In yesterday’s edition of Sightings, Martin Marty writes about interfaith relationships and praying for the conversion of others.

A week from Friday is Good Friday, a most solemn day for Christians. It is also a problem day for Jews, and for the evident Christian majority which is (or wants to be) sensitive to the sensibilities of Jews….

Then I chanced on this headline in the Jewish weekly Forward (February 29-March 7): CATHOLICS HAVE A RIGHT TO PRAY FOR US, above an op-ed by veteran Professor Jacob Neusner, a scholar of Judaism uncommonly informed about such matters. His main point will surprise many non-Jews and many Jews as well: “Israel prays for gentiles, so the other monotheists, the Catholic Church included, have the same right to do the same—and no one should be offended, as many have[.]”

Rabbi Neusner notes that a prayer “for the conversion of ‘all the wicked of the earth,’ who are ‘all the inhabitants of the world,’ is recited in normative Judaism not once a year, but every day.” He quotes several passages from standard Jewish liturgies, which “leave no doubt that when holy Israel assembles for worship it asks God to illuminate gentiles’ hearts.” Prayers of both covenanted sets of people have “an eschatological focus and mean to keep the door to salvation open for all peoples. Holy Israel should object to the Catholic prayer no more than Christianity and Islam should take umbrage at the Israelite one.”

I agree with Rabbi Neusner. Speaking as a Christian, I know that at their best, our prayers for the conversion of others are rooted not in judgment, but in love. When other faiths pray for my conversion, I know that at their best, they want me to participate in what they see as the good life in closest proximity with the divine. Proselytizing certainly can become oppressive as we have seen in history. Prayers for the conversion “the wicked” can take on the air of exclusionary superiority. It is strange to me, however, that we live in an age where any assumption that one’s faith is closer to the divine reality than other religions is tantamount to a hate crime. Evangelizing others is not an affront to people as human beings or an impingement on their functions as agents. As agents, they have the rationality to accept or reject the evangelist’s claims. Prayer for the conversion of others in and of itself is not an attack, nor should it ever be. Let us not be historically ignorant, however, of how prayers and proselytization have been used at times for domination, oppression, and vengeance. As we pray for others, may we seek their welfare and love them as children of God.

Marty’s column is well worth the read and an interesting companion to my earlier post about the Abrahamic religions finding common ground in loving God and neighbor.