It may be important to note that being charitable can include respect for another’s chosen faith, despite the contradictions and fallacies implicit in the other’s faith based on your faith teaching.
I agree wholeheartedly there. I’ve often been shocked by the way some Christians here treat Muslims, to the point where threads are started based on lies. Thankfully I don’t believe that the majority of people here on CAF love lie over truth, but as with any group (Christians or Muslims) there are bad apples, and there are some who bring reproach to the cause of Christ.
I will admit it can be frustrating sometimes having dialogue with Muslims, but only because so much of Islam’s apologetics are full of double standards, or no emphasis on accurately portraying non-Islamic religions by the standards of their own scripture. It’s a bit like someone saying by accident, “2+2=5,” and refusing to admit error even when you plainly show that 2+2=4. However, we must maintain some spirit of charity and patience. After all, God showed patience with us in our sin.
That said, most religions are believed to have some truths (CCC 847). The Mormons, for example, believe in Jesus Christ and God. However, their interpretation and application of said belief is unique and therefore foreign to us.
Yet the Mormons bring light to the ecumenical table of God through their piety and their love of family. Any genealogist alive today can tell you that the LDS Church aids everyone of all faiths in family history, and that is a wonderful thing.
That said, unlike any other Christian faith I know of, a typical Muslim will pray by requirement at least six times per day, every day. They *do *pray to the God of Abraham and of David. Their holy book mentions Mary the Mother of God far more than our own Bible. But, as with the Mormons, yes, I do believe their interpretation of God’s message as foreign.
I think you must be very, very
very careful when you attempt to find comparisons between Christianity and Islam. I know it is common among post-modern people to say, “Oh, we all believe the same thing! Let’s eat, drink and be merry!” and many Muslim speakers and apologists like to say that Christians and Muslims believe in the same God and have the same prophets, etc…but when you get down to what those beliefs mean, you have two entirely separate worlds. For example, Muslims believe in the Virgin Mary and the virgin birth, yes. However, do they have the same context as we do in that regard? Certainly not. They do not believe that what happened in the womb of the Blessed Theotokos was the Incarnation, simply a miraculous birth involving no male partner. The idea of the hypostatic union is foreign to them, and in fact most Muslims who come here show ignorance of it. They do mention prophets such as Abraham and others, but they also add Ishmael and believe that Ishmael was under the same promise as Isaac, despite what Genesis says in this regard. They think men such as Lot were prophets (when they never were), and believe that all prophets, Mohammad included, were just as sinless as Jesus was. The cries of lament by the Psalmist or the calls for death by Elijah are foreign to them, because they do not comprehend how a messenger of God could ever feel abandoned by Him. Most of all, they deny the tenants of the Christian faith. They deny the crucifixion happened the way Christians believe…most of all that Christ died and was resurrected. Most of all they deny the Trinity, which orthodox Christianity has taught for 2000 years was a denial of God. As St. Basil the Great wrote, he who denies the Son or the Holy Spirit benefits nothing from the Father, and vice versa for all persons in the Trinity. Each Person represents the fullness of God, and to deny the divinity or presence of one denies all three.
As for their prayer, their prayer is regimented, and Paul warned against empty repetition. I know many monks and priests who pray just as many times (if not more)
out of faith, not out of a legalistic requirement. I would daresay that one prayer out of faith trumps 100 prayers out of regulation.
Oh, just a side comment: the Mormons do have a heavy emphasis on genealogy, but do you know why? It’s because in Mormonism, a person can save deceased family members by being baptized in their name, ie if I know great great grandpa’s name, I can get myself baptized at the Temple and he’ll automatically be blessed in the afterlife. That’s also very foreign to orthodox Christianity.
While I would never encourage anyone to become a follower of Islam, I must respect where a person is, at the very least, in order to encourage them to follow the fuller path.
I would respect a person’s being, and would most certainly never try to convert someone by the sword or by extortion or pressure, however I would also plainly tell them the truth and try to give them the message which was given to me. We are not called to be judges, but we are called to be ambassadors for Christ, and in the olden days if an ambassador or messenger changed the message given by his king because he didn’t like it…he usually got beheaded.
Again, I do agree that we must show respect to the erring. I despise Islam, but I love Muslims. Or as Fulton Sheen once said, intolerance is for the error, tolerance for the erring.
