Don't miss 'Pluralism Sunday'!

Hey! It's coming up May 11. Mark your calendar; don't forget! Mother's Day? Nope. It's "Pluralism Sunday"! The Center For Progressive Christianity has announced that on May 11: "Christian churches around the world will celebrate 'Pluralism Sunday' in worship – in recognition that other religions may be as good for others as their faith is good for them. The worship services will include speakers from other faiths, and music and liturgical elements from other religions, honoring the religious diversity of the world."

For example: Epiphany Community Unitarian Universalist Church of Fenton, Mich., has invited a Zen Buddhist "with a Christian background" to be the preacher that day; the United Church of Christ in Hopkins, Minn., will do a pulpit exchange with Bet Shalom Temple; and the Prince of Peace Church in Anniston, Ala., will conduct a service that will include readings from the Muslim and Buddhist traditions, and hopes to have a guest speaker from a local mosque. Oh, and Barbara Currie, pastor of the Congregational Church in Deering, N.H., will preach about "how Jesus is the church's gate to God, yet there are other equally important and creditable gates to God for other people."

Well, nice try, folks. But, what's being announced here is so not truly pluralistic. Your agenda is soooo timid, so orthodox, so cramped, so predictable. I mean, if you believe something, have the courage of your convictions! Go all the way! Think outside of outside the box, and go even further!

For openers, I notice the only participants in "Pluralism Sunday" are human beings. This is "pluralism"? I think not. No, this blatant act of discrimination confining all activities to humans is specieism! There will be no real religious "pluralism" until someone invites an animal or a plant to "speak" at a "worship" service.

Now, I can hear some of you nattering nabobs of negativism saying, right now, something like: "But, John, how would this work? Neither animals nor plants can speak." My answer: I have no idea. But, I do know that what is important is the journey toward trying to get animals and plants to speak. Whether this is ever accomplished is utterly irrelevant. Rome was not destroyed in a day! And as has been said: "Eleven a.m. on Sunday morning is the most specieistic hour in America." So true. And this must end!

Another way "Pluralism Sunday" appears to be unforgivably un-pluralistic, indeed anti-pluralistic: Among those mentioned as participating, I see no Jehovah's Witnesses, Schwenkfelders, Rosicrucians, Theosophists, Mormons, Hindus, Sikhs, Rastafarians, Baha'is, Scientologists, Taoists, Native Americans, Amish, Hutterites, Secular Humanists, Zoroastrians, members (in good standing, of course) of the Church of Satan, former members of the Kerista Commune, present members of the Lemurian Fellowship. And, shunned so far, or so it seems, are any practitioners of: Santeria; Voodoo; Astara; Luciferianism; Wicca.

Now, admittedly, there could be problems with communing with some of these folks. The PETA people would be all over you if you allow a Santeria priest to kill a chicken and offer its blood to orisha. And the Church of Satan is backslidden and not as devout as it used to be. A December 2007 Associated Press story reported how a teenager had sent an e-mail to administrators of the "Church" stating he wanted to "kill in the name of our unholy lord Satan." Instead of commending this bloodthirsty young lad, the Satan people reported the message to the FBI, which then informed local police who arrested the teenager!

And what would indicate a desire for real pluralism more than communing with a Voodoo high priestess? I'm looking at a color photo of one such lady who does her thing in Philadelphia. She's described as: "Visionary. Motivator. Ethnologist. Religious leader. Choreographer. Dancer. Playwright. Teacher. Mother." When she was in Haiti, she studied Loa rhythms, shantis (prayers) and dance of Haitian Voodoo. She specializes in all aspects of the Voodoo religion, from prayers to drums to divination to spiritual baths.

One Rev. Jim Burklo, ringmaster of the "Pluralism Sunday" Circus says: "We do not claim that our religion is superior to all others. Instead, we celebrate that we can grow closer to God and grow deeper in compassion, and we can understand our own traditions better, through a deeper awareness of the world's religions."

Well, Jim, I'm not sure what you mean by "our religion," because I'm not sure what your "religion" is. As for "Pastor" Barbara Currie's belief that there are ways to God other than the Lord Jesus Christ, I am dubious. And I am dubious because the Son of God, Who is God the Son, says, rather explicitly, that He is the only way to God the Father, that He is "the way, the truth and the life" and that "no man cometh unto the Father, but by me" (John 14:6). But, pluralistically speaking, what does He know? He's just God, and His is just one "opinion," right?

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John Lofton is editor of TheAmericanView.com and a "recovering Republican."