The Clipboard: You don't have to be Christian to respect Christianity

From an article¹:

Last week, this commentary page carried an opinion piece by Ibrahim Hooper, who represents the Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations. Reflecting the season's sentiments of peace and good will, Hooper wrote of the commonalties of Islam and Christianity. Among other things, he noted that "disrespect toward Jesus, something we have seen all too often in our society, is very offensive to Muslims."

For some Christian readers, however, it was Hooper's comments that gave offense. "Can anything be more disrespectful," wrote an Illinois man, "than the Quran's denying that (Jesus) was crucified and raised from the dead?" Others noted that Islam does not accept Jesus' divinity.

These reactions - the article didn't provoke a lot of response, but the references above are representative - disturbed me deeply. Not for their personal testimonies of faith, certainly, but because by the criteria they set forth, the only way to show respect for Christianity is to be a Christian. (link)

This is very sad. Some segments of America need to look at their own intolerance when they rebuff outreach attempts from Muslims like this.

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Complete text of the article, You don't have to be Christian to respect Christianity, by Eric Mink

People of different faiths coexist respectfully and have much in common; shared moral, ethical and religious values transcend religious labels.



Last week, this commentary page carried an opinion piece by Ibrahim Hooper, who represents the Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations. Reflecting the season's sentiments of peace and good will, Hooper wrote of the commonalties of Islam and Christianity. Among other things, he noted that "disrespect toward Jesus, something we have seen all too often in our society, is very offensive to Muslims."

For some Christian readers, however, it was Hooper's comments that gave offense. "Can anything be more disrespectful," wrote an Illinois man, "than the Quran's denying that (Jesus) was crucified and raised from the dead?" Others noted that Islam does not accept Jesus' divinity.

These reactions - the article didn't provoke a lot of response, but the references above are representative - disturbed me deeply. Not for their personal testimonies of faith, certainly, but because by the criteria they set forth, the only way to show respect for Christianity is to be a Christian.

They have every right to feel that way, of course, but with 2 billion Christians and 4.4 billion non-Christians in the world, it is a formula for conflict and hostility without end. If they regard affirmations of other beliefs as declarations of contempt for theirs, they are left no basis on which to seek common ground and shared values and no incentive to embrace, much less practice, tolerance.

I am not a Christian. I am Jewish. I do not believe that Jesus was the son of God or that he rose from the dead. I do not believe that he was the messiah prophesied in the Old Testament or that the New Testament is a holy text.

These are not expressions of disrespect but descriptions of difference. I respect the profound faith of Christians, the power and reach of their message of forgiveness and redemption and the remarkable diversity of their denominations. I stand with them against government interference or participation in their faith, in my faith or in anyone else's faith. But when it comes to my relationship with God and the specifics of religious conviction and observance, I go a different way.

Indeed, for me to accept the central tenets of Christianity - as our letter writers imply I must to be respectful - I would have to betray my faith, the faith of my brothers and sister, of my father and mother, of their fathers and mothers, of the Jewish religious teacher who was my great-grandfather and for whom I was named and of the generations uncounted before them spanning thousands of years.

I've puzzled this Christmas season over an apparent increase in protests that excessive government sensitivity to non-Christians was inhibiting Christians' rightful expressions of faith. I say "apparent" because I think it's even money that the only thing increasing is media coverage of the seasonal protests provoked by acts of alarmist local officials overly fearful of breaching the wall separating church and state.

Let's take stock: The United States has long since granted national-holiday status to the day marking Jesus' birth. In the last election, 82 percent of Missouri voters and 83 percent of Illinois voters identified themselves as Christians. And Christian conservatives are taking credit for twice electing a born-again conservative Christian president and handing Republicans control of both the U.S. House and the Senate - to say nothing of state legislatures and governors' mansions. I think it's hard to make a case that Christianity is being marginalized.

If there's a danger, surely it is the reverse: that the combination of Christian numerical superiority and political dominance increases the risk that legitimate concerns about an illicit marriage of government and religion will be overlooked or disregarded and that non-Christian faiths will be overwhelmed.

Vigilance is ever necessary. Years and years ago in Miss Collie's singing class at Flynn Park School, I dutifully belted out Christmas carols both religious and secular - "Jingle Bells" and "O Come All Ye Faithful," "Frosty the Snowman" and "Good King Wenceslas." Every year, I was confronted, to take but one example, with the climactic line of "Silent Night": "Christ the savior is born!"

My childhood dilemma wasn't one of mere inconvenience or awkwardness. It is a sin against God for a Jewish person to refer to Jesus as the "Christ," a violation of, among other strictures, the second of the Ten Commandments: "Thou shalt have no other gods before me."

My mom, savvy soul that she was, advised me to just shut up whenever I came to a word or phrase I shouldn't say, and I did. But why should a 9-year-old eager for the approval of his teachers and the acceptance of his classmates be put in such a position in the first place? Christian parents might imagine their reaction if an official public school (i.e. government) event asked their child to choose between refusing to participate or directly denying the divinity of Jesus.

To the extent that present-day sensitivities make it easier on kids in those situations, whatever their religions, it is progress that must not be lost.

Contrary to the sentiments of our recent letter-writers, non-Christians can and do hold strong moral, ethical and religious beliefs:

I believe in God, and I believe it is momentous that his first act in Genesis was an act of creation. I believe that in creating humanity in his image, God endowed us with the power to create: to create ideas, to create art in its infinite variations, to create love, to create new life.

I believe in God's intelligent design of the universe, and I believe that evolution is evidence of it - evolution and gravity, mathematics, geology, particle physics, genetics, the order of the cosmos and forces and structures we have yet to understand or even discover.

I believe in the genius of the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and most especially the Bill of Rights, the 156th anniversary of which was the day I was born. I believe in the inherent goodness of human beings, but I believe that decent people can inflict pain on as well as bring joy to those they love, and I know I've done both.

I believe in the boldness and wisdom of Abraham, the strength and courage of Moses and the enduring completeness of Judaism. I believe that Jesus of Nazareth was the most influential person ever to walk the earth, and I believe in the principles of compassion, love, justice and universal dignity he preached.

But Jesus is not my God. I say that with the greatest respect.

reference=http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/columnists.nsf/ericmink/story/52C8DAB903B0E9EA86256F790037B517?OpenDocument&Headline=RELIGION%3A+You+don