In what may be the first claim of its kind, an Episcopal priest in Seattle says she\u2019s both a Christian and a Muslim. What\u2019s more, her bishop finds the claim exciting and considers her still in good standing.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy would I spend time to try to reconcile all of Christian belief with all of Islam?\u201d Ann Holmes Redding told The Seattle Times in an article June 17. \u201cAt the most basic level, I understand the two religions to be compatible. That\u2019s all I need.\u201d<\/p>\n
R. Albert Mohler Jr., on his blog June 20, said that in order to believe Christianity and Islam are congruent, Redding is explicitly denying what the Bible teaches.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is yet another reminder of the basic principle that religious liberals can negotiate themselves to any position they desire,\u201d Mohler wrote at albertmohler.com. \u201cOnce you commit yourself to a methodology of denying Scripture and orthodox Christian doctrine, you can declare yourself to be a Christian and a Muslim, a Christian and a Druid, or a Christian and an Atheist for that matter.\u201d<\/p>\n
Redding, a priest for more than 20 years, said she became enamored with Islam in the fall of 2005 when a local Muslim leader spoke and then prayed at St. Mark\u2019s Episcopal Cathedral, where she was employed as director of faith formation. The way he fell prostrate on the floor captured her attention because it illustrated total surrender to Allah, she said.<\/p>\n
Later, she heard another Muslim leader chanting a prayer, and the chanting appealed to her, Redding said. In March 2006, she made a Muslim profession of faith, stating there is only one God and Muhammad is his messenger. Now Redding has no trouble using Allah and God interchangeably.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s the same person, praying to the same God,\u201d she told The Times.<\/p>\n
Ralph Webb, director of the Institute on Religion and Democracy\u2019s Anglican Action program, noted that the \u201cEpiscopal Church continues to find new, creative ways to allow for heterodox faith variations at the local level. First, there was a \u2018local option\u2019 for same-sex blessings in the Episcopal Church. Now there\u2019s apparently an unofficial \u2018local option\u2019 for clergy who profess dual faiths.\u201d<\/p>\n
The idea that a person can become a Muslim while remaining an Episcopal priest in good standing trivializes both faiths, Webb said.<\/p>\n
Redding, 55, grew up in Pennsylvania, and her father was one of the lawyers who argued the Brown V. Board of Education Supreme Court case that led to the desegregation of the nation\u2019s schools, The Times said. She graduated from Brown University and then earned a Ph.D. in New Testament from Union Theological Seminary in New York City.<\/p>\n
An African American who wears her hair in dreadlocks, Redding told The Times that becoming a Muslim was like coming home after years in predominantly white congregations.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo walk into Al-Islam and be reminded that there are more people of color in the world than white people, that in itself is a relief,\u201d she said of the local Muslim worship center.<\/p>\n
Among her medley of beliefs is that the Trinity is an idea about God and cannot be taken literally, The Times reported. Redding also does not believe Jesus and God are the same, and she believes Jesus is the Son of God in the same way all humans are children of God and that Jesus is divine like all humans are divine because God dwells in all humans.<\/p>\n
Jesus is unique, she believes, because He best lived out the qualities of someone filled with God. Redding said she does believe Jesus died on the cross and was resurrected, though she doesn\u2019t yet know how to reconcile that to Islam.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s something I\u2019ll find a challenge the rest of my life,\u201d she told The Times.<\/p>\n
As for Muhammad, she\u2019s still getting to know him.<\/p>\n
Redding said she doesn\u2019t care what people think about her embracing two major world religions because they can\u2019t take away her baptism and no one can dispute her Muslim profession of faith.<\/p>\n
Redding typically carries a black headscarf with her, she said, so she\u2019ll be prepared for prayers five times a day. \u201cI pray not to cause scandal or bring shame upon either of my traditions,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Whether God or Allah is supposed to answer that prayer, it isn\u2019t working, her critics say, considering that she has caused both controversy and shame, especially upon a Christian denomination that is facing a schism with the larger Anglican Communion over the issue of homosexuality.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe blurring of Christian distinctives is evidence of a spiritual confusion that can only harm Episcopalians,\u201d Webb, of IRD, said. \u201cAnd while it\u2019s been said that \u2018all politics are local,\u2019 Bishop [Vincent] Warner\u2019s acceptance of Rev. Redding\u2019s syncretism compromises the whole church.