I got this from two friends, one of whom an Episcopal priest. She suggested that it was blog-worthy. Her tone was light-hearted, in a weltschmerzich sort of way. If you're an Episcopalian with even the tiniest shred of dignity, these last several decades have been very, very hard indeed. We've had to put up with a lot, but it's hard to top this story about one of our clergy for its sheer faith-vaporizing qualities.
The Rev. Ann Holmes Redding says she is both a Christian and a Muslim. She's an Episcopal priest, a position that used to require profession of the Christian faith, to wit:
I believe in God, the Father Almighty,
the Creator of heaven and earth,
and in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord:
Islam Check: fails. Allah doesn't have a son. Jesus was a prophet, though not Allah's prophet, who was born proclaiming the one who would come in the future, Mohammed. In other words, he was the Prophet's prophet.
Who was conceived of the Holy Spirit,
born of the Virgin Mary,
suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, died, and was buried.
Islam check: fails. There is no Holy Spirit, although maybe a horny jinn is involved here somewhere. Who's Pontius Pilate and why do we care? What, no beheading?
He descended into hell.
Jesus was proto-martyr. He went straight to Paradise and 36 hooris** (pre-Mohammed hoori count.)
The third day He arose again from the dead.
No way.
He ascended into heaven
and sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty,
whence He shall come to judge the living and the dead.
No, he is doing it with hooris. None of this sitting around with guys at all.
I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy *catholic church,
the communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body,
and life everlasting.
No, no, no, no, no, and the last only for guys. Women can only go to Paradise if they apologize for being a continual temptation to sexual impurity for the men and if they give birth to a homicide bomber glorious martyr.
So you see, Annie, on the face of it, Muslims and Christians would seem to have a different view of God entirely, God's relationship to Man, and, incidentally, Woman, salvation generally, our obligations to our fellow man, and woman, and particularly those of other faiths (some rather startling and mutually exclusive differences on that score), the nature of Jesus (considered central to the faith of some Christians, though fewer and fewer Episcopalians it seems). So, just because you can't wrap your little brain about things like transubstantiation and forensic justification doesn't mean that all points of disagreement between faiths are trivial.
Try this: why is it that when a Christian is martyred, he is killed by others because he won't deny his belief in Christ, but a Muslim is allowed (encouraged, even) by the tenets of his faith to lie about it for expedience (to save his own skin: see taqiyyah), and that martyrdom means dying in the process of killing infidels (jihad)? Infidels, you know, like us.
Insert psycho scream here.
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** For Steve Martin's examination of the hoori question, see the New Yorker's "Shouts & Murmurs."