Toeing The Party Line

One of the things I have been thinking a lot about lately is my journey from a cradle Baptist to a dyed-in-the-wool Roman Catholic. As the years go on and my knowledge of history, the Church and the Bible grows, so does my support of the Party Line. Something I find very interesting is that my beliefs never changed at all, but my faith has undergone a tremendous transformation. I can still remember the night I got baptized. I remember preparing for it in the upstairs room, where I put on white robes, then walked down to the pool at the appointed time, along with the others who were to be baptized. There was (what appeared to me) an old woman receiving baptism with me. I thought it was odd that she shared that experience with me because I thought everyone experienced it at my own age (five years old). The preacher asked me if I want baptism and I did and then he baptised me in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. When we got home (my parents, my siblings and myself) my brother and sister went up to bed and I had a conversation with my parents about the faith I was just baptised into. That evening I had a full and complete understanding of what Jesus did on the cross. Over the next few years I continued to learn about the Old Testament, and the Gospel. As a teenager I developed a deeper understanding of the Gospels, the New Testament and applying the Christian teachings to my life. In my early twenties I learned the value of abandoning the Christian way of life for gross hedonism.

When I was twenty-four I converted to Roman Catholicism and again began a devoted practice of my religion. I worked with a devoted Catholic who sponsored me in conformation and encouraged me to learn about the faith. Encouragement coupled with my father's love for history which I gratefully inherited, I started a long research project, which I plan to continue for the remainder of my life. The point of it all is that I have had a firm understanding of the Christian faith for as long as I can remember (literally) and as my knowledge grows, my understanding of that faith does not change, but my deeper conversion to Roman Catholicism only continues and I can only echo what our beloved pope recently stated: the Roman Catholic Church possess the fullness of the faith deposited by the Apostles and passed on to us by their successors.

Into Small Silence

I just had a weekend that made me want to run off and join a monastery. Friday after work I went up to a Catholic retreat house and participated in a silent retreat under which the rule of silence was observed until Tuesday morning, just before lunch time. Of course, I thought of one of my favorite saints - Mother Teresa of Calcutta. One of her quotes were "The fruit of silence is prayer. The fruit of prayer is faith. The fruit of faith is love. The fruit of love is service, and the fruit of service is peace." This seems to be a continuing theme in my life. There is one stickler though. I know my ministry involves heavy interaction with the faithful.

One of the things I thought about this weekend was my deep love for Christmas. I love it slightly less than Easter (which is my very favorite holiday of all times). My love is different though. I have not been able to vocalize the difference, even though I thought about it quite extensively. This past weekend I was finally able to draw the distinction. The Easter joy is much different than the joy of Christmas. Easter joy is introverted and Christmas joy is extroverted. What I mean is that Easter stimulates the soul while Christmas stimulates the senses. My joy at the resurrection of our Lord is rather inexpressible, usually. While I am no less excited, expectant, or happy, it is usually less visible than Christmas. As we celebrate the birth of our Lord it is largely sensational. I say that with hesitance, because it makes it sound more superficial, but it's not. Memories of walking around Kris Kringle Market in Nürnberg, listening to Christmas music, seeing the fabulous decorations, smelling nutmeg and the taste of Lebkuchen are all permanently associated with Christmas for me. These are far from being the only associations, and much less the most important associations with Christmas for me, but I bring them up to help draw the distinction between the Easter and Christmas joy.

Blessed Be God Forever!

Imagine the sound of this coming down from the alter on Sunday morning! "Blessed are You Allah, Lord of all creation. Through Your goodness we have this bread to offer, gift of the ground and work of human hands. It will become for us the Bread of Life." "Blessed be Allah forever!"

Recently a Dutch bishop in the Roman Catholic Church (Muskins) instructed the Faithful to call God Allah to improve relations between Muslims and Christians. An article on it can be found here. Bishop Muskins makes the erroneous assumption that Allah is the same entity as the All Mighty God of Judaism and Christianity. The evidence to the contrary is overwhelming and I will give just a few examples.

The Koran is the Islamic holy scripture, alleged to be dictated to Mohamed by the angel Gabril, who is supposed to be the same Gabriel who announced the coming of our Savior Jesus to Mary. Let's take a brief look at Heaven through the eyes of a Muslim as compared to a Christian as the first test of the validity of Bishop Muskins' claim that God and Allah are one and the same being (surely if they are the same then they will proclaim the same inheritance to observers of the Faith He deposited on Earth). Christians proclaim an afterlife basking in the presence of the Creator as heirs who share in the eternal inheritance of Christ, where there is no distinction between man and woman, Jew and Gentile, servant and free man. Muslims proclaim a river that flows with wine, the joys of the inheritance of seventy virgins, licence for unbounded gluttony. Okay, the questions of the afterlife must be taken on faith so if that is the only difference, it might be overlooked, but what about the commands of the Lord regarding prayer? Let me draw this distinction with a couple stories straight out of scripture. In the Christian Tradition, Jesus was speaking to His disciples and told them, "You have heard that it was said, 'Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Heavenly Father, for He makes His sun rise on the bad and the good, and causes the rain to fall on the just and the unjust..." In the Islamic Tradition, Mohamed prayed for a man who spoke out against his newly discovered religious tradition, and was subsequently ordered to stop doing such nonsensical behavior by an angel in the service of Allah, on the grounds that enemies of Islam are cut off and undeserving of the mercy of God. Strike two. Again in the Christian Tradition, Jesus said, "It was said to your ancestors, 'Do not take a false oath, but make good to the Lord all that you vow.' But I say to you, do not swear at all...let your 'Yes' mean 'Yes' and your 'No' mean 'No." Mohamed instructed Muslims that it is profitable to lie to nonbelievers and that Allah approves of such behavior because they have spurned the truth and are not worthy of honorable treatment.

This is far from being an exhaustive list of the differences between Islam and Christianity, but even this little bit is enough to prove that God and Allah are not one and the same. It is much more than simply calling the same entity different names. They are different entities all together. They differ in the view of the afterlife, the instructions on what to pray for and the instructions on personal conduct in the world. How many categories must the two religions differ in before we acknowledge that God and Allah are two different beings? The problem with affirming the fact of the matter is then we will be left with the question, "If Allah is not God, as the Muslim claim, then who is he?" It is a sad day when we favor popularity over truth.