Saint Matthew's

Christians are being killed in Iraq for being Christian.

Radical Muslims are moving to eradicate the tiny Christian population. I guess the cross scares the heck out of the armies of hate. Keep the Iraqi Christians in your prayers.

I was struck today by an article below the fold in the Wall Street Journal: Apparently a rather important Islamic scholar in Germany believes that Mohammed, the man who established the Muslim faith, never existed.

Apparently, there is a slow growing movement that believes that the name “Mohammed” is more of a title, not the name of a particular person. Instead, these scholars believe that Islam is actually just a Christian heresy.

Professor Sven Mohammad Kalisch, a Muslim convert and the first professor of Islamic theology in Germany, has shocked and stunned the Muslim community. Of course, German police believe this public belief has put Kalish on a sort of Muslim hit list  – but then this regularly happens to people to say bad things about Mohammed. Remember the Danish artist who  drew cartoons that made fun of Mohammed? Riots broke out around the world.

For Christians, this whole idea that our religion is a fabrication is not new. People have questioned the deity of Jesus Christ and His very existence since He was born. However, from what I have studied, there have been no riots promoting death to the infidels, especially lately when Jesus has been mocked in movies, on Broadway, and on TV shows.

OK. There have been some protests. But really, no one has gotten scared over a bunch of moms and dads or a group of priests holding signs outside of MTV in Times Square.

Kalisch is the first “important” Muslim scholar to doubt the core of the faith. In Islam, Mohammed’s existence and his receiving the Koran are central to what Muslims believe. By kicking out the step-stool of this religion, Kalisch is opening up a door to questioning everything about the faith.

Contributing last year to a book on Islam, he weighed the odds and called Muhammad’s existence “more probable than not.” By early this year, though, his thinking had shifted. “The more I read, the historical person at the root of the whole thing became more and more improbable,” he says.

He has doubts, too, about the Quran. “God doesn’t write books,” Prof. Kalisch says.

Of course, God doesn’t write books, especially the Koran. Instead, we Christians believe that writers who were inspired by God wrote the books of the Bible.

But Kalisch has opened a door that will invoke outrage and possibly further study on Mohammed and the Islamic religion.

Today is the holiest day on our Christian calendar – for our Lord Jesus Christ is risen from the dead. Alleluia!!

This morning as I was flipping through some internet news sites, I noticed that the story of Pope Benedict XVI baptizing a Muslim convert to Christianity is making the rounds. While not agreeing with the Pope on many of his church’s theological stances, I do have to say I was smiling when I read this story.

Last week, Osama Bin Laden was basically threatening the Pope. Instead of cowering in a corner, this Easter morning, the Pope responds by baptizing a Muslim convert. One man threatens death – the other responds with an act of love and life.

You see the difference between evil and love.

It made my morning.

For about a year, I have been throwing around the idea of a bible class dealing with Islam. Reading through various source materials and taking time to actually study what that religion is all about, I have found myself excited to teach this course. I have structured a multi-part course dealing with the history of the religion to the basic tenets of what Muslims believe.

Our one problem – our Lenten Midweek services are coming up rather quickly, so we’ll have to postpone the nighttime bible study during February and March. I’ll try and figure out something regarding this study for Lent.

We start tonight here at church beginning at 7:30 following our Midweek service.

I have been captivated by CNN’s latest “CNN Presents” series dealing with Judaism, Islam, and Christianity. For the past two nights and ending tonight at 9:00, Christiane Amanpour has been looking at the apparent extreme elements of the three religions. Tonight we get to see her Christianity report, which, of course, is going to try and portray the “extreme” elements of the Christian faith as equal to the terrorists who killed nearly 3,000 Americans on 9/11.

This alone is going to be interesting and will raise my blood pressure.

Now, I have not watched the Christianity program yet, only the first two shows on Judaism and Islam. But I get the feeling that this look at apparent “extremists” is not getting to the heart of the matter.

Or to put it another way – is it proper to equate Islamo-fascists who believe murder and mayhem is the only way to defend Islam and to get to “heaven” and their supporters (which total about 20% of the American Islamic population in recent polls) to Christianity and the tiny number of kooks who do evil in the name of Christ?

Remember the abortion clinic bombers who rationalized their killings by saying that they were doing the work of God by killing abortion doctors? Well, they weren’t doing the work of God when they murdered people. I am as pro-life a person as you’re going to find and there is no way to defend those murderers who use God to excuse their evil actions.

But the fact is the numbers of Christians who believe that the killing abortion doctors is fine is very, very low. We tend to believe that prayer and talking about Jesus Christ works better to turn hearts from abortion rather than using a bomb or a gun.

