This Week in God

An Arkansas company, Christian Outdoorsman, is now selling camouflaged Bibles for hunters who want to bring Scripture with them out in the woods

Wouldn’t Hunter Orange be a whole lot more, what shall I say, Life Affirming?

Ideologies (religious, political etc) do not spring from reason and logic. They are often culturally induced. They are also a siren song unto those with psychiatric illnesses.

Ideologues are not rational individuals (in case you hadn’t noticed); they are emotive. Different part of the brain at work here. (see Sci Amer July 2006)

Conclusion: rational individuals tend to view ideologues as a little nutty/silly…and dangerous to our world.

* Tiny Muskens, a Roman Catholic Bishop in the Netherlands, caused a considerable theological stir this week when he suggests people of all faiths refer to the Abrahamic God as “Allah” as a way of fostering inter-faith understanding. “Allah is a very beautiful word for God,” Muskens said. “Shouldn’t we all say that from now on we will name God Allah? … What does God care what we call him? It is our problem.” A survey in the Netherlands’ biggest newspaper found that 92% of the country disagrees with the bishop’s view.

Let’s call him Caspar the Seldom Friendly Ghost.

Watching the God crowd is like sitting around the day room of the mental hospital waiting for Chief Bromden to throw the sink through the window.

“He was hopeful that Congressman Ellison understands he meant no disrespect or harm from his comment, and that he hoped that he would meet with him when he returned to Washington, D.C.,”

Well what did you mean, Sal? Seriously, can anyone point me to a sincere or at least convincing ReThuglican apology?

A camo bible? What happens when you open it? Does it scare off the animals, or are the pages camo too? In that case, how do you read it?

Rick Herrick, your comments about my comment are really confusing, and I’m not sure I understand what you’re saying. Briefly, this is what I meant: 1) The Bishop is right that the word Allah is meant to refer to the same God as Chrisitanity (note that in both Christianity and Judaism, the traditional name for God is Yahweh, and the use of the word God is more like, relatively speaking, an informal use or a title) and Judaism’s God. In that sense, Islam and Christianity and Judaism are related religions and some might even say they’re the same religion. If that’s the case, it is a matter of “what’s in a name” and Allah does not for any reason necessarily have to refer to a different God. I thought that this was clear to anyone and clear from my comment. Also, then, the disagreement between Islam and Christianity and Judaism then become a disagreement really over what one can properly attribute to that God, and in that sense, no more a disagreement than the disagreement between Christian churches (that is, the difference in disagreement between churches is just quantitative, a difference in how much stuff you disagree on, and not a differnce in kind, a disagreement on basic tenets that makes one religion into worshipping something else entirely). It does seem to me like it would beneath God to care a whole lot over what’s He’s called.
2) But, if the Bishop is trying to encourage this change as sort of following Christ’s example- if his point is sort of to say, “Hey, would Christ have a violent-disagreement with a guy over whether God should properly be called God or Smod, or whether Sunday should be Sunday or Munday, so long as everything else in the religion is the same? Maybe we can be more Christ-like if we adapt, and that’s what prompts the Muslims to become more likes us, and more Christ-like”- then I think that doesn’t make sense, because where do you draw the line of distinction between Christianity and Islam then? Sure, we could keep everything the same, and it wouldn’t hurt us to call God Allah. But as long as we’re changin our religion to accommodate Muslims, why not consider whether Mohammed is a valid prophet? Well, if his words are correct, then it’s really not the same religion anymore. I guess what I’m saying is there’s really no need to move that far in that direction, because dropping the Christian usage and using the Muslim one is really more like the first step on the road of asking one’s self if we want to change religions. I leads you that way, and it’s not just an accommodations.

3) Finally, I know the conservatives would look at the footwashing stations thing and say, “Well if you say that’s okay, then why not say that requiring that we call God Allah is okay?” And it’s really just not the same thing at all. Having to watch a Muslim wash his feet or be in a place where he does is not the same as being required to become a Muslim, or required to look in the direction of converting.

Hope that clears things up.

Dudes and Dudettes,

Cammo is Arkansas-chic. Even my too-cool-for-school college students wear it.

Wow, Swan, did you really just say that you should be the arbiter of what the rest of us pay attention to on these threads? (And before you deny it, let me point to “Just to keep you all clear. It’s better to ignore his comment than think about it”)

That you somehow know Rick’s intentions, and have divined that his motive is to confuse? (I’m sure Rick can defend himself, but that seems kind of a cheap shot when it isn’t like he has a negative track record here and you suggest he is a troll.)

