The pain is starting to get to me, and, I pray, others who value truth. The following is taken from WorldNetDaily, and speaks volumes for the theological confusion that can come from a well-meaning man:
President George Bush has repeated his belief all religions, “whether they be Muslim, Christian, or any other religion, prays to the same God” – an assertion that caused outrage among evangelical leaders when he said it in November 2003.
Bush made the statement Friday in an interview with Al Arabiya reporter Elie Nakouzi.
Al Arabiya is Al Jazeerah’s top competitor in the Mideast.
Christians pray, of course, to a Triune God. Christ, we believe, is a separate person of that Trinity. And, of course, Jesus of Nazareth, who became the Christ, is the begotten, and only, Son of God (e.g. John 3:16). On the other hand, the Koran specifically excludes this as a possibility (e.g. Sura 112).
Fair enough; we all worship differently. Not according to Mr. Bush. The problem is also highlighted in a recent Muslim outreach effort to us infidels. This appears well-intentioned, and has been received in good faith by the usual suspects, which, sadly, include the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, and the Archbishop of Canterbury.
But at least one bishop is paying attention. From the Washington Post article:
Anglican bishop Michael Nazir-Ali said, however, that the letter seems to undercut the role of Jesus by emphasizing a part of the Koran that urges non-Muslims not to “ascribe any partners unto” God. The two faiths’ understanding of the oneness of God is not the same, he told the Times of London. “One partner cannot dictate the terms on which dialogue must be conducted,” he said. “This document seems to be on the verge of doing that.”
This is realistic. We infidels must resist our normal impulse to paper over inconvenient differences between us and Islam. They’ve got their story; we’ve got ours. We do no one any favors by pretending that we are the same. We most definitely are not.
Getting back to Incurious George Bush, it is about as bad as it gets in his publicly stated nonsense that “Islam is a great religion that preaches peace ” (via WorldNetDaily). Mr. Bush went so far as to issue a tendentious moral equivalence. Again from WorldNetDaily, more words from the confused leader of the Free World:
And I believe people who murder the innocent to achieve political objectives aren’t religious people, whether they be a Christian who does that – we had a person blow up our – blow up a federal building in Oklahoma City who professed to be a Christian, but that’s not a Christian act to kill innocent people.
Yes, George. Timothy McVeigh was a bad man. But he committed his atrocity in 1995. The latest Muslim atrocity? Check your daily newspaper.
Let’s all have clarity, please. Islam, as practiced around the world, has many, many terrorists and those who enable and apologize for them. Their faith is different from ours, which is a large part of their justification for attacking us. All the soothing speeches by our leaders or bishops do not and can not change this.
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