{"id":1287,"date":"2010-12-03T10:34:52","date_gmt":"2010-12-03T17:34:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/?p=1287"},"modified":"2010-12-03T10:34:52","modified_gmt":"2010-12-03T17:34:52","slug":"dp-is-inter-faith-worship-possible","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/?p=1287","title":{"rendered":"DP: Is Inter-Faith Worship Possible?"},"content":{"rendered":"

“I do say that freedom is the Almighty’s gift to every person. I also condition it by saying freedom is not America’s gift to the world.\u00a0 It’s much greater than that, of course. And I believe we worship the same god.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Who said that?\u00a0 If you guessed President Obama, you would be wrong.\u00a0 These are the words of George W. Bush, spoken during a joint press conference with Prime Minister Tony Blair held in November 2003.<\/p>\n

At the time, some Christian Evangelicals, including Southern Baptists, were “outraged”<\/a> about Bush’s remarks which\u00a0appeared to equate the god of Islam with the God of Christianity.\u00a0 One prominent Southern Baptist leader\u00a0came down relatively\u00a0hard<\/del> easy on the 43rd President, saying:<\/p>\n

“This president has earned a lot of wiggle room among evangelicals.\u00a0 If he had said that Islam is on a par with Christianity, it would be a more serious case of heartburn<\/a>. This is just indigestion.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Can you imagine what Richard Land, President of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty\u00a0Commission, would have said if President Obama made similar remarks?\u00a0 I guess if the right political party is in power and their leaders throw enough bones to the religious right, then all will be forgiven!\u00a0<\/p>\n

One might be tempted to think that\u00a0President Bush’s 2003 comments\u00a0were somehow misconstrued.\u00a0 However, in a 2007 interview\u00a0with\u00a0\u00a0Al Arabiya, a Middle Eastern news service<\/a>, Bush reiterated his belief that all religions were basically worshipping the same god:<\/p>\n

“Well, first of all, I believe in an Almighty God, and I believe that all the world, whether they be Muslim, Christian, or any other religion, prays to the same God. That’s what I believe. I believe that Islam is a great religion that preaches peace. . . .”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

President Bush is not alone in his mistaken belief that Muslims and Christians pray to the same god.\u00a0 In fact, there are even some professors at Baptist seminaries who apparently feel the same way<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

I find it hard to believe that George W. Bush came to his\u00a0beliefs\u00a0only after the events of September 11, 2001.\u00a0 That\u00a0might explain his approach to the inter-faith worship service held at the National Cathedral just three\u00a0days\u00a0following the horrific terrorist attack on our nation.<\/p>\n

In his book, Decision Points <\/em>(pp. 145-147), President Bush wrote about the inter-faith worship service held at the National Cathedral on the National Day of Prayer and Remembrance, September 14, 2001.\u00a0 He praised his wife, Laura, and his senior advisor, Karen Hughes, for the “fine job” they did in putting together the program for the service.<\/p>\n

Included as part of this service were representatives from several faiths, including Islam, Judaism, and Christianity (both Catholic and Protestant).\u00a0 To be sure, this was to be a prayer service and a time of remembrance.\u00a0 The\u00a0question that always arises from these type of inter-faith\u00a0services is, “Who are we praying to?”\u00a0<\/p>\n

Just a word of clarification before proceeding.\u00a0 I have no objection\u00a0to what has been labeled\u00a0“inter-faith dialogue.”\u00a0 In fact, talking to folks outside of your own faith can be both enlightening and productive<\/a>.\u00a0 However, there is, in my opinion, a\u00a0difference between an inter-faith dialogue and an inter-faith worship service.<\/p>\n

Worship, by its very nature, is giving praise and honor to God.\u00a0 Regardless of what George W. Bush and some Christians believe,\u00a0Muslims and Christians\u00a0do not worship\u00a0the same God.\u00a0 If you doubt that,\u00a0ask yourself when\u00a0was the last time that you saw an inter-faith worship service held\u00a0in a mosque?<\/p>\n

Inter-faith worship\u00a0services,\u00a0especially those held in ostensibly Christian churches or cathedrals, almost\u00a0always involve a watering-down of the truths of Biblical Christianity.\u00a0 Such was the case on September 14, 2001.\u00a0 While President Bush quotes some of his speech from that day, he\u00a0left out of his book several key passages (full text here<\/a>)\u00a0that appear to obscure (hopefully unintentionally) the nature of the\u00a0who God is:<\/p>\n

“On this national day of prayer and remembrance, we ask almighty God to watch over our nation and grant us patience and resolve in all that is to come. We pray that He will comfort and console those who now walk in sorrow. We thank Him for each life we now must mourn, and the promise of a life to come.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

There indeed is “the promise of a life to come.”\u00a0 However, there are irreconcilable differences between Islam and Christianity when it comes to how that promise is fulfilled.\u00a0<\/p>\n

For Biblical Christians, eternal life comes only\u00a0through faith in Jesus Christ — His death, burial, and Resurrection.\u00a0 Jesus said, “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life.\u00a0 No one comes to the Father except through Me.”\u00a0 <\/em>Jesus is not one of many ways to heaven.\u00a0 He is the ONLY way!\u00a0 For those Christians like me who believe this, I think it would be difficult, if not impossible, to participate in an inter-faith worship service.<\/p>\n

In dealing with the grief of 9\/11, President Bush\u00a0concluded his speech at the National Cathedral with\u00a0the comforting words of Scripture, found in Romans 8:38-39,<\/p>\n

“As we’ve been assured, neither death nor life nor angels nor principalities, nor powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth can separate us from God’s love.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

That sounds nice.\u00a0 These are definitely words of comfort.\u00a0 There is only one slight<\/del> major problem with how President Bush used this quote.\u00a0 He left out the most important part of how we can have the assurance of God’s never-ending love:\u00a0 “IN CHRIST JESUS OUR LORD.”<\/span>\u00a0<\/p>\n

Romans 8 begins with Christ and it ends with Christ.\u00a0 Jesus is central to not only this passage of Scripture, but He is central to the promises of God, including\u00a0His promises of eternal life and eternal love!\u00a0 To leave out Jesus is to radically misunderstand who God is.<\/p>\n

Herein\u00a0lies the problem with inter-faith worship services like the one President Bush participated in at the National Cathedral.\u00a0 Something always gets left out and that something is usually Jesus.\u00a0 Inter-faith dialogue?\u00a0 No problem.\u00a0 Inter-faith worship?\u00a0 Sorry, but no thanks!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“I do say that freedom is the Almighty’s gift to every person. I also condition it by saying freedom is not America’s gift to the world.\u00a0 It’s much greater than that, of course. And I believe we worship the same god.” Who said that?\u00a0 If you guessed President Obama, you would be wrong.\u00a0 These are…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[8,12,29,34,35],"tags":[47,129,3370,3374,438,523,3388,699,700,839,891,920],"class_list":["post-1287","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christianity","category-decision-points","category-islam","category-politics","category-religion","tag-47","tag-barack-obama","tag-christianity","tag-decision-points","tag-george-w-bush","tag-inter-faith-worship","tag-islam","tag-national-cathedral","tag-national-day-of-prayer-and-remembrance","tag-richard-land","tag-september-11","tag-southern-baptists"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1LP7G-kL","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1287","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1287"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1287\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1287"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1287"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1287"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}