I am a homegrown Punatic with a love for the cultures and religions of the world.  In my studies, I recently came across an enlightening quote from Mahatma Gandhi, a man that I deeply respect.  Gandhi was asked by E. Stanley Jones, a friend and Christian missionary what advice he might have for indigenizing the teachings of Christ in India.  While Gandhi’s words apply directly to Christians like me, I believe that we can all learn from his insight and wisdom.

“I would suggest first of all that all of you Christians, missionaries and all, begin to live more like Jesus Christ”.

No one has ever lived like Jesus, but if Christians claim to know and worship him, then surely their lives should look a little more like that wild man from Galilee.  It is interesting to me when I hear people talk about “Christians.”  The names that usually go along with this title are are, “Evangelical, right-wing, conservative, fundamentalist.”  And if it wasn’t obvious enough, these are not often expressed as terms of endearment.  But occasionally I hear someone say, “The people at that church, they are real Christians.”  And with those simple words, there is a shared understanding.  We like “real Christians” because they are actually like their Master… and this is a very good thing indeed.

“Second” he said “I would suggest that you must practice your religion without adulterating or toning it down”.

Here Gandhi stands in stark contrast to all those who would seek to emasculate and relativize the teachings of Christ by making him into merely some self-realized guru, or a fabrication of church dogma.  As Gandhi knew, Jesus of Nazareth was the most radical and subversive man to have ever lived and only when we take him at full strength will we experience the true power of his life and message.

“Third I would suggest that you must put your emphasis upon love, for love is the center and soul of Christianity”.

Politics, dogma, legalism, and the color of the new church carpet.  These are all the stupid things that churches often get caught up in.  “As I have loved you, so love one another.”  This is the whole of Christ’s message and this is where the focus of every professing Christian needs to be.

“Fourth I would suggest that you study the non-Christian religions and culture more sympathetically in order to find the good that is in them, so that you might have a more sympathetic approach to the people.”

We Christians are often quick to find the splinter in everyone else’s eye, all the while having a log of blindness and fear in our own.  I have learned many things from the spiritual quests of those on different paths than mine.  If Christians truly believe that the Creator God has revealed himself in all of creation, then perhaps we should be slower to judge and quicker to listen when one of our fellow creatures speaks to us about the Divine.

(Gandhi quotes from Christ of the Indian Road by E. Stanley Jones).