Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Winds of War: Evangelicals Have Second Thoughts

Remember that letter the Muslim leaders sent to the Christian community that many Christian leaders rushed to accept. Well, some are having second thoughts.

Administrators from one of the most influential evangelical colleges in the country removed their names from a controversial letter addressed to Muslim leaders that some say compromises the Christian faith.

Wheaton College president Duane Litfin, provost Stanton Jones and chaplain Stephen Kellough decided to back away from the letter that they had originally endorsed along with nearly 300 Christian leaders in November in response to an October statement (”A Common Word Between Us and You”) from 138 Muslim scholars and clerics who called for interfaith cooperation for world peace.


Maybe the “let’s all just get along” crowd is getting the message. Muslims may just not be friends of Christians.

“I signed the statement because I am committed to the business of peace-making and neighbor-love,” Litfin stated on Friday in The Record, the student publication of Wheaton College. “I did not savor the document’s unnuanced apology section, but swallowed that in order to be a part of reaching out a hand to these Muslim leaders who had courageously taken the initiative.

Congratulations. Swallowing your beliefs is the first step towards dhimmitude.

The Christian-endorsed statement – which included such signatories as Rick Warren of Saddleback Church, Billy Hybels of Willow Creek Community Church, and Leith Anderson of the National Association of Evangelicals – urged for interfaith dialogue that would build relations and reshape the Christian and Islam communities. Christian leaders also asked for forgiveness of sins committed against Muslims in the Crusades and excesses of the war on terrors in the letter.

What bulls**t. Where’s the apology from the Muslim leaders for the deaths of Christians at the hands of Muslims now and in the past.

President Bush's repeated assertions about the peaceful nature of Islam were briefly interrupted when the State Department issued the annual report required by the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998. This year, as in the past, our Muslim-world partners in the coalition against terrorism were prominently featured among the most violent, most intolerant regimes in the world. Religious minorities are persecuted in over 20 states where Islam is the official or dominant religion. The million Christians who have fled the Muslim world in the past five years were hardly seeking sanctuary from the peaceful face of Islam.

With shocking regularity, human-rights groups report the death of Christians at the hands of Muslim militants in Africa, South Asia, and the Middle East.


Titled “Loving God and Neighbor Together: A Christian Response to a Common Word Between Us and You,” the statement emphasized the “absolutely central” commonality between both religions: love of God and love of neighbor.

The response drew sharp criticism from highly respected theologians R. Albert Mohler, Jr., president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, and John Piper, pastor at Bethlehem Baptist Church, and other Christian leaders.

Piper called the Christian document a “profound disappointment” in the way it was worded and was surprised that even some of his friends lent their support to the letter.

“What’s missing from this document is a clear statement about what Christianity really is and how we can come together to talk with Muslims from our unique, distinctive, biblical standpoint,” Piper said in a public statement last month.

He rejected the letter’s emphasis on the common ground of the love of God, arguing that the love of God for Christians is starkly different from that of Islam.


And Muslim clerics agree. They pray to a different god.

In a move that may hurt Malaysia’s multi-religious social fabric the government has announced that certain Arabic words like ‘Allah’ cannot be used in the literature, gospel and speeches of non-Muslims faiths.

"Only Muslims can use (the word) Allah. It's a Muslim word. It's from the Arabic language. We cannot let other religions use it because it will confuse people," deputy minister for internal security Johari Baharum told presspersons explaining the rationale for the decision.


Back to the Christian response.

The Rev. Canon Dr. Patrick Sookhdeo, the director of the Institute for the Study of Islam and Christianity and a British Anglican, applauded the effort of the Muslim leaders in reaching out to Christian leaders to try to find common ground but he called the Christian response a “betrayal” and “sellout” of the Christian faith.

Following such criticism, Wheaton’s Litfin realized he “moved too quickly” to sign the statement in his eagerness to support its strengths, including peace-making.

