After an introduction to a Muslim prayer practice in early 2006, [the Rev. Ann] Redding knew she had been wrestling with a call to Islam. She approached a Muslim woman and told her so, and the woman replied, \u201cChristianity has been good to you and you to it, and you don\u2019t have to choose.\u201d\u009d That made all the difference in Redding\u2019s choice to practice Islam.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat Islam has done for me is shed this light on Christianity and shown for me anew what a glorious way Christianity is,\u201d\u009d she explains.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe Christians, in struggling to express the beauty and dignity of Jesus and the pattern of life he offers, describe him as the \u201d\u02dconly begotten son of God.\u2019 That\u2019s how wonderful he is to us. But that is not literal,\u201d\u009d she continues. \u201cWhen we say Jesus is the only begotten one, we are saying he\u2019s unique in some way. Islam says the same thing. He\u2019s the only human aside from Adam who is directly created by God, and he\u2019s different from Adam because he has a human mother. So there\u2019s agreement\u201d\u201dthis person is unique in his relationship to God.\u201d\u009d Christianity also says that we are all part of the household of God and in essence brothers and sisters of Jesus. Muslims take the figurative language of \u201conly begotten,\u201d\u009d make it concrete and contradict it: God \u201cneither begets nor is begotten.\u201d\u009d<\/p>\n
\u201cI agree with both because I do want to say that Jesus is unique, and for me, Jesus is my spiritual master,\u201d\u009d Redding says. \u201cMuslims say Mohammed is the most perfect. Well, it depends on who you fall in love with. I fell in love with Jesus a long time ago and I\u2019m still in love with Jesus but I\u2019d like to think my relationship with Jesus has matured.\u201d\u009d<\/p>\n
She added that what Islam does is take Jesus out of the way of her relationship with God, \u201cbut it doesn\u2019t drop Jesus. I was following Jesus and he led me into Islam, and he didn\u2019t drop me off at the door. He\u2019s there, too.\u201d\u009d<\/p>\n