Kaemingk and Kuyper Lead the Way

Redeemer University hosted author and Fuller Seminary professor Matthew Kaemingk as their Emerging Public Intellectual Award recipient. His lecture expanded on the thesis of his book, Christian Hospitality and Muslim Immigration in an Age of Fear, that the evangelical world has taken two routes in dealing with Muslim immigration, either advocating for high walls or limiting immigration due to fear, or opening doors wide to immigration in favor of multiculturalism.

Both types of responses see Muslims as a problem and seek to assimilate Islamic populations in either soft or hard ways. Both of these responses have problems and a middle way comes from Abraham Kuyper's thinking about religiously plural populations. Kuyper advocated for the concept of principled pluralism. Faith groups need each other in society to balance each other out so that no one group becomes hegemonic.

In Kuyper's time it was liberalism that threatened to become the dominant force and he sought a balance with existing faith groups in the public square.

Principled Pluralism identifies differences as necessary, and faith priniciples as valuable. Rooted in our historic Reformed faith, we can be better hosts and guests to our Muslim neighbors. We need each other. Kuyper's teachings can help us do what is ethically needed today: to love our neighbor, to welcome them, to understand them in dialogue and friendship, and to work together for the good of society. This is also valuable gospel witness because we are living out practically what Jesus calls us to do in a world changing quickly due to globalization.