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Day 4008 Of Not Worrying About Muslims

 To state the obvious, Muslims are not Christians, because among other things, Christians worship Jesus Christ as God. Moreover, we say they have distorted the Hebrew Scriptures. Theologically, it’s so deterministic in a philosophical sense that John Calvin would cry. Somewhat alarmingly, The Atlantic reported in an essay that perhaps 20 percent of worldwide Muslims would be willing to engage in violence to advance their religion.

To be completely fair to that point, one out of five is not a good number.

On the other hand, I have met plenty of ordinary Muslims here in America. I wouldn’t get scared in Dearborn at a mosque, or at a fencing club near Savannah. I just wouldn’t. I don’t know what the demons are up to ordinarily, and it would be incredibly self-serving to imagine that of course the Muslims are infested with demons, whilst I and my co-religionists are beloved of God.

But let’s cut the mess: the Catholic Church teaches that Muslims, Christians, and Jews all worship the same God. (CCC, 841) Isn’t that a betrayal of the gospel of Christ?

No. There are 3 reasons: 1. The true God revealed himself to Abraham. Philosophically, anyone who also believes God revealed himself to Abraham refer in common to the same Reality. It doesn’t actually matter that they don’t agree precisely as to what the Divine said to Abraham. 2. The Hebrew Scriptures are true. Insofar as Islam retains true elements of the Hebrew Scriptures, to that extent, it is true. 3. Islam was born in the Christian Era, and without the revelation of Jesus Christ, it would not exist. To that extent that Islam speaks truly of Jesus, it is true.

We don’t have to join hands and sing “Kumbaya,” but I think unreasonable fear and hostility has no merit in itself.

There are Christians who fancy themselves “traditional,” and they think that the Church after the Council—let the reader understand—got the “fuzzy-wuzzies.” They think telling most people that they’ll probably go to Hell is doing Christ and the Church a favor. On the contrary; even granting that Christian doctrine is perfect in meaning, if not in articulation, God is protecting the Catholic Church. To believe otherwise—even with good intentions—is to hold a heresy.

As for religious or political violence, if you see something, say something. Other than reminding myself to be vigilant, hating Islam won’t get me or anyone else to Heaven, or any faster.

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