A true religion is not about itself. It is about reality.

A true Creator God is ever-present throughout Creation, meaning never-absent.

What this means for a true Christian’s attitude toward other religions, which essentially means other people, is that we cannot start by assuming God is absent from their religion.

We can take the position that our understanding is more clear, more thorough, more authentic … although even this smacks of the sin of Pride. But, to take the position that the spirituality of other people is categorically lacking in God’s presence is an insult to God and an admission that one does not worship the Creator of all things nor hold to a religion that is about reality.

This insight is, in fact, ever-present in the Gospel. Yes, the Gospel that forms the basis of the distinct Christian faith also affirms the faith of non-Christians.

Think about Jesus’s parable of the Good Samaritan, who helped a needy traveler when a Jewish priest and a Levite would not. To Jesus’s audience, the Samaritans were loathsome heretics; if Jesus were preaching to Christians today, he might substitute the Samaritan for a Muslim, an atheist, or a Wiccan. And, he might substitute the Jewish priest and Levite for a Catholic priest or a Protestant minister or deacon, dependent on the denomination of the listeners.

The point was that one’s professed religion, even one’s expertise and position in that religion, is not as important as one’s morality.

The Gospel begins with the Nativity story and, in this account, the infant Jesus is visited by Magi, who were leaders of the Zoroastrian religion who recognized the importance of Jesus across religions lines. If this recognition had led them to convert to Christianity, or proto-Christian Judaism, this would certainly have been highlighted in the story. Yet, it was not. The Magi remained religious others.

The incident with the Roman centurion who asked Jesus to heal his servant repeats this lesson. Christ said his faith was superior to many of those of Israel, members of Jesus’s own religion.

Almost certainly, this soldier was a pagan, not of the religion of Jesus. Again, had his counsel with Jesus indicated a conversion, this would have been noteworthy. Like with the Magi, no conversion is mentioned. And, like the Samaritan, the centurion’s superior spirituality was contrasted with those considered in-group.

Even after the resurrection and ascension of Jesus, his followers continued this teaching. In the Acts of the Apostles, a shrine to the “Unknown God” in a pagan Greek temple is identified as referencing the God of Jesus.

What must all of this mean for a true Christian and his or her attitudes toward people of other beliefs?

Other peoples are not isolated from the Creator of all things. God speaks to them, and they listen. Imperfectly, perhaps, but who are we to claim perfection? They listen and, to the best of their ability, they convey what they have heard.

Other religions represent people seeking to understand God, and should be embraced as such. Christians certainly should view their teachings through a Christian lens, meaning we should take their lessons as parables for which the spiritual meaning has to be worked out. But, to dismiss the spirituality of others is to dismiss the ever-presence of God.