GlocalNet

I’ve been in a meeting of the U.N. with the Alliance of Civilizations.  It’s been a pretty incredible time.  There were about 20 of us, 6 ambassadors, a President, a Prince, a political and social activist, and me, a pastor from Texas.  Oh yes, the majority were Muslim!

I gave out my book Glocalization.  I was short one copy.  There was a French secularist there, so I didn’t give him one when forced to choose who didn’t get one.  He asked, “Why?”  “Well, since you don’t believe in God, I don’t want to waste your time with why we as Christians do what we do.  These other people want to work with us in engaging the world in development.”  “Don’t get me wrong,” he said, “I believe that the ability to believe in God is a great gift!  I just don’t have it!”  “I can fix that for you!” I told him.  He replied, “I’ll bet you can.”  So, I’ll send him a book after all. 

Later this week I’ll share some reflections on my meetings.  I can’t discuss a lot of it, but I can tell you about some of the cool people I met, what they do, and their worldviews.  The essence of the meeting was:  How do we communicate with each other? 

For now, the most exciting idea that came from the meeting was from a little Muslim man from India that looked like an elf with a long white beard!  He thought that what had been done in London would be good to do in Dallas.  To get all the imams and pastors together and have a huge baseball game!  I like it.  He suggested American football, not understanding it.  I told him that might create a bigger divide as people “hit” one another.

It’s amazing how isolated we are, and how little we really know about each other.  For some attending the meeting I was the only Christian they had ever been that close to.  After being together a few days they began to ask me lots of questions about us, as Christians, Why we do what we do?  What does the Bible say about the second coming of Christ?  Why do Christians fear Muslims?  It was incredibly fascinating and a lot of fun.