt our wildlife and try to make demons out of those who do not follow their faith. In the US, it’s even worse where people are told they will go to Hell, if they practice yoga or chant mantras!
I have been feasting on Debie’s words for years. I say that she reads the Bible like a radiologist reads an MRI, seeing things I could never see. The story of her journey from the cramped closet of an evangelical childhood to the ‘many rooms’ of a more generous faith is one of her greatest gifts to the church, and one I hope she will continue to share. It inspires my own journey. Pastor Jim Somerville
Debie Thomas is a speaker on Scripture, faith and writing, with a master’s degree in English Literature and an MFA in creative writing. She serves as a minister in California, USA.
You likely know of Gandhi who liberated India. But did you know that this devout Hindu was once considering being a Christian? He changed his mind when he experienced racism, and decided to ‘keep the good bits’ about the Christian faith (like Jesus) but forget the rest!
Likewise, one Christian preacher was once handing out pamphlets in India to tell them of the dangers of being a Hindu. Nobody took one. When he asked (allegedly Gandhi) why, he apparently replied ‘Once you start behaving like a Christian, maybe someone will listen!’
Be careful about religious zealots. Here are examples:
This highly-qualified homeopathic practitioner has lots of testimonials (including likely saving the life of a woman with a near-fatal brain injury and healing serious abscesses on a child). Homeopathy at Wellie Level (run by homeopaths and qualified vets) also have excellent courses and testimonials) including by farmers who would have lost their herds to mastitis, were it not for help.
Yet one major US Catholic website warns people not to practice homeopathy as there is no proof (actually there is), that homeopathic medicines are ‘linked to the New Age’ (they are not) and they don’t have Papal approval (but The Vatican covered up child abuse and currently rents out land to McDonald’s for around 30,000 Euros per month).
For real Catholic wisdom, the book Jesus and the Lotus is a wonderful read by Russil Paul (who has lived in both the Catholic and Hindu faiths so is expert on both) and looks at what we share to thrive, rather than what keeps people apart.
In the US especially there tends to be many ex New-Agers (which is not the same as real Eastern wisdom) who now are hard-right Christians who are scaring the daylights out of anyone who wishes say to practice yoga or visit a Buddhist temple. But it’s interesting that many are former famous new agers who made a lot of money, before conversion.
And instead of going away to pray in peace, these very ‘new Christians’ have taken it upon themselves to be ‘lead players’ in converting everyone else. When there are obviously far more experienced Christian writers who could do this. And there is also a bit of narcissism here: all these people seem to be from the US – which only has around 1 in 50 of the world’s population. Surely if God had ‘appeared as a vision’ to tell the world’, they would tell someone to go spread the word in China?