To me, you can’t equate a murderous Islamo-fascist to a Christian praying for the end of abortion. After last night’s Islam show, I have this icky feeling that CNN is going to try and make the case that the extremists in Christianity are just like the extremists in Islam. They would be wrong.

Another matter that I have to clear up in my mind – I kind of got the feeling from the first two shows that Amanpour believes that faith in Christ that leads to heaven, faith in God in waiting for the Messiah in Judaism leads to heaven, and the radical Islamic belief of strapping a bomb to one’s self and murdering innocent women and children on a bus is all the same — they’re extremist thoughts.

I’m going to rewatch the first two shows and Tivo tonight’s Christianity show.

If my blood pressure explodes, I’ll let you know tomorrow.

A Pace University student has been charged with a hate crime for putting a Koran in the toilet.

Stanislav Shmulevich, a Ukrainian immigrant, was arraigned Sunday in New York Criminal Court on two charges of criminal mischief in the fourth degree as a hate crime.

“The defendant, as a hate crime, intentionally damaged property of another while having no right to do so nor any reasonable grounds to believe that he had such a right,” said the complaint filed by the New York County District Attorney’s Office.

You’ve got to be kidding me.

Throw a Bible in the toilet and take a picture of it, it’s free speech.

Submerge a crucifix in urine, it’s art.

But put a Koran in the toilet, you’re going to jail.

As a Christian I am insulted that the New York County District Attorney (hello, Robert Morganthau) is trying to put a dopey college kid in jail over this dumb act, but when Christianity is insulted over and over again by “artists,” no one in the Manhattan DA’s office runs off to file charges. Nor should they. This is America and free speech, though at times can be repugnant, is supposed to be protected.

This is political correctness gone way too far.

More: Hot Air

Remember this post – an Episcopalian priest who claims she’s both Christian and Muslim?

Well, apparently she may not be able to be both: She’s been given a year to figure out what she is.

For the Episcopalian Church, this is something. Why they are giving her a year is beyond me — she should have given a moment to think about it — but at least they are trying to take this matter somewhat seriously.

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[via Hot Air blog]

This is one of those "You’ve Got to Be Kidding Me" moments that should make every Episcopalian – and members of their fellowship, including the ELCA – really, really angry.

Shortly after noon on Fridays, the Rev. Ann Holmes Redding ties on a black headscarf, preparing to pray with her Muslim group on First Hill.

On Sunday mornings, Redding puts on the white collar of an Episcopal priest.

She does both, she says, because she’s Christian and Muslim.

Redding, who until recently was director of faith formation at St. Mark’s Episcopal Cathedral, has been a priest for more than 20 years. Now she’s ready to tell people that, for the last 15 months, she’s also been a Muslim — drawn to the faith after an introduction to Islamic prayers left her profoundly moved.

What?

Memo to Rev(?) Redding: YOU CAN’T BE A CHRISTIAN AND A MUSLIM AT THE SAME TIME.

This issue makes me more angry than the Episcopal Church in America approving of an actively homosexual clergy because the church, for if it continues to condone this heresy, will show that it stands for absolutely nothing. It has already disrespected God’s Word by completely ignoring it when it comes to homosexual unions and an actively homosexual clergy, among other things. But if they condone this action, they’d not only be  throwing God’s Word out, they will be using it as toilet paper.

You cannot be a Christian and a Muslim. The basic tenets of either faith are completely different. One says Christ saves; the other says Allah saves the good ones who follow his law. One says that God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; the other says Allah is the supreme being. One promotes the freedom won by Christ; the other promotes slavery to the law. It is apples and screwdrivers, not even in the same ballpark.

This is just sickening. Say a prayer for Mrs. Redding for clarity of faith.

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(Via: Michelle Malkin)

A Baptist church in North Carolina is coming under a little heat for statements they put on their church sign:

Of course, the Muslim community is outraged at the sign. To be honest, the message is very provacative. I am by no means a scholar in Islamic studies, but from what I have studied and what Malkin points out in her post, there is a emphasis in the Koran on converting non-Muslims and, if they don’t convert, to kill them. The religion is very submissive – one has to follow the teachings of Islam or face punishment from Allah. There isn’t a lot of love in that kind of message. This isn’t evangelism.

The bomb strapping part of the sign is over the line for a church.

When Christian Churches deal with the issue of Islam, we must not fall into a pattern of insulting Muslims. Yes, there are many who are believe in strapping bombs to themselves, boarding buses or walking into schools, and blowing themselves up to kill others. But there are many more who don’t believe in this. In my opinion, the lack of a strong "moderate" Muslim wing that speaks out against terrorism is fostering the notion that "all Muslims are killers because that’s what their religion teaches," whether it is true or not. Until there are Muslim leaders who come out and condemn terrorism uniquivacally, then people will continue to lump all Muslims in the same boat.

