In Theory

Q. Dove World Outreach Center in northwest Gainesville, Fla., recently was at the center of protests surrounding a sign that had been placed by the church on its front lawn that read “Islam Is of the Devil.” What do you think about this? How far is too far when it comes to another church expressing its views about other cultures or religions?

The Rev. Amy Pringle: Like our sports, our religions make very little sense from the outside looking in. (You pay how muchhow much to try to knock a little ball in a hole with a stick?) I’ve always thought how hard it would be to explain Christianity to extraterrestrials:

“Yes, we believe that an invisible amorphous being created the world, but built into the system that we would be hopelessly condemned to eternal damnation, until such time as the invisible being magically conceived a human son, who had to be killed in order to save everyone. We remember that happy event by a ritual in which we eat his flesh and drink his blood, to show how much we love him …”

I can’t speak for other religions, but I know that my own has to be seen and experienced from within, through faith, to make any sense. We continually translate and interpret our own religion to ourselves — what Christian hasn’t wondered what it says about God, that we should ask, in the Lord’s Prayer, “lead us not into temptation?” What kind of God would lead us into temptation in the first place?

Over years of prayer and practice, we make our peace with these things, and stick with the best parts of our faith, navigating carefully through the rest. Yet it would be a simple thing for anyone outside the faith to point to some particularity and say, “Ha! That makes no sense — your God must be a mean God, to act that way.”

This is why we stay out of each other’s religions — religions have to be understood from the inside out, never from the outside looking in. We have to trust that religions other than our own are also filled with faithful people who know how to find and focus on the goodness of their religion.

And apparently we have to acknowledge that all our religions have errant children, who blow up buildings, burn crosses, and put up hate signs on their lawns.--AMY PRINGLE is rector of St. George’s Episcopal Church in La Cañada. Reach her at (818) 790-3323, ext. 11.