Pure, unadulterated, horseswill. Islam calls Jesus "A" prophet of God, but Muhammad "The" prophet of God.
There can be no peace between the children of God and the children of Belial. Comity is certainly possible, but not on the grounds that both believe in "God"... for the devils ALSO believe, yet are they still damned.
The ONLY reason comity is possible at all is the very express command to love our enemies as our selves... to pray for them... especially when the persecute us.
My response, both thoughtful and caring, follows:
[T]his statement alone makes you unworthy to call yourself a Christian:
"There can be no peace between the children of God and the children of Belial."
To even claim to believe that Muslims are devil worshippers is horrific. You are entitled to your beliefs. Please do not call yourself a Christian, however. I will deny it to the throne itself.
What's bothered me is I have done what so many on the Christian Right do all the time - denied the faith of someone who expressed a view different from - and, honestly, antithetical to - my own. I have become no different from those I despise, sitting on a throne of judgment, seeing with such clarity who is and is not a Christian.
Yet, my reaction was honest. My feelings remain. I no longer feel comfortable with the fiction that the differences between someone who expresses a view such as the one above and me are open to negotiation. We are working from, and living within, completely different frames of reference, assumptions. I daresay we worship different "gods".
As uncomfortable as I am in doing so, I no longer feel I should remain silent in the face of hatred and ignorance passing itself off as serious Christian commentary. I cannot be quiet while those who claim to profess the same Jesus, Crucified and Risen, spout the horrible idea that Muslims worship the devil. I cannot remain silent while the God of love, peace, and grace is hijacked by those ruled, it seems clear from their express words, by fear, prejudice, and hatred. The final disposition of their lives before God is between them and their god. As for me, I will no longer pretend to seek some kind of common ground with such as these. I cannot, in good conscience, do so.
St. Paul, echoing Jesus, said that a true believer is known by the fruits that are borne by that person. When I hear hatred, calls for war, the declaration that believers in other religions worship the devil, greed, the lust for power and domination cloaked in the language of the Christian faith I cannot be silent and accept it. Those who do such as these, and more, are not "Christian" by any stretch of the definition of which I am aware. As I said in the comment above, I will stand before the throne of God and declare this to be so, whatever the consequences.
I can't be silent any longer as my good name and those of my Savior are dragged through the filth by people who vomit forth hatred.
