Bryan Gentry is a writer whose work has appeared in university publications, magazines and newspapers for more than 20 years. Originally from North Carolina, he served a mission in Nevada and California before earning an English degree at Southern Virginia University. He is a member of Heterodox Academy, an organization that promotes viewpoint diversity and constructive disagreement in higher education, and he contributes to Discourse Magazine on topics of political polarization. He now lives in South Carolina with his wife and their three children. He works as a college communications director and serves as a counselor in his elders quorum presidency.
Enter Bryan…
Early in January this year, I learned that a group of Buddhist monks would come through my city — Columbia, South Carolina — as part of their walking pilgrimage across the southern United States.
Their “Walk for Peace,” as they called it, was a 108-day, 2,300-mile trek through rural counties and large cities. Along the way, they stopped at churches, recreation centers and parks to give talks about mindfulness, meditation and peace. Between these in-person gatherings and their following on social media, the monks shared their message with millions of people.
Mutual Understanding
When they changed their route to walk through Columbia, I knew I wanted to see them and even walk with them for a time.
But walking through what we call “the Bible Belt,” the monks met a few people who were not so excited to meet them. In Georgia, some protestors held signs and shouted that the monks were leading Christians astray.
This made me reflect on how Latter-day Saints strive to interact with people of other faiths, especially minority religions. In some respects, you’d expect the church that teaches there is one true church (D&C 1:30, 1 Nephi 14:10) and that sends thousands of missionaries around the world to be somewhat exclusive. But in actuality, the Church has long taught its members to exercise toleration, acceptance, and mutual understanding for people of other faiths.
Respect and Admiration
For example, I started my mission just a few months after the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. One of my first tracting conversations was with a Muslim man who wanted to know what I thought of him; did I lump him in with the extremists who had attacked America? I told him that I had been taught to reverence, respect and admire his faith. For example, a Church magazine article from 2000, “A Latter-day Saint Perspective on Muhammad,” had profoundly affected my world view.
Other examples abound. Just search the Church’s website and you’ll see countless examples of Latter-day Saints gathering with Muslims, Buddhists, Sikhs and other minority religions, as well as other Christian denominations. We join forces for service projects. We offer our meetinghouses to neighbors who lose one to a fire. Sometimes they return the favor.
A Hand of Fellowship
This goes a bit beyond the 11th Article of Faith’s order to, “let them worship how, where or what they may.” We’re not content to just tolerate other people, but to extend a hand of fellowship. This seems more rooted in the Prophet Joseph’s teachings about baptism for the dead:
“While one portion of the human race are judging and condemning the other without mercy, the great parent of the universe looks upon the whole of the human family with a fatherly care, and paternal regard; he views them as his offspring; and without any of those contracted feelings that influence the children of men.”
He went on to say that all people would be judged for their deeds, not
“whether these deeds were done in England, America, Spain, Turkey, or India.”
God would not condemn people to eternal torment for simply living in a place where they never heard the name of Christ.
Truth in Other Faiths
Decades later, several Church leaders attended the 1893 Parliament of World Religions in Chicago. They specifically wrote about being impressed with the Buddhist speakers, who demonstrated that their religion had long taught some ethical principles that many Christians assumed were unique to Christianity.
Elder B.H. Roberts, one of the Church leaders at the 1893 conference, later explained these similarities by outlining how the gospel had been preached throughout human history, and therefore it should not be surprising to find truth in other faiths. He taught that the restored gospel would be “the uniting force of all truth and of all fact in the world.” Those words seem to have foreshadowed what President Gordon B. Hinckley would say a century later:
“To anybody who is not of this Church, I say we recognize all of the virtues and the good that you have. Bring it with you and see if we might add to it.”
I love these teachings of the gospel: God loves people of all faiths, and the gospel can be a “uniting force” rather than a dividing one. Being a true church doesn’t require putting others down. In fact, it may require learning from the truths that others bring with them.
Take No Thought for the Morrow
The Buddhist monks arrived in my city on a Saturday when I was tied up with a project. I decided to try connecting with them the next day after church. After my wife got home from a ward conference she’d helped with, I looked at the live map that tracked the monks’ location and chose a place to try intersecting with them. About 20 minutes later, I joined a crowd on a rural highway and watched the monks march toward us.
After the monks walked past me, I fell into line behind them with a few other local people who had joined this segment of their walk. We marched without a word. Spectators took photos. Some prayed. Some gave the monks flowers, some of which the monks gave to other spectators farther down the road.
I didn’t walk with them very far — only about a mile — before the monks paused for a break and I decided to go home and help with dinner. But that short walk had an impact on me.
I felt I had a better understanding of what Jesus meant when he told his disciples to “take no thought for the morrow” because the monks exemplify being mindful in the moment. I felt a better sense of what Mormon meant by a “peaceable walk with the children of men” (Moroni 7:4) because the monks encouraged peace and harmony in every talk, in every step. (You can also read more about my walk with the monks in The Dispatch.)
Walking A Mile with Someone Else
I went home and told my family about the experience, hoping my children will remember when they’re older that it’s worth walking with someone else to learn about their path, just as it’s worth inviting them to walk with us.
I know some people are a bit uncomfortable with embracing other faiths, for fear that it reduces the restored gospel into just another option on the table.
But I’ve noticed that it is possible to take these teachings about God’s love for people of all faiths so far that it discourages missionary work.
Instead, I think the right balance is this: the doctrines of God’s love for all and the plan of salvation for the dead are among the best reasons to share the gospel. Read my essay on this topic in Wayfare.