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If terrorism doesn’t prove that Satan rules this sinful world, then nothing will. In this morning’s New York Times, they report about the newest terrorist organization called Fatah al Islam, organized and run by a fugitive terrorist, Shakir al-Abssi.

Per The Times:

He has solid terrorist credentials. A former associate of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of Al Qaeda of Mesopotamia who was killed last summer, Mr. Abssi was sentenced to death in absentia along with Mr. Zarqawi in the 2002 assassination of an American diplomat in Jordan, Laurence Foley. Just four months after arriving here (note: Lebanon) from Syria, Mr. Abssi has a militia that intelligence officials estimate at 150 men and an arsenal of explosives, rockets and even an antiaircraft gun.

Abssi is nothing but evil. Today he is using his “credentials” as a terrorist thug to recruit new members. He is influencing many young people to join his jihad to murder Americans. Apparently, he has been recruiting new thugs and murderers, creating a wonderful environment to discuss his plots to slaughter innocent people in the name of their god.

One paragraph stuck out to me about these recuitment practices:

Mr. Abssi has recently taken on a communications adviser, Abu al-Hassan, 24, a journalism student who dropped out of college to join Fatah al Islam. His current project: a newsmagazine aimed at attracting recruits.

A newsmagazine for terrorists? This is just plain evil. The devil has definitely been working overtime.

But notice one thing – these terrorist leaders seem fit to strap bombs to others and watch them kill themselves in the name of jihad. Would any of these leaders strap a bomb to their chests themselves? Of course not.

Thugs. Murderers. Evil.

Regardless of what many in the mainstream media say, Christians do not pray to the god of Islam. We pray to the true God, the Triune God of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; three distinct persons in one Godhead. Muslims pray to Allah, a single godhead. That is what makes us different.

And that is why we don’t pray with people of other faiths. We believe in the Triune God as found in the Old and New Testaments of Holy Scripture. “Praying” to anything else is not prayer. It is idolatry.

The Democratic National Committee held their winter meeting in Washington D.C. today, as you may already know if you watched the news. They had an imam say the invocation. To see it, click here and jump over to Jihad Watch, a terrific blog written by Robert Spencer, author of The Truth About Mohammed.

Now, the DNC can have anyone say their opening prayer. That doesn’t bother me.

This does, however, give me and all pastors the opportunity to teach about the major differences between who we say God is and who the Muslims say god is. There always is this misunderstanding from within Christianity that Christians and Muslims pray to the same God, but call Him different things. We don’t just call God different things; we believe in polar opposite divine beings.

As Christians, we must pray for our brothers and sisters who don’t believe in the true God. We pray that the Word of God would be heard by them and turn them from their unbelief and onto the path of truth as found in Jesus Christ.

It seems that Muslim taxi drivers in Minneapolis don’t want fares who carry alcohol or bring dogs with them. They say it is against their faith and since they are in the U.S., they shouldn’t be forced to pick up at the airport those passengers who are either carrying dogs or alcohol. Islam teaches that alcohol is a sin and that the saliva of dogs is unclean. The airport is not wavering —- right now, that is. They say that drivers cannot discriminate.

Which, of course, raises a question: what if a blind person with a seeing-eye dog tries to hail a cab?

A Christian priest has been shot dead on Indonesia’s Sulawesi island, where religious tensions are high after the execution of three Catholic militants. The Rev Irianto Kongkoli was shot in the head while shopping in Palu, the capital of Central Sulawesi province.

More over at the BBC.

Sad story. Another example of people killing in the name of God. Tensions in Indonesia between Christians and Muslims is sickeningly high. When you get a chance, say a prayer for peace.

A story in today’s New York Times peaked my interest: there is a contest in Dubai where Muslim people from around the globe come together – in a contest setting – to recite the Koran. Think – "American Idol" for Muslims.

Yes, it is a contest with a $70,000 top prize. One of the aspects of life that many Muslims partake in is memorizing the Koran, the holy book of their faith. And it is not that they memorize it in their native tongues: they memorize it in Arabic, whether they know the language or not! This is a true discipline of body, to sit down and memorize the text of their rather lengthy holy book.

Do you think Christians would be willing to memorize the original texts of the Holy Bible in their Hebrew and Greek languages? My Hebrew and Greek skills are fine, but I can’t imagine memorizing it in their original languages. And to memorizing it in English? Outside of a few passages, I don’t think I can do it.

There is one thing, however: a Muslim knows his or her Koran much better than a Christian knows his or her Holy Bible.

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