Now You Can be Both Christian AND Muslim...

Just when you know the Episcopal Church cannot become even more screwed up than it already is, comes the Rev. Ann Holmes Redding. Redding is now both an Episcopal priest AND a Muslim!

I am serious. A Seattle newspaper reported that "on Sunday mornings she wears a collar and on Friday afternoons she puts on her black headscarf to pray with her Muslim prayer group."

Redding was the director of faith formation at St. Mark's Episcopal Cathedral in Seattle but has been laid off due to budgetary, not theological, concerns.

"I am both Muslim and Christian, just like I'm both an American of African descent and a woman. I'm 100 percent both." Redding said. This is stunning logic from a woman with a Ph.D. but then even Ph.D.'s aren't what they used to be.

This "Christian Muslim" continues. "At the most basic level, I understand the two religions to be compatible. That's all I need." Redding shows only that she understands neither Christianity nor Islam.

What has been the official Episcopal response? They said it is the local Bishop's call. And what has that been?

The Rt. Rev. Vincent Warner, says he "accepts Redding as an Episcopal priest and a Muslim, and that he finds the interfaith possibilities exciting."

Ihsan Bagby, associate professor of Islamic studies at the University of Kentucky, says "Muslims can have faith in Jesus as long as they believe in Mohammed's message."

Okay, reality check here--I am reading the Koran currently and I tell you Bagby is also ignorant of his own faith. There are however, faithful Muslims who find her profession of faith absurd.

"The theological beliefs are irreconcilable, said Mahmoud Ayoub, professor of Islamic studies and comparative religion at Temple University in Philadelphia. 'For Muslims to say Jesus is God would be blasphemy.'"

What does Redding say about her detractors? "I don't care. They can't take away my baptism." "And as she understands it, once she's made her profession of faith to become a Muslim, no one can say she isn't that, either."

The bottom line for Redding is that SHE has determined her truth. She has become her own authority and that is always certain disaster. Claiming to be wise, she has become a fool, to paraphrase Paul in romans 1. And God has given her up as well as the Episcopal North American Denomination. Good riddance…