Recognizing that the statement could have been written differently to avoid vagueness of the Christian faith, Litfin said he could not support a statement that speaks as if Quran’s Allah and the God of Christians are the same.

“I needed to back away,” he said regarding his retraction.


The man got religion at last.

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4 Comments:

  • Wheaton College is more politically savvy and better grounded theologically.

    Dr. Sookhdeo used to be a Muslim. He converted to Christianity.

    By Blogger Always On Watch, at 9:45 AM  

  • BTW, Rick Warren is losing some of his followers. More and more, he's being viewed as part of the emergent church, a bunch of kumbaya folks.

    I believe that Obama belongs to an emergent church, BTW. Along with Howard Dean and any number of others like that.

    By Blogger Always On Watch, at 9:47 AM  

  • GOD VERSUS ALLAH (the ANTI GOD)

    ONE GOD OF THE UNIVERSE BUT TWO DRAMATICALLY DIFFERENT CONCEPTIONS

    The universe is a huge entity stretching 14 billion years x 2 trillion miles (distance light travels in one year). Just in the Milky Way alone, there is an estimated 1 billion planets. In this immensity, there must be many life forms who like Homo Sapiens - exercise Free Will. While there is only one God of the universe, there is for mankind (homo sapiens) two dramatically different conceptions of God – there is God and then there is ALLAH (THE ANTI GOD).

    CONCEPTION OF GOD

    For most of mankind - there is God - the Omniscient, Omnipotent, and Glorious Exalted Creator of the Universe, a God of All Peace, Love, Goodness and Mercy - an All Wise, All Loving God for all mankind.

    Following are self evident truths of GOD

    GOD AS THE CREATOR OF THE UNIVERSE - THE CREATOR OF ALL LIVING THINGS IS PERFECT.

    ALL TEACHINGS OF GOD - A PERFECT GOD - MUST BE PERFECT

    ANY WRITINGS IN ANY RELIGIOUS TEXT THAT ARE NOT PERFECT ARE NOT THE TEACHINGS OF GOD BUT THE TEACHINGS OF MAN

    AS A PERFECT GOD - GOD IS ALL PURE PEACE AND LOVE AND GOODNESS

    ALL MANKIND ARE CREATED IN THE IMAGE OF GOD AND ARE THE CHILDREN OF GOD

    ALL OF MANKIND ARE CREATED EQUAL AND THEIR LIVES ARE SACRED TO GOD

    GOD IS NOT AN IRRATIONAL, IMMORAL, EVIL BEING. IF GOD IS IRRATIONAL, IMMORAL, EVIL THEN GOD IS NOT PERFECT AND THEREFORE SINCE GOD CANNOT BE IMPERFECT AN IRRATIONAL, IMMORAL, EVIL GOD IS NOT GOD

    Man’s natural concept of God, is a conception of Pure Peace and Love, Goodness and Mercy, an All Wise, All Loving God for all mankind.

    All human beings are created in the image of God. All mankind is created equal and all their lives are precious and sacred to God.

    As the Omniscient Omnipotent Glorious Exalted Creator of the Universe and all living things - God is PERFECT.

    As PERFECTION, God is the embodiment of All Pure Peace and Love.

    GOD is Anti – War. All war and violence are abhorrent to God – an affront to the intelligence He bestowed on mankind. God never intervened in any battle, never lead an army into battle, changed the weather allowing (His) side to be victorious or any other form of divine intervention etc. There is no - "His" side”.

    God is a non - religious entity. For God, there exists no concept of believers or non – believers, no chosen people. There is no one truth - no such thing as the one and only true religion. There are many ways to God. Even a total non - believer can ascend to Heaven provided he does not have an evil soul. Religion was invented by man as a vehicle to allow him to comprehend God. Because man is imperfect then religion is imperfect.

    God gave man a Free Will to do Good or Evil, to explore the truth of any question including - His existence.

