On one of the pages of the Lausanne web site it said that this month’s topic was Christian responses to religious pluralism. I couldn’t find anything on the topic, so I thought I’d write something.

Over the years I’ve seen some strange comments on religious pluralism on blogs, newsgroups, mailing lists and other electronic forums.

The gist of these comments has been that religious pluralism is a bad thing, that it is the result of an evil conspiracy, and that it should be avoided at all costs.

The people who write these things are ostensibly Christians, or claim to be. They seem to be quite numerous, or at least quite vociferous, and they also seem to assume that everyone shares their strange ideas.

What they don’t say, however, is how they intend to reverse religious pluralism, because if it is as bad as they say, it would require a new worldwide implementation of apartheid, but based on religion instead of race. Areas would have to be set apart for occupation by adherents of particular religions, and they would have to have their own shops, restaurants, TV programmes and other facilities. Is this really what they envisage? They don’t say, but it is clearly implied in what they do say.

So these Christians who are apposed to religious pluralism do not seem to have thought through the implications of their opposition. And that is probably a good reason for thinking about it now.

Another thing that perhaps needs to be thought through is whether the Group Areas allocated to adherents of a religion should be for all adherents, or just for one subset — should we have Group Areas for Roman Catholics, Protestants, Orthodox, Pentecostals and others? Or should all Christians be lumped together?

There have been attempts to abolish religious pluralism in the past. One of the most notorious was Enver Hoxha, the former ruler of Albania. In 1967 he declared that Albania was the world’s first atheist state. He abolished religious pluralism by abolishing religion altogether, and making it illegal to practise any religion. And it seems to me that any attempt to abolish religious pluralism must require a dictatorial government like Hoxha’s. Is that really what the anti-pluralism brigade want?

If we look at the history of Christianity, we can see it began in a religiously plural society. St Paul in Athens (Acts 17) noted it, and used it as an opportunity to proclaim the gospel. But the religious segregation envisaged by the anti-pluralists would deprive us of that opportunity.

So, faced with religious pluralism, I think we should take St Paul’s advice: “So then, as we have opportunity, let us work that which is good toward all men, and especially toward them that are of the household of the faith” (Gal 6:10).