Earlier this month I posted about A Common Word Between Us and You, a statement published by 138 Muslim leaders “to declare the common ground between Christianity and Islam.” Scholars at the Yale Center for Faith and Culture have responded with Loving God and Neighbor Together. This statement has been endorsed by over 300 Christian leaders from around the world.
Loving God and Neighbor Together
As members of the worldwide Christian community, we were deeply encouraged and challenged by the recent historic open letter signed by 138 leading Muslim scholars, clerics, and intellectuals from around the world. A Common Word Between Us and You identifies some core common ground between Christianity and Islam which lies at the heart of our respective faiths as well as at the heart of the most ancient Abrahamic faith, Judaism. Jesus Christ’s call to love God and neighbor was rooted in the divine revelation to the people of Israel embodied in the Torah (Deuteronomy 6:5; Leviticus 19:18). We receive the open letter as a Muslim hand of conviviality and cooperation extended to Christians world-wide. In this response we extend our own Christian hand in return, so that together with all other human beings we may live in peace and justice as we seek to love God and our neighbors.
Muslims and Christians have not always shaken hands in friendship; their relations have sometimes been tense, even characterized by outright hostility. Since Jesus Christ says, “First take the log out your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your neighbor’s eye” (Matthew 7:5), we want to begin by acknowledging that in the past (e.g. in the Crusades) and in the present (e.g. in excesses of the “war on terror”) many Christians have been guilty of sinning against our Muslim neighbors. Before we “shake your hand” in responding to your letter, we ask forgiveness of the All-Merciful One and of the Muslim community around the world. continue reading
11-29-2007 |
2 Comments »I first heard about A Common Word Between Us and You when Brian McLaren talked about it at OTM Live this weekend. I learned that this statement was published in October by 138 Muslim leaders “to declare the common ground between Christianity and Islam.”
A Common Word Between Us and You
Muslims and Christians together make up well over half of the world’s population. Without peace and justice between these two religious communities, there can be no meaningful peace in the world. The future of the world depends on peace between Muslims and Christians.
The basis for this peace and understanding already exists. It is part of the very foundational principles of both faiths: love of the One God, and love of the neighbour. These principles are found over and over again in the sacred texts of Islam and Christianity. The Unity of God, the necessity of love for Him, and the necessity of love of the neighbour is thus the common ground between Islam and Christianity. The following are only a few examples:
Read the rest of this entry »11-05-2007 |
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“Christians should be troublemakers, creators of uncertainty, agents of a dimension incompatible with society.”
- French theologian Jacques Ellul, 1912-94
05-18-2007 |
3 Comments »Newsweek ran an insightful article this last week about how the war in Iraq is causing some U.S. soldiers to lose their Christian faith. The piece centers on the story of army chaplain Roger Benimoff, who shared with Newsweek the personal journal he kept through two deployments in Iraq and his current service as a chaplain at Walter Reed Medical Center. Roger has gone through what sounds like quite a wrenching of his faith, as he had to perform more memorial services than regular chapel services. He saw that the reality of war forced many soldiers to reevaluate the faith they had embraced back in the relative wealth and security of the United States.
Some quotes:
[He] begins his time in Iraq brimming with faith and a sense of devotion that carries him into a second tour. “My heart is filled with prayer and God is giving me a discerning spirit,” he writes at the start of that later deployment. “The spiritual battle I am engaged in is a minute-by-minute war.” He is “on fire for God.”Countless soldiers—not just chaplains—have struggled with how to reconcile a God of love with a God who allows the terror of conflict. For centuries theologians and philosophers have grappled with ideas of “just war”: thou shalt not kill, but under certain conditions—to prevent wider bloodshed and suffering—slaughter by armies is acceptable. Read the rest of this entry »
05-16-2007 |
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I discovered this “advertisement” on the Wittenburg Door site and the artist Tim Nyberg of Octane Creative has graciously given his permission for us to post it here.
03-19-2007 |
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