Wednesday, August 06, 2008

Praise Allah And Pass The Stones

Evangelical Christians - in the interest of ecumenism and, well, prison sex, I guesss - have agreed to spend one week a year teaching about Allah.

From the Christian Worldview Network:



PissChrist - A Crucifix Submerged in Urine by Andres Serrano

Following a four-day conference last week at Yale University, Christian and Muslim leaders from around the world announced the first step of the “Common Word” exchange drafted last November. A joint statement was affirmed in their support of religious freedom and further interfaith dialogue based on their common love for God and neighbor.

But something is very wrong with this picture.

Over 140 conference participants unanimously approved a cooperative statement that signaled a “new beginning of collaboration between Christians and Muslims” where stronger assertions of faith would be required. So
the statement began by affirming the “unity and absoluteness of God” and God’s merciful love as central to both religions.

Wait a minute! Allah has merciful love? And Allah is central to both Christianity and Islam? Isn’t it devotion to Allah that causes people to strap explosives onto themselves and blow innocent people to shreds? And seems he also encourages some of his followers to cut off heads of the innocent?

In attendance and in agreement, sadly, were both the head of the National Association of Evangelicals and the World Evangelical Alliance. Those two organizations represent most evangelicals in America. But both faiths pledged to spend one week a year sharing the good aspects about the other’s faith.


Read the whole thing.

4 comments:

heroyalwhyness said...

OT

National Geographic Channel premiered "Interpreting the Koran" last night . Surprisingly, I found it a fairly informative and balanced overview of Sunni, Shia and Sufi Islam.

As expected, they interviewed Tariq Ramadan and other familiar representatives. What did surprise was the time given to German scholars with access to earliest Islamic texts, including Christoph Luxemburg (72 raisins/white grapes vs. virgins). If it airs again, I recommend watching it.

*****
Also, I found this interactive link by accident and thought I'd post it:
Islam in Europe by MSNBC. The link will display a map of Europe. Pick a country and it displays the following details:
* Muslim population
*Origin/ethnic makeup
*History
*Major Issues

Pastorius said...

Thanks, HRW.

I will post the Islam in Europe thing.

I wonder if that National Geographic Special will be on YouTube soon?

heroyalwhyness said...

I don't know why, but there seems to be very minimal chatter about this Nat Geo programme online - anywhere (video or ortherwise). Perhaps it wasn't advertised sufficiently or- - perhaps it was intentionally low profile. I suspect the latter due to the statement posted by Nat Geo researcher Greg Chapman:

Inside the Koran is a lesson in the religious school of thought. The documentary takes you all around the world to different regions to show how people of the muslim faith interpret the Koran.
Let me know what you think about the state of religious affairs around the world today.


Testing the jihad reactionary waters?

Pastorius said...

That's what it sounds like to me.

Interesting. It's like, "We're going to tell the truth, but not too loudly."

Personally, I can understand the concern.