Religious and human rights activists are asking U.S. churches to invite Jewish and Muslim clergy to their sanctuaries to read from sacred texts next month in an initiative designed to counter anti-Muslim bigotry.
The June 26 initiative, called “Faith Shared: Uniting in Prayer and Understanding,” is co-sponsored by the Interfaith Alliance and Human Rights First. Leaders of the two Washington-based groups said the event hopes to demonstrate respect for Islam in the wake of Quran burnings in recent months.
I don’t have a problem with the mutual understanding thing and its OK to have a forum to promote understanding. I do have a problem with the pulpit being used or for that matter promoting the study of the Koran, especially when so many main line “Christians” don’t have a clue about the Bible. I am also curious when the Muslims in Pakistan will be inviting Christian ministers to speak at Friday prayers. Actually, as I read this artiicle that won’t even happen in America. So much for “mutual” understanding.
NO – it is spiritual pollution. GOD has set strict boundaries on worship. No blending. It is syncretism and forbidden in the Commandments.
[b]FORGET IT![/b}
Obviously the “religious and human rights activists” making this plea are not well grounded in any of the mentioned religions. Otherwise they would understand why this can’t happen. It was for this reason that the ancient Church did not teach in depth about certain Christian “mysteries”, e.g. the nature of the Eucharist, until catechumens had been baptized– there could be no proper understanding without the Holy Spirit indwelling in the believer. cf St Cyril of Jerusalem’s Mystagogical Catecheses.
The Nat Cat will look good with a minaret. And the parishoners will enthusiastically pay for it one of these days. The women will look great in cloth head to toe.
#5–As my son says, how can you take a religion seriously that makes women wear bee-keeper suits?
Amen! Confessor!
Who do these people think they are trying to push other people into abandoning the principles of their own faith.
“religious and human rights activists” my foot! Anti-Christian bigots more like it.
Anything is OK except orthodox Christian Faith.
And anyway, if they want our churches they should just wait for 815 2nd Ave to sell them to them for $.49 a piece.
“Human Rights First” says it all — we are urged to consider human rights more important than the Holy Trinity.
I see the National Cathedral is one of the participants in the program. This makes me wonder: would it not be better for participating churches instead of merely reading the Koran, to actually [i]become real mosques[/i] in order to respect the Koran readings, and to render a spiritual service to Muslims? I think all churches that decide to participate, should seriously ask themselves if they would not be better serving the public simply by becoming mosques. This would probably also significantly help the situation of peace within Trinitarian Christianity, with, e.g., the National Cathedral no longer launching wacko initiatives which tend to prompt backlashes of behavior that we tend to associate with “fundamentalism.” With a good number of the “fundamentalist of the left” churches no longer sowing havoc and prompting anxiety, a good deal of the “fundamentalism of the right” would probably also disappear. Would this not in itself be a compelling enough reason to become mosques?
Why not simply call the National Cathedral the [b]National All Faiths Worship Center?[/b]
This is the &$#@*% “listening” disease spread by contact with the TEC vector. As if “listening” will alter hothead who burn Korans or Muslims who burn Coptic churches. The notion is that if ONLY we UNDERSTAND, we will tolerate, and listening will make us understand. This is patent nonsense. I have listened to Schori often, but I don not understand her at all well, and if I did, I would still think her theology vacuous and incompetent. Larry
JMC, the DC Episcopalians are just behind the times; that has already been accomplished at St. Mark’s Cathedral in Seattle.
Larry Morse, anything that TEC comes into contact with eventually becomes infected.
How can anyone who is a convicted Christian knowingly permit a false religion to be preached in their church? It makes a mockery of 2000 years of martyrs.
[b]ANATHEMA![/b]
cennydd13 writes, “Why not simply call the National Cathedral the National All Faiths Worship Center?”
Something like that has been proposed for the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, which Judaism, Christianity, and Islam consider holy. At the moment, all there is would be a mosque, and the buried foundations of the previous Jewish temples. Bibles aren’t allowed, and verbal prayer isn’t allowed. I wonder why.
I think that having an imam reading aloud from the Koran at National Cathedral is just as good an idea as having a Christian priest reading aloud from the Gospels at the Masjid al-Haram in Mecca.
When the goal of Islam is the total subjugation of the world either by the sword or subterfuge, [b]NO[/b], Ralph, it is [b]NOT[/b] a good idea!
Invite them in and let them speak from their sacred texts and then we’ll chose a few of ours to read. John 3:18 might be a good one to open with.
And hardly unexpectedly, it is a TEc parish that lines up first:
[url=http://weaselzippers.us/2011/05/20/new-jersey-episcopal-church-to-feature-islamic-call-to-prayer-koran-reading-this-sunday/ ]New Jersey Episcopal Church to Feature Islamic Call to Prayer, Koran Readings This Sunday…[/url]