“I am the way, the truth, the life…” Christ's way or World Service Corps highway

“I am the way, the truth, the life…”
Christ’s way or the World Service Corps highway

Dwayne Hunn

From my springtime stretches on the Marin YMCA’s floor, I asked the eleven-year-old sitting nearby, “Don’t you have something to do?”

“I forgot my book, so I have to wait till my mom’s done with her exercise class. Then I’ll have to make up a story about what I read,” he responded.

“Does that satisfy your mom?”

“Always worked before.”

“Well, you want to do some stretches?”

In a minute, the bright, happy kid had his mat and was emulating stretches this tightening body needs. Surprisingly, the youth was having trouble, adding, “I can’t even touch my toes.”

“Do you have exercise classes at school?”

“No, we just run, play a game, memorize the game’s rules, and then get tested on the rules.”

The articulate, Christian School attending kid raised “Christianity” as a stretching subject, which prompted my questions, “Do your teachers say Hindus, Muslims, and Buddhists can also go to heaven?”

“Well, the Bible clearly states that only through Christ will you enter into paradise.”

It became déjà vu all over again. This eleven year old spirited me decades back to southern California’s Glendora High, where my eclectic collection of speakers riled the John Bircher influenced school board. Among my Bircher endorsed speakers were Christian zealots, who were using their Biblical interpretations to move kids away from drugs.

I lauded their drug crusade, but questioned part of their philosophical underpinnings. The same questions raised then, resurfaced now with an eleven year old in a country seemingly awash with tsunamis of Christian certitude.

“So if a Hindu family loves their children, struggles raising them on $100 a month, and treats their neighbors as Christ would, will God let them into heaven?”

The innocent kid’s response echoed those from his and my classrooms, “We are all sinners. Christ died for our sins and only through him will …”

“So,” I asked, “Does that mean that all those cute, innocent babies that die go to hell?”

“Well, God will make provisions. But we must remember that the Bible clearly states that only through Christ will we…”

“Doesn’t the Bible state, ‘I am the way, the truth, the life?’ " What does ‘the way’ mean? If one lives ‘the life’ Christ lived - loving others, treating others as one wants to be treated, caring for the poor – doesn’t that ‘truth’ qualify Hindus, Muslims, and others for heaven? Isn’t living ‘the way’ Christ did what God wants more than requiring ‘Christian’ as a password?”

“Well, Christ will decide…” was the tempered re-joiner from decades ago and from today’s decade old kid, although both seemed to mean: ’We Christians know OUR BIBLICAL interpretation is the only interpretation.' ”

“Doesn’t the Bible state ‘pride’ as the most dangerous of sins?” I continued. “Can your religion be so prideful, presumptive, all-knowing as to know who God will or won’t save? Shouldn’t all religions just encourage living the ‘way’ Christ did, and avoid the sin of pride?”

Blessed with a rosary laded, saintly Greek Catholic grandma, educated at St. Charles Grade School, St. Ignatius High, and St. Joseph’s College, I have heard Christ’s words. But some of my most heavenly qualifying work, on which I figure an all-knowing God will judge me and others, comes from Peace Corps and Habitat Building projects. Never having been all-knowingly confident, I continue hoping those works might squeeze me through the Pearly Gates or build a little heaven here on earth. Mouthing Christian passwords, without a resume of Christ-like actions, I’m betting, won’t fool God’s all-seeing, all-knowing big brain.

That’s why our group of heaven-seeking zealots seeks your support in gaining co-sponsors for the World Service Corp (WSC) Congressional proposals at: http://www.worldservicecorps.us. The organizations that enable the legislation -- Peace Corps, AmeriCorps, Habitat for Humanity, Head Start, Doctors Without Borders, Red Cross, International Rescue Committee, OxFam – personify the “way” Christ urged us to live.

We passionate conspirators believe Christ-like actions count a helluva lot more than mere Biblical phrases or Christian passwords. So, to prepare more Americans for earthly and hereafter rapture, why not sign the on-line WSC Petition and zealously contact more potential Congressional co-sponsors?

We need apostles too, so see how to become one at http://www.worldservicecorps.us/how_to_help.htm. God bless.