POINT OF VIEW

What the Pope Could Have Said

By DONNA SCHAPER

St. Paul, author of large parts of the New Testament, makes a lot out of the difference between sins of omission and sins of commission. "The good that I would do, I do not, and the evil that I would not do, I do." Pope Benedict XVI may understand. He has expressed regret over a reference to Islam as "evil and inhuman." He acknowledges a sin of commission. His use of a14th century description of Islam reports a conversation between an "Erudite" Byzantine Christian emperor and a "learned" Muslim Persian circa 1391. Talk about name dropping.

"Show me just what Muhammad brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." The Pope adds hypocrisy to name dropping in the sins he commits. The idea that the One Holy Roman Catholic church did not crusade its faith by the sword is a self-promoting fiction, covering up a competitived hostility. We add hostility to name-dropping and hypocrisy. These are first class sins, made by a first class man. How do I know? From time to time, I am a first class sinner myself. Again, St. Paul: "All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God." Indeed my Protestant faith has also benefited from the crusading sword.

It is the good that we fail to do that really matters. In an age when religions of all kinds have taken to the violent, aggressive defense of themselves "IN THE NAME OF GOD", as if they knew (!) that name, we don't need to worry about the Pope and his footnotes. We need to worry what the Pope is NOT doing to lead us towards full humanity. The Pope, like it or not, has power. He leads a billion people. What he might have done instead of reigniting religious hostilities is to lead us out of their swamp. He might have so cherished faith and reason as to use them to illuminate each other. Reason could teach faith that no one has the name of God in his or her pocket. Faith could teach us that we need not collapse into moral relativism if we believe in our version of God. Leadership could say what most people already know: there is one God with many names. There is no one God that is right or superior or better or bigger. These play lot games of "My God is bigger than your God" remind one ever so much of men who think something is too small in their anatomy. These games have already killed millions of people. They threaten to take out the planet. What is the pope doing fooling around in the 13th century with hostility, competition, name-dropping and hypocrisy? Why can't the Pope get on with it, in the name of the one God, who has many names, Jesus, and Christ, Allah and Ruach, Spirit and Force, Energy and Adonai? And more.

What the Pope might have said: "There is one God Whom not one of us knows. There are many versions of God. Our version as Catholics is beautiful and interesting. The Moslem version is beautiful and interesting. The Jewish version is beautiful and interesting. Not one of us has the whole story. We have the whole story together. Come, let us bury our swords in the earth that God created for all of us." He could even have added longing for the day when pink smoke emerges from the Vatican. He could unite, not divide.

This religious leadership is not just tolerance or diversity or moral relativism. It is not the tolerance expressed now in a Kellogg's (!) ad:

"Let us not be a melting pot, so much as a great mosaic, given texture and life by our differences." This diversity and tolerance is not enough to save the world. There are limits to tolerance. As we have learned in my Protestant denomination, the United Church of Christ, it is not enough to be open to gay people. We are "Open and Affirming." We value and treasure difference. We don't just accept it. We love it.

I could not love my Jesus any more. He is not THE God. There is no THE God. He is my God. He says that the first will be last and the last first. He says valleys will be raised and mountains brought low. He is a God of power precisely because he relinquishes power. He says we can have what we let go. The Pope, my fellow Christian, knows this Jesus as Christ. He has power. The best thing he could for his Christ and for our world is to let it go.

The Rev. Dr. Donna Schaper is Senior Minister of the Judson Memorial Church on Washington Square in New York City and author of 28 books, most recently HOLY VULNERABILITY about spiritual resources for people with cancer.