The Unauthorized Homily

By Bill Dunn

A commentary on the Scripture readings from the Sunday Lectionary

(Scripture readings for Sunday, August 12th: Wisdom 18:6-9; Hebrews 11:1-2, 8-19; Luke 12:32-48)

CAN EPISCOPAL PRIEST BE BOTH CHRISTIAN AND MUSLIM?

Did you see the news story a few weeks ago about the Episcopal priest who became a Muslim? Ann Holmes Redding of Seattle, WA, has been an ordained priest in the Episcopal church for over 20 years. But about a year-and-a-half ago Redding became a Muslim. In March, 2006, she said her shahada—the profession of faith—testifying that there is only one God and that Mohammed is his prophet.

Or rather, I should say that Redding claims that she ALSO became a Muslim. In a Seattle Times interview, Redding explained, “I am both Muslim and Christian, just like I'm both an American of African descent and a woman. I'm 100 percent both.”

Well, obviously racial heritage and gender are two items that are not mutually exclusive. It’s perfectly logical for her to be both of African descent and a woman, just as it’s perfectly logical for me to be both of Irish descent and a Red Sox fan. The important question here is whether or not the doctrines of Islam and Christianity are mutually exclusive.

In the same Seattle Times story, Kurt Fredrickson of the Fuller Seminary said, “There are tenets of the faiths that are very, very different,” especially regarding the person and work of Jesus Christ. Mahmoud Ayoub, a professor of Islamic studies at Temple University, agreed. He said that “the [respective] theological beliefs [about Jesus] are irreconcilable.”

Rev. Redding, however, sees no problem. “At the most basic level, I understand the two religions to be compatible. That's all I need,” she said. “It wasn’t about intellect,” she added. No, it certainly was not.

Also seeing no problem here is Redding’s boss, Bishop Vincent Warner, who says he accepts Redding as an Episcopal priest and as a Muslim, and that he finds the interfaith possibilities exciting.

The issue here, of course, is not interfaith possibilities, exciting or otherwise. There should be ongoing dialogue between religious groups, especially between the three great monotheistic religions, each of which points to Abraham as the founding patriarch (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam). There is much common ground to explore, especially when compared to the secular worldview that is shaping our current vain and coarse culture. The more people from different religious groups get to know each other and interact, the less likely it is, I suspect, that they’ll want to kill each other.

But like so many religious and spiritual questions, this situation ultimately hinges on the one key question Jesus asked in Matthew 22:42: “What think ye of Christ?”

In other words, what is the true identity of Jesus?

Throughout history Christianity has answered this question quite clearly: Jesus is the 2nd person of the Holy Trinity, One-in-being with God the Father, and the eternal Word through whom the universe was created. In other word, Christianity professes that Jesus is God.

Islam, on the other hand, teaches that Jesus was a great prophet (but not as great as Mohammed), and that Jesus was neither divine nor the son of God. As the professor at Temple, Mahmoud Ayoub, noted: “For Muslims to say Jesus is God would be blasphemy.”

The bottom line here is that the two different beliefs about the identity of Jesus are mutually exclusive. They cannot both be correct at the same time. Unlike racial heritage and gender, it is logically impossible to be both at the same time. Therefore, to make the claim: “I am both Muslim and Christian,” is to make the claim: “Jesus is both God and not God.” (Which really is to make the claim: “I am not thinking logically.”)

Once again, the problem might be that Rev. Redding is focusing exclusively on her feelings. No doubt she “feels” terrific after Friday night prayers at Seattle’s Al-Islam Center. And no doubt she “feels” terrific after giving a Sunday morning sermon in an Episcopal church. (A sermon probably titled: “How to feel terrific.”)

However, when reading through the entire Seattle Times article, some insight is offered as to how Redding is able to defy logic and comfortably embrace two mutually exclusive religious faiths. Even before she became a Muslim, Redding’s spiritual views were, in her own words, “more interpretive than literal.” For example, she has always rejected the doctrines of original sin and the Trinity. She does not believe Jesus and God are the same, but instead that God is greater than Jesus. She believes Jesus is the son of God—as long as that is understood to mean that all humans are the children of God. Likewise, Jesus is divine, just as all humans are divine, since God dwells in everyone.

So maybe this is not so much a situation where Redding has focused on her feelings and ignored basic logic. (Besides, her academic credentials indicate without a doubt that she is a very, very intelligent woman.) This might be a situation where Redding has been labeling herself a Christian for all these years, but in fact has embraced the ancient heresy of Arianism. In the 3rd and 4th centuries A.D. the followers of the theologian Arius proclaimed that Jesus was not equal to God, and that Jesus had not existed from all eternity but instead had been created by God. The Church formulated the Nicene Creed to refute this erroneous view. (“…We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ…true God from true God, begotten, not made, one in Being with the Father….”)

Writing about this interesting story in Seattle, commentator Mollie Hemmingway observed that the current split in the Episcopal church is not really about homosexuality and same-sex marriage, as the media repeatedly says. The breakaway Episcopal parishes “are not leaving a denomination with gay clergy; they are leaving a denomination with non-Christian clergy.”

In today’s relativistic society, it’s not polite to profess firm and absolute beliefs. It runs the risk of hurting someone else’s feelings. (There’re those precious “feelings” again!) But Scripture clearly states this about Jesus: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (John 1:1). Scripture also quotes Jesus as saying, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6).

If you are offended by these firm and absolute statements of belief, don’t complain to me. I didn’t say it, Jesus Himself said it. Complain to Him.

The fact remains that even if we would rather ignore clear Christian doctrines and instead feel warm and fuzzy and nice (holding hands and singing “Kumbaya,” no doubt), Jesus made some startling claims about Himself. If we choose to ignore those claims and follow our feelings, we not only defy logic, we defy our Lord.

©2007