John W Burgeson wrote:
> Mike wrote: "Blessings Burgy, These are the kind (of) testimonies we
> should hear more of these days. It can lead one to tears too. Thanks
> for highlighting it."
>
> I appreciate the post, Mike. It is one of only four I received which
> indicated any sort of approval, and I sent it out to 89 friends & family
> as well as to two LISTSERVs. I did get one substantially negative
> response, BTW.
>
> At worship yesterday, Mohammed Jodeh, leader of the Colorado Muslim
> Society and present at the prior reported events, spoke to our
> congregation (of about 800) briefly, with prayers for our common sorrow
> and support. Yes -- he was with us for the whole service.
>
> Among those who chose not to comment was my son, a Southern baptist
> minister. That was offset by my brother, a Lutheran minister, who
> reported on an interfaith prayer gathering in his home town in which he
> had a part.
>
> It is not "them" and "us." It is only "we."
We also had an interfaith service but were unable to get any Islamic
spokespersons to participate.
It's certainly necessary at the present to be careful not to make
anti-Arab prejudice and actions any worse than they are. I want to be
careful about making the following two points but in the long term I think
they're necessary.
1) We need serious Christian-Muslim dialogue. That is not the same
thing as inviting Muslim speakers to churches or Christian speakers to
mosques to say "We all believe in the same God," "We're for peace" &c. It
means competent spokespersons from both faiths sitting down and discussing,
respectfully but critically, fundamental theological issues, including those
that have to do with the ordering of society and the role of religion in
public life.
2) The Holocaust forced many Christians to do some critical
reflection of their understanding of the relationships between Judaism and
Christianity. It wasn't enough, in response to that catastrophe, for
Christians to say, "Oh, of course we don't approve of genocide." In the
same way, the events of September 11, while of course not at all of the
scope of the Holocaust, ought to move Muslims to critical reflection on some
aspects of their tradition such as jihad, & it isn't enough just to say,
"Oh, of course we oppose terrorism."
3) When all is said & done, Christianity and Isalm are
fundamentally different faiths that are in competition - a fact of which
Christians in Black Churches are well aware: that has been one of the major
problems that they've been facing in many areas. I hope that different
religions can exist peacefully in the same society until the eschaton, but
this does not mean that Christians should assist Islam in making converts -
& in particular, in getting Christians to apostasize. We can be respectful
toward Islam without giving them a free ride theologically.
Shalom,
George
George L. Murphy
http://web.raex.com/~gmurphy/
"The Science-Theology Interface"
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