Sic et Non?rnAgreeing Not to Disagreernby Harold O.J. BrownrnAnumber of years ago, when I was teaching a ninth-grade rehgionrnclass (in Switzerland, where religion is taught inrnpublic schools), one of the boys said to me, “All religions teachrnthe same thing.” Although only 15, he was, without knowing it,rna witness for multiculturalism —not in the descriptive sense, inrnwhich one recognizes the existence of completing truth claims,rnbut in the prescriptive sense, in which one says that all claimsrnare equal, which, from the nature of things, means equally invalid.rnIf a society professes Christianity, it can tolerate competingrnviews, even while believing them to be false. A multiculturalrnsociety tolerates every view except the one that professes tornbe true. All cultures are to be respected equally, with the likelyrnexception of Western culture, which is not to be respected at all.rnLet us turn back to the classroom situation: “So all religionsrnteach the same thing—do you all believe that?” I asked. ‘Tes!”rnsang the chorus. Instead of arguing, I asked the boy to come forwardrnand lie down on the long preparations table. (Religion,rnappropriately enough, was taught in a science classroom.)rnThen I proceeded —over the recumbent form of a somewhatrndistrustful 15-year-old—to describe the Aztec practice of sacrificingrna victim, frequently a young lad like the one on the table,rnby cutting out his heart. The dripping heart was then offered tornan idol, in accordance with the view that the gods required thisrn”divine food” in order to keep the world in existence. Thernheartless body would then be rolled down the steps of the pyramidrnfor use as food for animals and people.rn”The God of Christianity,” I then said, “also wants yourrnhearts—not ripped out and given to an idol, but alive, in livingrnbodies, to love and serve him. No difference?” By this time, thernHarold O.]. Brown is religion editor for Chronicles, a professorrnof theology and philosophy at Reformed Theological Seminar)’rnin Charlotte, North Carolina, and editor of the Religion &rnSociety Report.rnboy on the table had realized that nothing was going to happen tornhim, though he was still in shock. The class reacted with stunnedrnsilence, and I never heard that particular assertion again.rnOf course, the difference between Aztec religion, with itsrnbloody sacrifice, and Christianity (as well as the other “higherrnreligions”) is extreme; other religions are much closer, particuladyrn(as C.S. Lewis showed in The Abolition of Man) with respectrnto the fundamental principles of morality. However, a religionrndoes not have to prescribe human sacrifice to berncategorically different from Christianity. Christianity acknowledgesrnone eternal, omnipotent God; Hinduism professes beliefrnin many gods and lesser deities; Buddhism acknowledges norngod at all. Hinduism and Buddhism both teach that the materialrnworld is illusory and that the human spirit will be reincarnatedrnmany times. Christianity teaches that God created an objectivelyrnreal world and holds that “it is appointed unto menrnonce to die, but after this the judgmenf (Hebrews 9:27). If eitherrnHinduism or Buddhism is true, Christianity cannot be, andrnvice versa. The principle of religious tolerance holds that it isrnright for Christians to respect, for example, Hindus, while rejectingrntheir doctiines—and vice versa, of course. Multiculturalismrnrequires the adherents of each religion to accept the otherrnas equally valid, which is to say that neither is objectively true.rnThe age of multiculturalism beckons us to enter it with joy,rnwhile asserting the essential equalit}’ of all human cultures. Ifrnreligion is merely a product of culture, no religion can be objectivelyrntrue; nor, for that reason, can it be superior to others.rnTo assert multiculturalism is to deny the truth of any religion’srnclaim to be objectively true. How can Western civilization,rnwhich has so long claimed to have its origins in an historical, supernaturalrnrevelation, so quickly accept multicultiiralism withoutrnapparently realizing that, in so doing, it is cutting itself offrnentirely from its spiritual roots?rnThe late Italian Catholic thinker Augusto Del Noce has of-rn20/CHRONICLESrnrnrn