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Episcopal Church\u2019s unofficial acceptance of clergy with dual faiths represents inclusion run amok,\u201d Webb added in a June 20 news release. \u201cIt clearly illustrates the overwhelming gap in faith and practice between the Episcopal Church and the majority of the Anglican Communion — not to mention the universal Christian Church.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mohler said the only way to be both a Christian and a Muslim is to completely redefine what it means to be both Christian and Muslim.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs Aristotle famously argued, two contradictory propositions cannot be simultaneously true,\u201d Mohler, president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky., said. \u201cNevertheless, the outright denial of the principle of non-contradiction is one of the hallmarks of the postmodern age. Postmoderns gladly embrace contradictions and refuse any responsibility to resolve them.\u201d<\/p>\n
======================================================
\nBreakpoint commentary by Charles Colson, June 26, 2007<\/p>\n
“Feeling vs. Faith: An Episcopal Muslim?”<\/p>\n
On Friday nights, Ann Holmes Redding of Seattle puts on a black head scarf, heads to the Al-Islam Center, and prays with her fellow Muslims.<\/p>\n
Nothing I just told you is remarkable. What\u2019s remarkable is what I didn\u2019t tell you: Redding is an Episcopal priest. Not an ex-Episcopal priest, mind you, but a priest, as far as she and her superiors are concerned, in good standing.<\/p>\n
Her story is a vivid reminder of what\u2019s really at stake in the various culture wars within Christian churches: orthodoxy.<\/p>\n
Redding has been a priest for over 20 years. Until recently she was the director of \u201cfaith formation\u201d at Seattle\u2019s Episcopal cathedral, St. Mark\u2019s. I am, as Dave Barry likes to say, not making this up.<\/p>\n
Apparently, at the same time she was in charge of forming other people\u2019s faith, her own was undergoing a transformation. Fifteen months ago, she became a Muslim, the result of an \u201cintroduction to Islamic prayers [that] left her profoundly moved.\u201d<\/p>\n
Actually, according to Redding, I should say that she ALSO became a Muslim. As she told the SEATTLE TIMES, \u201cI am both Muslim and Christian, just like I\u2019m both an American of African descent and a woman. I\u2019m 100 percent both.\u201d So while on Friday nights she puts on a black head scarf, on Sunday mornings she wears a clerical collar.<\/p>\n
Redding doesn\u2019t deny that there are differences between the two faiths \u2014 she simply doesn\u2019t think that they ultimately matter. As she put it, \u201cat the most basic level, I understand the two religions to be compatible. That\u2019s all I need.\u201d<\/p>\n
There\u2019s so much wrong here that I scarcely know where to begin, so I\u2019ll limit myself to the obvious: There\u2019s no inherent contradiction between being an African-American and a woman, just as there\u2019s none in being an American of Swedish descent and a man, as I am.<\/p>\n
However, the same cannot be said of being a Christian and a Muslim. As Kurt Fredrickson of Fuller Seminary told the paper, \u201cthere are tenets of the faiths that are very, very different,\u201d especially regarding the person and work of Jesus Christ.<\/p>\n
Mahmoud Ayoub, a professor of Islamic studies at Temple, agrees. He says that \u201cthe [respective] theological beliefs [about Jesus] are irreconcilable.\u201d<\/p>\n
Of course, for Redding (as for too many people today), it isn\u2019t about logic or theology: It\u2019s about FEELINGS. She can call herself anything she wants, but she\u2019s only truly a Muslim if she denies Christian doctrines such as original sin, the Trinity, or the divinity of Christ. And to deny those truths is to deny the Christian faith.<\/p>\n
Which raises an interesting question: Why is she an Episcopal priest, never mind a director of \u201cfaith formation?\u201d<\/p>\n
Writing at the website GET RELIGION, Mollie Hemmingway says that Redding\u2019s story illustrates that the split in the Episcopal Church isn\u2019t about homosexuality, as the media says. The former Episcopal parishes aligning themselves with African bishops aren\u2019t leaving a denomination with gay clergy; they are leaving a denomination with NON-CHRISTIAN clergy.<\/p>\n
Redding is simply an extreme example in the Episcopal Church. But sadly she represents the widespread, politically correct belief that all religions lead to the same place \u2014 a message which is not only dead wrong as a matter of logic, but one which denies Christ. In short, it is the ultimate heresy.<\/p>\n
________<\/p>\n
Copyright (c) 2007 Prison Fellowship Ministries. Reprinted with permission. “BreakPoint with Chuck Colson” is a radio ministry of Prison Fellowship Ministries.<\/p>\n
*<\/p>\n
[Original illustration at this number was added to HolwickID #6898]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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