FWIW, I thought his post was coherent. Moreso, perhaps, than yours at 12. But clarity is often in the eyes of the beholder. . .

Will the Dobson crowd be offended by this? Hmm.

Since imprecatory prayer is recognized by only a tiny minority of even the fundi-est of fundamentalist Christians, Huckabee will enjoy far more support than Drake.

Wow, Swan, did you really just say that you should be the arbiter of what the rest of us pay attention to on these threads?

Of course, as anyone can see, I didn’t say that, but I can have an opinion on things. And some things shouldn’t be paid attention to, like if someone tries to psyche you out or lie to you, sometimes it’s better not to listen and would be helpful if someone told you not to.

Your beside-the-point, non-substantive comment about my comment is unnecessary. Rick Herrick’s comment was really unnecessary too- but he made it. Why make it? That’s the problem. It’s as if it’s written just to keep peope from understanding what’s being discussed and to make them want to give up on understanding it. If you understand that in the Muslim faith, God is supposed to be the same God as the God in the Christian and Jewish faiths, but they just call God Allah, the whole thing is easy to understand. Rick Herrick seems to be trying to make it sound as if you can’t be referring to the same God if you call God by different names, which is a ridiculous and obvious falsehood, without going so far as to write it (probably so that he won’t be able to be tagged with having laid out the obvious, ridiculous falsehood).

* * *

Back to the sports thing- I could see a Jewish dad being upset at this, maybe, though, and what I’d say to a person like that is, “You say, ‘Those guys are Christian, but we’re not.’ And you tell them, ‘A lot of guys who play this sport are Christian.’ And then you tell them about Shawn Green and Sandy Koufax and the great tradition of Jewish baseball players, from when Jewish people were more working class.” My brother says there are two Jewish Red Sox now.

* * *

Re: the Allah thing, in case anyone thinks I’ve finally been caught making a faulty argument, note that my observation that Allah is supposed to be the same God as the Christian and Jewish God, and that names don’t matter much for what Christianity really is, was not part of my argument. Even though names may not matter much for what Christianity really is, practical difficulties may matter a lot for what’s reasonable for us to change in our religion to accommodate other people. So 1) what name you call God and 2) whether you accept Mohammed as a prophet may be very different in terms of how much they affect what your religion means, but, they may be very the same in terms of the magnitude of compromise they call us to make to change our practice as to one of them, albeit for different reasons (the first, for practical reasons- because we’ve all got to change our written / spoken practice, and it will confuse people about our religion; the second, for religious reasons- it changes the subtantive content of our religion a lot).

Funny to see Swan cautioning everyone to ignore someone else’s comments . . . assuming I’m not the only who routinely ignores Swan’s. Oops, sorry for the “non-substantive comment.”

Lots of Christian people are able to enjoy Adam Sandler and lots of other Jewish comics’ routines about Judaism or being raised Jewish. They don’t feel imposed upon.

Tell that to anti-semites.

Anyhow, often in organized sports – I don’t know about professional – you’re considered not a team player if you don’t get involved in the evangelical christian imprecations. That’s being imposed upon.

I always roll my eyes when some star or player thanks god for their whatever – but it’s the same roll I give when I hear someone thank god saved them (in the form of some lifesaving device or emergency personnel).

After having so many faith days at a stadium, I’m sure someone might want a faith day of their faith… But I was more wondering who the critics were, since they weren’t named in the piece.

PS: Allah ≠ God ‘in Arabic’. They have words for gods and god; Allah is the name that the Muslim god revealed to Mohammed; much as Jehovah, Yahweh were names he took before. Christians in the Catholic tradition merely appropriated translatable terms – Father, Son, Holy Spirit – to refer to their god so everyone could understand; much in the same way did Mohammed’s followers chose to teach everyone Arabic so they’d be on the same page.

I am glad the Huckabee campaign denounced the radical reverend. As someone who is both a critic of religious conservatives like Drake and of Christianity in general, this kind of story is a win-win for me. If these kind of “prayers” that Drake is advocating are not consistent with the teachings of Christianity, then that makes him look like a fool; on the other hand, if these “prayers” indeed are consistent with the teachings of Christianity, then that shows how bizarre and evil the Christian religion really is.