More on Interfaith Dialogue

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As a follow-up to my previous blog entry, it turns out that another blogger who was appalled by Kendall's attitude has written to David Rosen with some interview questions about the Christianity Today article. I thought the first two questions, and their answers that Rosen gave, were quite interesting:

We didn’t agree with Christianity Today that the two of you “model a warm friendship”. In our opinion RT Kendall failed to show you the curiosity and respect we expect to see in a friendship or friendly dialog.

Were you surprised at how your exchange with RT Kendall went?

Not at all. I know where he is coming from and what to expect.

Did you expect him to show more interest in your views and spend less time trying to convert you?

Regrettably no. As much as I have a genuine affection for RT Kendall, a fundamentalist mind-set by definition doesn’t really want to discover the spiritual world of another for its own sake, but is only interested in what is perceived as relevant to the fundamentalist’s own world and goals.

4 comments:

Helen said...

Hi Mystical Seeker, thanks for posting some of my follow-up interview with Rabbi David Rosen!

Anyway I'm glad to see you and others also noticed how one-sided his 'dialog' with RT Kendall was.

I find it hard to believe Christians think their exchange was good dialog...yikes!!

I found a quote I really wish I could find again but I tried and can't. It was online somewhere. A person asked each of them "What disappointed you most about the dialog?" I can't remember RT's answer but David said something like this: "The incessant proselytising - I would open each new e-mail and think "Oh no, not again...""

I restarted my computer without saving the link and as hard as I tried I couldn't relocate it after that, nor was it in my cache (my opera cache never seems to do quite what I'd like).

Yael said...

Sounds like a woman who used to try to talk to me on different blogs. Every single comment had to include a brief presentation of her gospel. Enough already!

Jim Jordan said...

Rosen said a fundamentalist mind-set by definition doesn’t really want to discover the spiritual world of another for its own sake, but is only interested in what is perceived as relevant to the fundamentalist’s own world and goals.


That's an outstanding observation. It raises the question, are we listening? Are we meeting others where they are or are we turning into an unpopular cassette on the clearence shelf?

Unknown said...

Dear brothers and sisters who love Jesus. Stay away from RT Kendall. His books are very cleverly written but there are traps in them which lead christians into condemnation and destroy your life and family. Why am I saying this? Because there are many of us who know him but he scared us all in the past by his intellectual bullying to the point we could not even think properly. God is good and watches our backs and has exposed him as a tremedously cruel man in his private dealings with individuals. If you know him privately and he has been nice to you it is because he wants to use you for something. He has no love and for sure does not love Jesus in the slightest bit