    God is not an egotist. God does not demand obedience or adoration. Having given man intelligence, God believes that no man should be ruled by dictators.

    All mankind is created equal. God is not a racist.

    God created woman as the equal of man. God is not a sexist.

    No man is the property of any other man – God is not a slaver.

    GOD has never spoken one violent word. If GOD spoke just one word of violence - GOD would no longer be PERFECT and therefore no longer GOD.

    GOD is not a violent being. GOD is the very essence of non-violence. If God committed just one act of violence or ordered an act of violence then God would no longer be PERFECT and therefore no longer God. All words/teachings in any religious book that contain violence are not the word/teachings of GOD but the word/teachings of men.

    GOD is the very essence of pure love. THE VERY EXISTENCE OF GOD IS PURE LOVE. IF GOD IS NOT THE EMBODIMENT OF PURE LOVE THEN GOD DOES NOT EXIST.

    GOD has never spoken a word of hate. As the essence of pure love, as a being whose very existence is pure love God is totally incapable of hate. If God had just one hateful thought then He would no longer exist.

    GOD is not a criminal. He is not a murderer. GOD has never killed or ordered the killing of any human being. He has never sent a storm or other calamity of nature to destroy any human being or city etc. God has never killed or ordered the killing of any human being. If God killed just one human being (or any other alien life form throughout the universe who exercises free will) then God is a murderer and God is no longer God.

    While God clearly has the power - He does not have the moral right to destroy the Earth. There are many different ways mankind can go to extinction. The end can come through the actions of man such as a nuclear holocaust, or the invention of a disease. Another way is for a comet to smash into the earth. Global warming could set off natural processes making the Earth uninhabitable leading to extinction. Definitely in 5 billion years, the sun will supernova destroying the earth. If God intervenes in these natural or human processes in any way and destroys the Earth because he is pissed off with Homo Sapiens or any other reason then God is the greatest mass murderer ever and God is no longer God.

    ALLAH (THE ANTI GOD)

    For Muslims - there is Allah (the ANTI GOD).

    Allah is the ANTI GOD worshiped by 1.2 billion Muslims. Allah is the ANTI GOD of war, murder, killing, death and destruction, violence, rape, slavery, torture, hate, terror, brutality, savagery, maiming, stoning, cutting off limbs, mutilations, looting and pillaging, extortion, sexual depravity, child molestation, intolerance, bigotry, sharia law, oppression and subjugation of women, inferiority of woman, women as instruments of sexual pleasure in paradise, wife beating, honor killings, inequality of infidels, inequality of any human being, that infidels can be murdered and their property stolen as a holy duty, that Muslims who renounce Islam can be killed, that Muslims (or anyone) who challenge the teachings of Islam can be murdered, that believers who slay and are slain in the service of God will ascend to a sexual depraved Paradise of lustrous eyed, full breasted virgins who they can sexually molest for all eternity

    By Blogger personalrep1, at 10:38 AM  

  • pp1-G*D is also;
    Pure-sin cannot exist before HIM
    Just-HE cannot be less than Right
    Judge-ALL Judgment has been given into Yeshua's Hands
    Since evil and sin cannot exist before HIM, HE created Hell for satan and all the rebellious angels, HE cannot deny or pervert HIS Nature.
    G*D HAS called for the total destruction of Sodom and Gommorah, HE flooded the entire Eart, fire has been reserved to destroy this currently tainted and fallen Heaven and Earth(2 Peter 3:10-12 and Matthew 25:41). Please do not confuse G*D's Mercy and Grace and Purity and Love as an unwillingness or inability to Judge and Punish. HE can and will protect HIS Glory!
    In G*D's View, there is only Truth or not-Truth, Truth will prevail BUT not-Truth HAS TO BE DESTROYED!
    G*D does call for the destruction of the totally corrupt(go read Genesis 15:13-16)...
    Good morning, G*D bless and Maranatha!

    tmw

    By Blogger The Merry Widow, at 5:27 AM  

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