The Episcopal Church of Rhode Island has terminated the ministry of Ann Holmes Redding over a novel dispute. For three years, Redding has been both a practicing Christian and practicing Muslim. While Redding does not see a conflict, the church has essentially told her to pick a God and go with it.
Redding was a minister for over 30 years before her removal from the rolls last week.
Roughly three years ago, she was taken by the faith while listening to an imam’s chants and meditation. Just ten days later, Redding said the shahada (“There is no god but God, Muhammad is the Messenger of God”) — the Muslim declaration of belief in the oneness of God and acceptance of Mohammad as his prophet.
She adopted an interesting defense in the disciplinary proceedings with the church: she has added a religion but not a new God: “Both religions say there’s only one God, and that God is the same God. It’s very clear we are talking about the same God! So I haven’t shifted my allegiance.”
The Diocese of Rhode Island, where Redding was ordained, told her to leave either her new Muslim faith or the ministry.
For the full story, click here
This is inane as I.
So what do you call an Attorney with an IQ? Gifted.
What do you call an Attorney with an IQ of 50? Your Honor.
no it like eating pi
The total is: 12 + 1 560 – 48 735 = -47 163
And the square root is: 217.17044
So how does one go about eating a square root? Is it kind of like eating a carrot?
12+1560-48735
May Be I do, do you per chance have the tele number to the German woman that needs servicing?
I am sorry if this offended anyone. It is my own prurient yearnings at stroke.
Slippery:
you obviously need the clapper.
Shall I call 911?
I am gasping for air, I have fallen on my laptop and can’t seem to get up.
Slippery:
you dont need to fall on your sword/pen.
I am wrong, wrong wrong. Yes the Hundred year war was between England and France as the English still spoke French for some reason at that time
The Crusades (1096-1271). On one level, the Crusades were part of a longstanding Christian response to Muslim expansionism, which, it turns out, would not rest until it had taken Constantinople itself–the heart of Eastern Christendom–for Islam.
I stand to be corrected. I just took some corectol.
Slippery:
I think you were asleep you have the wrong war.
Did I miss the part about the Hundred year war? I may have been asleep in theology, again.
The funny thing is that she apparently was able to be an episcopal priestess and a Muslim. they did not ask her to terminate her position. So now Christianity is less tolerant than Islam? Wow.
And Episcopalians to boot.
Dang and to think of all those Maryters in the various faiths. That were Christian and then turned to Muslim then back to Christianity.
To be both and in a Church that is socially tolerant, yeah right, money talks. She has converted into a landmine quagmire of all religions.
Let us not forget. He who pays the leader the most is the most welcome.
Did not Rhodes Island not start as the sewer state. Or did I learn that as revisionist history. Sometimes, I think that they make this stuff up.
rcampbell:
Great grab. I read the entire article on-line, and it is well-written in the extreme.
“She adopted an interesting defense in the disciplinary proceedings with the church: she has added a religion but not a new God: “Both religions say there’s only one God, and that God is the same God. It’s very clear we are talking about the same God! So I haven’t shifted my allegiance.
The Diocese of Rhode Island, where Redding was ordained, told her to leave either her new Muslim faith or the ministry.”
***************
Well lucky for her that she went to Islam and not from it, because according to the tenets of her God as expressed by his unerring words found in both the Qur’an and the Hadith, the penalty for apostasy is death and not mere defrocking.
Also on JT’s vigilance, I understand the blog is considering a new motto: We write more before breakfast than most people do all day.”
Bob & JT,
It’s like one of my Prof’s used to say, “Sleep is for the weak.” I later found out that was a double entendre, but that’s another story. I’d use the word homophone but every time I do some troll accuses me of selling cell service to GLAAD.
As far as Redding goes, if her defense is that it’s the same God in both religions, then she should consider perhaps forming a new religion or joining the Liberal Unitarians. That mix she’s running now is going to burn out from contradiction and inherent hostility of basic values. Islam doesn’t play well with others teleologically and philosophically speaking.
I just saw this at the Huffington Post.
By Jon Meacham | NEWSWEEK
Published Apr 4, 2009
From the magazine issue dated Apr 13, 2009
The End of Christian America
The percentage of self-identified Christians has fallen 10 points in the past two decades. How that statistic explains who we are now—and what, as a nation, we are about to become.
It was a small detail, a point of comparison buried in the fifth paragraph on the 17th page of a 24-page summary of the 2009 American Religious Identification Survey. But as R. Albert Mohler Jr.—president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, one of the largest on earth—read over the document after its release in March, he was struck by a single sentence. For a believer like Mohler—a starched, unflinchingly conservative Christian, steeped in the theology of his particular province of the faith, devoted to producing ministers who will preach the inerrancy of the Bible and the Gospel of Jesus Christ as the only means to eternal life—the central news of the survey was troubling enough: the number of Americans who claim no religious affiliation has nearly doubled since 1990, rising from 8 to 15 percent……
Perhaps Rev. Holmes was just trying to get ahead of the curve.
I don’t see the problem here. Either religion might rightfully ask that a choice be made. Rev. Holmes’ cited defense is accurate as far as it goes, but after she asserts that the Christian God and Allah are the same “God of Abraham”, her defense weakens considerably.
As a Christian she accepts Christ as the Savior, the Messiah. As a Muslim—not so much. I don’t think Muhammad carries that Savior or Messiah moniker, so on some level she would be preaching from both sides of her cassock. I think this is a bit more complicated issue than holding dual citizenship.
To use a sports metaphor, Christianity and Islam my be teams in the same sport and perhaps even the same league, but they are definitely in different divisions. Asking the Reverend to choose one team or the other to play on seems appropriate to me.
Maybe there would be more understanding among religions if cross-ordination were available, but I don’t think religious leaders have any interest in fostering understanding. They seem to be more interested in protecting their respective “territories.”
JT,
You sure are an early riser.
Posting at 5am? You’re insane.
The Turley media empire never sleeps.