Is there really no “wrong” church? Perhaps Lillian Daniel is right in some sort of classical, universalist sense. But I’m not at all sure that a classical, universalist answer to that question is of any use to anyone. It reminds me of the old story that realtors (and others, too, I suppose) tell about lawyers.
A man sets off in a hot air balloon. Soon, a dense fog closes in and he starts to worry. As the fog gets thicker and darker, his sense of direction fails him. His location by now a complete unknown, with nothing visible except a blanket of fog, he panics. He begins to conjure up all kinds of balloonist horrors—large bodies of open water, trees, towers, mountains. Finally, the fog parts for the briefest of moments and the balloonist sees a person standing on the ground. He knows he has only an instant to find out where he is. The balloonist shouts out, “Where am I?” To the balloonist’s absolute horror, the person on the ground shouts back “You’re in a hot air balloon.” Just before the fog closes up for good, the balloonist thinks to himself “That must have been a lawyer. He gave me an answer that was precise, correct and…absolutely useless.”
I think Daniel’s answer is something like that given to the balloonist by the lawyer. It may be that no religion is “wrong”, but that is a far cry from the argument that every religion is “right”. I know. I’ve seen quite a few of them. I was raised a Catholic. I have worshiped with Southern Baptists, Reformed and Conservative Jews, Episcopalians. I work on a regular basis with my counterparts in the United Methodist, Presbyterian and ELCA faiths. None of these traditions is wrong in any absolute sense. But, for me at least, there is only one that is right—the United Church of Christ.
Sure, we have our warts. But these warts are largely polity driven, not articles of faith. At times, it seems we worship Congregationalism even more than Christ. At times, moving us to consensus on any issue, much less a controversial one, can be like trying to herd cats. Through it all, however, our core values—a deep and abiding faith in Jesus, a commitment to social justice, an acknowledgement that ours is but one of many voices—outshine all the difficulties that our polity creates.
Is there no wrong faith? Perhaps. Is there a right faith? For sure.
Tony Stoik
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