{"id":6455,"date":"2009-11-29T16:17:51","date_gmt":"2009-11-29T21:17:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/anglicansamizdat.wordpress.com\/?p=6455"},"modified":"2009-11-29T16:17:51","modified_gmt":"2009-11-29T21:17:51","slug":"interfaith-dialogue-for-wets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/interfaith-dialogue-for-wets\/","title":{"rendered":"Interfaith dialogue for wets"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2009\/11\/24\/us\/24amigos.html?_r=3\" target=\"_blank\">Interfaith dialogue<\/a>: the curse of our time.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>NASHVILLE \u2014 It sounds like the start of a joke: a rabbi, a minister and a Muslim sheik walk into a restaurant.<\/p>\n<p>But there they were, Rabbi Ted Falcon, the Rev. Don Mackenzie and Sheik Jamal Rahman, walking into an Indian restaurant, and afterward a Presbyterian church. The sanctuary was full of 250 people who came to hear them talk about how they had wrestled with their religious differences and emerged as friends.<\/p>\n<p>They call themselves the \u201cinterfaith amigos.\u201d And while they do sometimes seem more like a stand-up comedy team than a trio of clergymen, they know they have a serious burden in making a case for interfaith understanding in a country reeling after a Muslim Army officer at Fort Hood, Tex., was charged with opening fire on his fellow soldiers, killing 13.<\/p>\n<p>The room then grew quiet as each stood and recited what he regarded as the \u201cuntruths\u201d in his own faith. The minister said that one \u201cuntruth\u201d for him was that \u201cChristianity is the only way to God.\u201d The rabbi said for him it was the notion of Jews as \u201cthe chosen people.\u201d And the sheik said for him it was the \u201csword verses\u201d in the Koran, like \u201ckill the unbeliever.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt is a verse taken out of context,\u201d Sheik Rahman said, pointing out that the previous verse says that God has no love for aggressors. \u201cBut we have to acknowledge that \u2018kill the unbelievers\u2019 is an awkward verse,\u2019 \u201d the sheik said as the crowd laughed. \u201cSome verses are literal, some are metaphorical, but the Koran doesn\u2019t say which is which.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Here\u2019s the problem: when Christians take the bible at face value (Rev. Don Mackenzie doesn\u2019t) they run around trying to convert people because they believe that Christ is the only way to God the Father (Rev. Don Mackenzie is embarrassed by this). When Muslims take the Koran at face value they run around killing non-Muslims. Notice any difference?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Interfaith dialogue: the curse of our time. NASHVILLE \u2014 It sounds like the start of a joke: a rabbi, a minister and a Muslim sheik walk into a restaurant. But there they were, Rabbi Ted Falcon, the Rev. Don Mackenzie &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/interfaith-dialogue-for-wets\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":1,"footnotes":""},"categories":[75,189],"tags":[2080,2178],"class_list":["post-6455","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christianity","category-islam","tag-christianity","tag-islam"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6455","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6455"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6455\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6455"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6455"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6455"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}