A Christian school in Atlanta, defending its decision to add non-Christian teachers to its staff, recently held a meeting of parents, faculty, and students. As part of the program, there was a panel discussion among two or three parents, faculty members, and students, with the panel being moderated by a prominent, Ph.D. theologian and Episcopal priest from Texas. Early in the proceedings, the theologian said something to the effect that, “Christians just need to understand that Jesus is not the only way to God and the sooner they get over this idea of exclusivity, the better off everyone will be.”
In response to that statement, one of the student panelists, a sixteen year-old girl, said, “Excuse me, but like that doesn’t make any sense.”
“Why do you say that?” asked the theologian. The young girl replied, “Because if there’s more than one way to God, why would God come up with another way involving the death of his own son?”
One could see the audience perk up and nod to one another as they all came to the same conclusion: “That’s not a bad question.”
“No,” said the theologian, “My point is simply this, if you want to get from Atlanta to New York, you can take a train, you can take a plane, you can take a boat. The point is that you get to New York, not how you get there.”
The young girl replied, “Well, I mean, like, no offense or anything, but that still doesn’t make any sense. If you can take a plane, or a train, or a boat, or whatever, like why would God make his son get out and push the car?”
I could see that the theologian had had about enough of this conversation. She said, “Look. When you’re young, you want everything to be neat, and tidy, and simple, but when you get older you realize that the world doesn’t Page 12 Theology Matters • Jan/Feb 2004 always work out that way. When you’re older, you’ll learn to accept ambiguity and complexity.”
At that point, another high school student in the audience spoke out, “Wait a minute. You cannot write her off just because she’s a kid. She’s asked a good question, and you’ve got to answer her.” Several voices in the audience could be heard to say, “Yeah!” Instead, we went on to another topic.
What a wonderful evening. My own impression is that we could not have asked for a better apologetic device than to watch the child confound the scholar.
This article first appeared in Theology Matters, Vol. 10, No. 1 (Jan/Feb 2004).
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