‘All religions are paths to reach God’

The head of the Catholic Church uttered those words during an interreligious meeting with young people of different beliefs in Singapore, last week. The gathering in the city state was his last stop in an 11-day journey that took him to Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, East Timor, and Singapore. It has been described as one of the longest ever papal voyages in terms of days on the road and distances travelled. And what makes it even more inspiring is the fact that it was taken by an 87-year-old religious leader, mostly confined to a wheelchair, who had recently suffered a series of health issues, and who had to endure high levels of heat, humidity, and pollution in the places he visited.

While Pope Francis endured oppressive heat during his trip, his provocative statement caused heated emotions among the religious faithful who hold the creed that only Christians are believers of the one true God. In all likelihood, it must have also stirred debate among conservative believers of other religions who similarly hold the same exclusivist belief. Paterno Esmaquel II wrote that when Rappler shared a quote card of the pope’s statement, its social media account was flooded with thousands of reactions, shares, and comments. Many of the comments invoke the Bible verse where Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life, and no one can come to God the Father except through me,” as a means of contradicting the pope.

The pope’s inclusivist statement is not actually new. The Second Vatican Council of the 1960s declared that the “plan of salvation also includes those who acknowledge the Creator, in the first place among whom are the Muslims.” During his papacy, Saint John Paul II hosted heads of different religions in interfaith dialogues, and preached ecumenism among all Christian groups. While all these previous initiatives tiptoed on language, Pope Francis’ recent statement—that all religions are like different languages that are paths to the same God—has been the boldest declaration against religious bigotry.

There is so much at stake for the world on the issue of whether religions should have an inclusive or exclusive interpretation of their respective beliefs. The exclusivists believe that their own religion is the only path to God, while the inclusivists subscribe to the doctrine that all religions are merely different roads that all lead to the same God. It is the misfortune of the world that the exclusivist view predominates overwhelmingly across all religions.

Religious exclusivism is the strong undercurrent that drives political strife between and among countries. It is the unacknowledged reason, but directly or indirectly the underlying cause, of so many past and current wars. It underpins the strong prejudices held by people within communities, and it is the source of unending conflict.

What exclusivist believers must consider is that, a person is a Christian, Muslim, Hindu, or Jew largely because he/she was born in a community that breathes, day in and day out, the traditions of a particular religion. From the day we were born, the beliefs and practices of a single religion has been constantly drilled in our minds. We have had no choice but to live in accordance with the way of life defined by a particular religion. Even mundane aspects of our lives, like the food that we eat and the clothes that we wear, have been defined by the religion that we’ve been raised under, without us even realizing it.

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With the kind of upbringing we’ve been born into, faith is a relatively minimal factor that can claim responsibility for the kind of religion that we hold. We simply have been programmed to believe a particular religion, because it is the way of life we’ve been raised under and that we’ve known all our lives. If God ordained us to have been born in Saudi Arabia instead of the Philippines, we would be worshipping Him through the rituals and traditions of Islam, and vice versa.

Religious exclusivity foments prejudice and hate. It has contributed to the crusades-like posture and stance of different religions among each other. When Jesus said that “no one can come to the Father except through me,” was he preaching literal idolatry on himself, or was he referring to his teachings as personified by his life? Love for all people was at the very core of Jesus’ message to the world. It is religious inclusivity that stays true to the central teachings of Jesus.

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