Hat-tip to Sean for posting this one on twitter. Apparently, there is an Episcopal priest in Seattle who is being defrocked for a simple reason. She has converted to Islam. And yet, apparently she is fighting the move.
Ann Holmes Redding, who marks the 25th anniversary of her ordination on March 25, says she believes she can practice both faiths and should not have to recant her Muslim beliefs...Jesus spoke to this pretty directly in Luke 16:13, "No servant can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other."
Wolf has told Redding that her conversion to Islam constitutes an abandonment of the Christian faith and she must recant by March 30 or lose her status as a priest.
4 comments:
I can't believe there is any question in this. Next thing we know, people who are atheists will be upset because they can't be leaders in Mosques or churches.
I think part of the problem is the lost sense that the priesthood/pastor/eldership is a CALLING and not a job. Yes, if you are trained, you can recite the liturgy even if you don't believe it. Just as an assembly-line worker can keep putting heads on dolls, even after his kids are in college. But unlike the assembly-line worker, a priest/pastor/elder is not JUST doing a job. They are supposedly serving a master - Jesus - and if they no longer believe in or honor that master, they can no longer honor the Call they were given.
It would be more like serving as the Minister of War for a King, after you have decided the king is illegitimate. Yes, you can technically still create good strategies, but you are more likely to do what you can to HINDER the king's plans than you are to FURTHER his agenda. You may even seek his assassination.
The only way I could see this possibly working is if she sees the commonality of Islam and Christianity at Abraham and says that in both faiths she's worshiping the same god. In an odd way I could see somebody rationalizing it to work that way - in which case she is serving 1 master. But there are so many things within the Islamic and Christian faiths that are contradictory to each other that at some point even the rationalization that it's the same god is going to have to break down.
I stick by my first comment though: what the ?!??!?!?
This is unthinkable. But is not surprising that it is in the Episcopal church. They have had so many questionable things accepted in recent years.
Jesus is "THE way, THE truth and THE life. No one comes to the father but through" Him!!! How can this be compatible with Islam? Especially for a priest/pastor!!!
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