Pursuing Holiness

h/t to Mark Steyn for this bizarre story - ripped from a satirical news post at Scrappleface: Episcopal Church Appoints First Openly-Muslim Bishop

The Islamic cleric, who rejects the deity of Jesus Christ, received an overwhelming majority of the vote.

A spokesman for the Episcopal Church said the move demonstrates, “Our church is open to all people, regardless of their beliefs, or whether they accept the teachings of the Bible.”

Well, it’s all fun and games until somebody loses an eye… or at least, the ability to see. The Episcopal Church now has a dual-faith minister. Reverend Ann Holmes Redding is an Episcopal priest of more than two decades who now also espouses Islam. She likens the combination to that of being “both an American of African descent and a woman. I’m 100 percent both.” Of course, there’s no inherent conflict between nationality (or even something immutable like race) and sex - every human being has one of each. Trying to reconcile two completely different faiths is quite another matter. In the article she says of her conversion: “It wasn’t about intellect.” Of that, I am sure. Ms. Redding has clearly not given either one of the doctrines she espouses much thought, or she would understand that they are in irreconcilable opposition to one another.

She believes Jesus is the son of God insofar as all humans are the children of God, and that Jesus is divine, just as all humans are divine — because God dwells in all humans.

What makes Jesus unique, she believes, is that out of all humans, he most embodied being filled with God and identifying completely with God’s will.

She does believe that Jesus died on the cross and was resurrected, and acknowledges those beliefs conflict with the teachings of the Quran. “That’s something I’ll find a challenge the rest of my life,” she said.

She considers Jesus her savior. At times of despair, because she knows Jesus suffered and overcame suffering, “he has connected me with God,” she said.

That’s not to say she couldn’t develop as deep a relationship with Mohammed. “I’m still getting to know him,” she said.

Good grief. Her beliefs about Jesus are in total conflict with core Christian doctrine. This is not a small disagreement, like whether or not certain types of worship are acceptable, or even denominational disagreements on things like the gifts of the spirit. This is major; those things are real deal-breakers.

Not all Episcopalian priests have completely lost sight of the core doctrine on which Christianity is based.

Frank Spina, an Episcopal priest and also a professor of Old Testament and biblical theology at Seattle Pacific University, puts it bluntly.

“I just do not think this sort of thing works,” he said. “I think you have to give up what is essential to Christianity to make the moves that she has done.

“The essence of Christianity was not that Jesus was a great rabbi or even a great prophet, but that he is the very incarnation of the God that created the world…. Christianity stands or falls on who Jesus is.“

But Redding isn’t letting common sense or reality stand in the way of her faith.

Redding knows there are many Christians and Muslims who will not accept her as both.

“I don’t care,” she says. “They can’t take away my baptism.” And as she understands it, once she’s made her profession of faith to become a Muslim, no one can say she isn’t that, either.

While I agree her baptism can’t be taken away in the sense that time cannot be reversed and the action undone, it’s abundantly clear that Redding is not a Christian and her baptism and ordination ceremonies are irrelevant. I can dance around the house in my underwear if I want, but that doesn’t make me Madonna. Redding is no more a Christian than Fred Phelps is; it doesn’t matter what she says. What matters is what she actually believes. What’s really perplexing is why a person who does not believe in Jesus’ divinity would even want to be a Christian. Or why a person who confesses Jesus as her savior (such as it is) would want to be a Muslim. In any event, the beliefs she espouses (and preaches) show exactly what Redding is - a member of the new-age church of multiculturalism.

Update: Bryan at Hot Air: Oh, isn’t heresy exciting!

Next on the Episcopalian agenda: Finding a priest who’s Christian, Muslim, gay, straight, Zoroastrian, Hindu and a practicioner of transcendental meditation while claiming to channel Vanuatu, a sixth-century alien who lived on Saturn (but was actually an illegal immigrant from the planet Xanadu). Won’t that be exciting too!

Update again: Bryan at Hot Air posts on the continuing indoctrination of public school students into any religion but Christianity. This time it’s not Islam, it’s “singing bowls” from Tibet. Still, it’s comforting to know that American schools are so far ahead academically that there’s time for religious study, isn’t it? We must be leading the world in math, science, reading comprehension… maybe we should stop homeschooling and get my daughter back into public school!

Trackposted to Outside the Beltway, The Virtuous Republic, Perri Nelson’s Website, Mark My Words, Right Truth, The Pet Haven Blog, DragonLady’s World, Stuck On Stupid, The Amboy Times, Leaning Straight Up, Adeline and Hazel, Rightlinx, Right Celebrity, third world county, Woman Honor Thyself, Wake Up America, Stageleft, The Uncooperative Blogger, stikNstein… has no mercy, Nuke’s news and views, The Right Nation, Pirate’s Cove, The Pink Flamingo, Dumb Ox Daily News, Right Voices, Church and State, Blog @ MoreWhat.com, Committees of Correspondence, The Random Yak, DeMediacratic Nation, guerrilla radio, Adam’s Blog, Maggie’s Notebook, On the Horizon, Webloggin, The Bullwinkle Blog, Cao’s Blog, , The Florida Masochist, Colloquium, Jo’s Cafe, Conservative Cat, Blue Collar Muse, Diary of the Mad Pigeon, The Crazy Rants of Samantha Burns, The World According to Carl, Walls of the City, Blue Star Chronicles, High Desert Wanderer, and The Yankee Sailor, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.

written by Laura