News-Record.com

Some people seem to rather enjoy the exercise of believing contradictory things simultaneously. I seem to recall a Lutheran minister in Denmark who said he was an atheist as well as a Lutheran. That didn't go over very well, either.

Strange stories, indeed.

This story -- and this woman's obvious love for both her faiths -- fascinates me. And my answer to Nancy's question ("Can you really be a Christian preacher -- and anything else?") is yes, but you have to be prepared for people to think otherwise. This woman certainly seems prepared for that, and it sounds like she's dealing well with the dual identity and the complications it's caused in her life.

Personally, I celebrate that Unitarian Universalism, my chosen faith, would welcome this woman as a minister.

And I would love if her path were one that people of varying beliefs could look to as an example -- an extreme example, no doubt, but an example nonetheless -- of religious pluralism. It isn't to be feared or denounced; to me, it's worth celebrating.

The lady made this comment: ""When I took my shahada, I said there's no God but God and that Mohammed is God's prophet or messenger. Neither of those statements, neither part of that confession or profession denies anything about Christianity."

Surely even an Episcopalian can see the absurdity of this statement. Either she knows little about Christianity or little about Islam (or perhaps both). Mohammed taught that it is blasphemy to say God has a son (Qu'ran, Surahs 19:88-92, 112:3); if he is God's prophet, he could not be wrong about this. But Christians believe that Jesus, God's Son, is equal to the Father in dignity and shares His essence. Therefore, they are not the same God, as many claim, putting good intentions over logic. Obviously, both cannot be true. Muslims consider it beneath God's dignity that a prophet should be crucified, so they teach that God took Jesus up to heaven and someone else was crucified in his place. Obviously, without the atoning death of Jesus on the cross, you don't have Christianity at all. Muslims believe that sin can be sufficiently atoned for by good deeds (Surahs 7:8-9; 21:47). Christians believe that "by works of the law can no flesh be justified," Rom. 3:20. Anyone who can look at these glaringly irreconcilable tenets and see no contradictions has left the path of reason. It is the result of the tendency to believe what makes you feel good (or includes rather than excludes, or respects other beliefs, or other euphemisms) rather than what is true. I believe the Episcopal church was entirely right to defrock her (though I am amazed that so spineless and incoherent a denomination had the nerve); after all, one of the duties of any faith is to teach its traditions faithfully, which she could not possibly do. Besides which, she is going to hell according to the teachings of both of her religions: in Islam because claiming that God has any equals or associates is the sin of Shirk, for which the Quran says there is no forgiveness; in Christianity because those who deny the Son (as all good Muslims do) denies the Father also.
Although I follow neither religion, I know a contradiction when I see one.