Would Jesus challenge religious hatred?

We’ve put that question to festival-goers at Soul Survivors Momentum over the August Bank Holiday weekend!

How do you respond to a Biblical question that doesn’t have a direct Biblical answer? Jesus never, at least from what’s recorded in the Gospels, specifically addressed the issue of hate speech which seeks to incite violence towards a particular religious group. But, we do have plenty of evidence in the Bible about Jesus’ character which should help us to gain some understanding of how he would respond to religious hatred.

We do know that Jesus was very clear that not all religions are the same, and that he was unambiguous about the need for the kingdom of God; we also know that Jesus was frequently strident in his criticism of the behaviour of particular groups, not least the hypocrisy of the Pharisees. ‘Woe to you’ is uncomfortable reading for any of us. So how would he handle the issue of one religious group espousing hatred towards another?

Underlying most expressions of religious hatred is an atmosphere that allows this hatred to breed, and a sense that one religious group is superior to another. The prevailing culture in a society where hate speech occurs is one where open hostility towards another group is acceptable, as is behaving in an unjust or violent manner towards that group. How would Jesus have responded to this atmosphere and culture?

Certainly he wouldn’t have been weak and unresponsive – that wasn’t his way. Jesus wasn’t afraid to speak his mind, to upset the prevailing thinking or to challenge the leaders of a society. He had several characteristics, two of which are mentioned below, that can lead us to believe that he would have stood against anyone who promoted animosity or violence towards a particular group through the way they spoke or acted:

Firstly, Jesus, like his heavenly Father, was a lover of justice. And not just justice for Jews or the early Christians, but for all people. The Old Testament, especially passages such as Isaiah 58, make God’s heart for justice very clear; and Jesus’ manifesto in Luke 4 demonstrates that he would be following his Father’s heart in the consistent promotion of justice. Expressions of religious hatred regularly lead to injustice against a group, usually a religious minority, and Jesus would challenge that.

Secondly, Jesus spoke positively about, and behaved compassionately towards, people from other religions, even though he (of all people!) had significant theological differences with them. The story of the Good Samaritan portrays Samaritans in a positive light when, at the time, they were the target of much animosity. Jesus couldn’t be any clearer that we should love our neighbour, regardless as to who that neighbour is. The call isn’t just to see people as our neighbours, but to be neighbourly towards them. Expressions of religious hatred are, by their very definition, never loving, and Jesus would challenge that.

All this leads us to the conclusion that Jesus would oppose religious hatred. That isn’t the same as saying that Jesus would accept that all religions are the same – but the Retune campaign is founded on the idea that today Jesus would be calling on the Church to take a lead in challenging all voices of religious hatred; and even more, he would urge the Church to be at the forefront of efforts to build bridges between religious communities, even those with which we have fundamental differences.

Jesus would ask us to denounce expressions of religious hatred in the media, in education systems, by politicians or anyone else. This is especially crucial in many of the countries in which CSW works – countries in which hate speech has led to violence against Christians and other religious minorities. Despite the frequent injustices and persecution the Church faces in many countries, the Retune campaign hopes to see churches reaching out in love to other religious groups, and wants to see space for those churches and other groups to be able to express and address their differences in a constructive environment.

We are to love and stand up for truth, but we are also to love those with whom we differ. Jesus would, we believe, retune the conversation and so should we.