Some Evangelicals had a fit when Bush had the gall to suggest that Allah was the same God that Christians worship. Talk about taking your ball and going home! Sorry, but just because Jews use YHWH to describe the God Abraham worshiped and Muslims use Allah, doesn't give anyone the right to change history and say that they are different deities. So when a Muslim says "Allahu Akbar" he or she is proclaiming that God (yes, the God whom we Christians worship) is great. If Timothy McVeigh or the killers of Matthew Shephard said "Praise the Lord" or "Hallelujah" before committing their crimes does that take the true meaning out of the phrase?
Now that the first Muslim has been elected to Congress. Yes, he got more votes in a free election in America than his opponents. So does that mean that the people of that district are now guilty of some heinous crime for voting for a Muslim? Were they duped? Are they just that ignorant? Of course, some would ask those same questions about the whole nation in relation to electing our current president. Surely he did not suggest some radical, violent Islamic Jihadist agenda in his campaign for this office. Has anyone looked at his record? Has anyone bothered to see what his campaign promises were? Pastor Tom has certainly not done this for us (and I have heard him speak about Ellison on his radio show as well). All that has been provided is guilt by association. I am not sufficiently motivated at the moment to re-do the research I did previously on this group that Ellison has spoken to and his relationship to it. I did do that once and I recall that he has been on record saying that he doesn't support their violent goals. I may not be remembering all the details, but then again, if this is so troubling to others then where are their direct questions to Representative Ellison? Use the freedom of speech and the press to expose the truth directly, not through innuendo.
Show me where Ellison's own words have indicate a personal disdain for Jews and then we'll talk about whether he belongs on a committee about antisemitism. Perhaps that exists in the record, but again, that is not what is being presented.
And just for the record, the definition of Semite is 1 a : a member of any of a number of peoples of ancient southwestern Asia including the Akkadians, Phoenicians, Hebrews, and Arabs b : a descendant of these peoples 2 : a member of a modern people speaking a Semitic language So technically, antisemitism is prejudice against any Semite, even an Arab, thus Muslims would be included. I know that the term is not used that way, just food for thought.
Blog you later,
Pastor Ian
Wednesday, September 5, 2007
IS GOD NOT GREAT?
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3 comments:
Wow, you are rather riled up over this one! I too do not know enough about Ellison to condemn him. This is another example of red-meat being thrown out to the base to get them all outraged. There are sooooo many other things to be worried about. Like real terrorists, or the fact that some Americans can't afford to go to the doctor.
I am riled up because this is the sort of thing that leads to bigoted actions based on lack of knowledge. Like when enough pulpits are filled with talk of Africans being the sons of Ham, that the parishioners see no problem with owning fellow human beings. The broad-brush language about Islam as a threat must be challenged.
That is a good point. The Bible can be used to justify things that are not justifiable in any way. What I don't like is this mad rush to justice. Let's do some careful reporting and not assume the guy is a member of Osama's Army.
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