Stealing Sacraments: What Protestant Educators Can Learn from Other Religious Traditions

This somewhat provocative article is not a treatise on theological doctrine and interfaith dialogue, but addresses how adherents of various faith traditions practice their faith in ways that can enhance their witness in the world and from which Protestants should learn. The author calls these faith-building religious practices sacraments. He proposes that Protestant educators – whether in faith-based or in public schools which teach religion classes in their curriculum – would be wise to adapt the most effective means of nurturing faith in subscribers to other religious traditions; these means should be incorporated as a supplement to those practices most-commonly attempted in our instruction in religion or in other educational ministries. Examinations of three other-than-Protestant faith traditions – Mormon, Judaism, and Islam – are considered, and a case is made for a particular educational aspect of each to be rebaptized into the educational ministries of schools and/or churches.