Does that question matter?
By Rev. William Dohle
It's funny how questions seem to stick in our collective head. Like a tune that just won't turn off or a song we just can't seem to get over, some questions leave us pondering months after they're asked and answered.
Take this one... fresh in the media. "Do Muslims and Christians worship the same God?"
Everyone from Franklyn Graham to Bishop Eaton has chimed in on this question. Asked right at a time when Muslims are being cast as terrorists in the media and Western Christians are feeling persecuted, this question has become something of a rallying cry, to isolate the Muslim from the Christian and ratify our own feelings of fear.
But is this question really important? Is it absolutely necessary to argue one side of this question or the other? I personally believe that Christians and Muslims DO worship the same God, the God of Abraham. Christians, Jews, and Muslims all have differing interpretations of who this God is and what this God has done, but we all trace our faith back to that one desert wanderer and his relationship with God. We all see ourselves as his children, in some respect.
But what about the people who answer this question differently? Who say, because Christians believe in a Triune God revealed in Jesus Christ, Christians and Muslims don't believe in the same God? What do we say to them?
Is this question worth arguing about?
Well... it is if we view the outsider and the stranger as someone to be conquered and controlled. The people of Israel, as they near the Promised Land, begin a campaign of wiping out the native populations to clear the way for their entrance into God's Promised Land. The first group to be wiped out is King Sihon of the Amorites and his people. The book of Numbers tells us:
Israel put him to the sword and took possession of his land from the Arnon to the Jabbok, as far as to the Ammonites; for the boundary of the Ammonites was strong...Thus Israel settled in the land of the Amorites.(Num. 21:24)But the slaughter doesn't stop there. In the next few verses, God gets involved in the slaughter too.
But the Lord said to Moses, "Do not be afraid of him for I have given him into your hand, with all his people, and all his land. You shall do to him as you did to King Sihon of the Amorites, who ruled in Heshbon." So they killed him, his sons, and all his people, until there was no survivor left; and they took possession of his land. (Num. 21:34-35)Two kings and all their people are the first to be killed to make way for the people of God. Why? Because they were different. The Amorites in Heshbon worshiped different gods, obeyed different laws, and, most of all, they were in Israel's way. Israel had been promised that land. They had not. So they must be destroyed.
If the question whether someone worships a different god than you do is going to lead to their destruction at your hands...then this question is vitally important to decide who warrants your compassion and who doesn't. This question, and your answer to it, will determine whether you will show them compassion and mercy, or wrath and anger.
But if we see everyone, regardless of the ones they worship, as being intrinsically important and valuable, having worth in and of themselves, then this question doesn't matter at all. Everyone deserves our compassion, regardless of their religion. Everyone should be loved and respected and cared for, no matter whether they are worshiping our God or not. The Hindu and the Buddhist doesn't worship the same God as I do...but they deserve my respect and my love for them as my neighbor. The atheist and the Sikh, the agnostic and the Ba'hai and everyone in between. They all deserve my love and my compassion. Not because we believe in the same God. But because, as a Christian, Jesus commanded it.
I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”(John 13:34-35)No matter what you think of this question. No matter whether you believe all the Abrahamic faiths worship the same God or whether you distinguish the Christian God from the others, we must understand that this question ultimately has no meaning. We have been commanded to love others. Period. To give our lives for them. Period. There's no way out of this commandment!
God, give me eyes to see the common humanity I share with everyone around me. Help me not to judge them based on their religiosity, but instead welcome and embrace them in Christ. Amen.
