Here in this country where we are “united not by race or religion or blood, but to our commitment to freedom and justice for all,” we’re all really praying to the same Allah.
by Aaron D. Wolf
…Reflecting on http://www.wvwnews.net/story.php?id=5424 this time?
Mainstream newspapers were critical of the choice of “America’s pastor” to deliver this prayer, but here in the afterglow they are praising the prayer as “tolerant.” Of course, they aver, he prayed in the name of Jesus; what do you expect from an evangelical?
Warren invoked “Almighty God, our father,” which is unsurprising. But very quickly, he turns to the Old Testam—er, Hebrew Scriptures to remind God of the Shema: “The Scripture tells us Hear, oh Israel, the Lord is our God; the Lord is one.” Of course, as my dear departed granny would say, “That’s Bible Scripture.” But of course, that One God is three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost—the Name imprinted on our foreheads in Holy Baptism. Unsurprisingly, Warren doesn’t go on to clarify that.
What he does go on to clarify, in the very next sentence, is that the one god he’s referring to is Allah. “And you are the compassionate and merciful one.”Each Sürah of the Koran begins with the phrase, “In the name of Allah, the Compassionate and Merciful One.” Pulling my English Translation of Al-Qur’an from the shelf, I let the book fall open to page 194, Al-Ma’idah, to find the same phrase at the Sürah’s heading. Skimming a couple of pages detailing the prohibition of meats not slaughtered in the name of Allah, I land on condemnations of Christians and the Christian Faith:
“O people of the book (Jews and Christians)! Now Our Rasool has come to you to reveal much of what you have concealed from the Holy Books and to pass over much which is no longer necessary . . . Indeed those have committed Kufr (rejected faith) who said, “God is the Messiah, son of Maryam.” O Muhammad, ask them, “Who has the power to prevent Allah if He chose to destroy the Messiah, the son of Maryam, his mother and all that is in the earth?”
Get that? In case you didn’t, the publishers provide a handy note in the margin: “Jesus, son of Mary, is not God or son of God”. This is the word of “the compassionate and merciful one.”
But wait! Warren closes his prayer in Jesus’ name, right? Here’s the AP’s transcript:
“I humbly ask this in the name of the one who changed my life, Yeshua, Isa, Jesus, Jesus (hay-SOOS), who taught us to pray, Our Father [etc.”
Yeshua (“Joshua”) is the Hebrew word for Jesus, and “hay-SOOS” will be familiar to Spanish-speaking viewers who apparently didn’t understand any other word of Warren’s prayer. Who is “Isa”?
Isa is the Arabic word for Jesus, used in the Koran in order to deny His membership in the Godhead, His resurrection, His saving mission.
But see, Warren fans might argue, America’s pastor was making use of a teachable moment. He was showing Muslims that the Isa they subordinate to Muhammad is really . . . well, the “one who changed my life.” Here in this country where we are “united not by race or religion or blood, but to our commitment to freedom and justice for all,” we’re all really praying to the same Allah. Now, let Isa change your life.
People of the Book, UNITE!
Warren does remind us (though he is addressing God) that Judgment Day is coming: “And may we never forget that one day all nations and all people will stand accountable before you.” That’s good advice. It meshes with Our Lord’s statement in Matthew 10:
“Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven. But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven. Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword.”
Does invoking Allah and praying to “Isa” amount to confessing Christ before men?
Listen, dude! If Rick Warren were the kind of guy who insisted on invoking the Holy Trinity and leaving out Isa and Allah and Shiva and the Dharma Initiative and Dr. King, he never would’ve been asked to pray in the first place!
http://www.chroniclesmagazine.org/index.php/2009/01/21/rick-warren-americas-dwight-schrute/