Greensboro MLK Breakfast

This morning I attended the Martin Luther King, Jr. breakfast here in Greensboro (it started at 7:30 and my wife woke me and reminded me of it at 7:10). I thought that overall it was a nice thing, but in some ways I left more burdened than when I arrived. It was put on by the Greensboro Human Relations Commision, which has a nice mix of white, black, Jewish, Christian, etc. And everyone was nice, and we all were together in one place. Yet as I sat and listened to different speakers, some of whom were not Christians, I wondered if we really could accomplish Dr. King's dream apart from Christ. I guess what I mean is can we truly be reconciled or work towards reconciliaion when some people working are Christians and others are not? Jesus Christ is not a very unifying figure; we can talk about religion all day long, but as soon as Christ is brought into the conversation in a Biblical way, a dividing line is cast. He Himself said that He came to bring division (that division being between those who believe and those who didn't), and that the mark of the Believers would be their unity in Him. I'm having a hard time explaining myself, because I know that Christians and non-Christians can work for justice together, and I hope that we will do so. But in some ways it feels like to do ecumenical reconciliation, a Christian has to neuter their belief in the uniqueness of Christ. I do believe that Jesus is the way, the truth and the life, and I know that my Jewish or Muslim or Wyccan counterparts do not. I do believe that our only hope in being a reconciled people is through the work of the cross, where all racial sin and hatred was borne by Christ, and my counterparts of other faiths do not. I'm not saying that I cannot and will not work in some sort of ecumenical capacity, but I do believe that the ultimate ideals espoused by these groups cannot be accomplished by being nice, holding hands, and ignoring fundamental beliefs that divide us in our very souls.