If we say we worship the same God ...does that bring us unity, which then brings about peace???

Earlier this year, actually, at the beginning of last month ...this being only February, news reached the media that Wheaton College had begun the process of firing Larycia Hawkins.  Being a tenured associate professor of political science at the evangelical Christian school near Chicago, it was Hawkin's claim that she was suspended after she decided to wear a headscarf during the Advent season to show solidarity with Muslims ...and showing empathy towards them during this difficult time where a worsening world view and impression of radical elements mostly outside the faith has left many feeling isolated, while unfairly grouped within this growing hatred towards terrorist affiliations.  This was the impression given by the article.

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At the same time, she posted a message on Facebook, saying Christians and Muslims "worship

the same God."

"That felt really devastating to receive that news, given that I've committed nine years of my life to teaching in an institution that I really believe embodies the spirit of the liberal arts in a Christian context," Hawkins later said in an interview.

Hawkins argues that her Facebook post was "not actually a theological treatise but rather a statement that I stand in solidarity with women wearing the hijab, as I think Jesus would, as he came to embody what it means to love neighbor and love God and love yourself."

Wheaton College, for its part, has asserted that the school's decision had nothing to do with Hawkins' decision to wear the headscarf. "The freedom to wear a head scarf as a gesture of care and compassion for individuals in Muslim or other religious communities that may face discrimination or persecution is afforded to Dr. Hawkins as a faculty member of Wheaton College.  Yet her recently expressed views, including that Muslims and Christians worship the same God, appear to be in conflict with the College's Statement of Faith."

Hawkins disagrees with the premise of the statement, "The post was not about theology. It was about solidarity, which is a Christian principle."

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Let us explore this a bit further, and let's look at the issues as they are. Differing perspectives are not always injurious, yet when the jury is in, should a decision be made without making a decision ...attempting to compromise, in the spirit of avoiding further division and unnecessary confusion??


Our friend Larycia has mentioned the scarf ...which the college said was not an issue.  Yet, the secondary mention seems to be the primary issue ...of the 'same' God statement. On the one hand, if we are going to teach at all, there needs to be some consensus on what we teach, or we are merely teaching confusion ...or nothing at all. On the other hand, good teaching can include teaching more than one viewpoint, giving adequate and equitable value to each ...then letting each student decide what is right in their own mind.


This could be done ...if perhaps I could teach alongside our friend, Larycia, and present my viewpoint along with hers. She could keep her job and benefits, and I could bring my bit of sanity or insanity to the discussion. Of course, this all entails allowing you to have more than just one perspective ...or should we call it choice. Perhaps this is what Larycia feels she is already doing ...as the entire college seems to mostly disagree with her, and she is the one who is offering the alternative point of view. (Yet, it seems most of the entire mainstream media is making sure she does not feel too alone. What is life ...without knowing there are those who support you??)

Of course, you knew what was coming next ...my view. As I feel the media is often slanted ...and logic is often missing from the conversation.

Speaking of logic, let's look to the ancient philosophers.

At this time, let's look at the Greeks ...

They seemed to have countless gods & goddesses: Aphrodite, Apollo, Ares, Athena, Boreas, Castor, Dionysus, Eros, Gaia, Hades, Hermes, Iris, Kratos, Lacheses, Mania, Nike, Nemesis, Oceanus, Pan, Plutus, Poseidon, Rhea, Selene, Themis, Uranus, Zeus ...just touching the surface, with countless more & only seven letters of the alphabet not listed here.

Is Spider-man the same as Superman ...and is Superman the same as Thor???

Is Nick Fury the same as Captain America??

But, back to the ancients ...is Apollo the same as Zeus, and how about Jupiter??

Are the Roman gods the same as those of the Greeks??

These ancients had at least one thing right. They did not say all these were "the same god".  And I would contend that out of all the different names for the Supreme Being which people worship today, they are not the same either.

Is Shakespeare the same as Chaucer?? And likewise, are they both the same as Machiavelli???

Is Whitman the same as Dickinson?  And are they both the same as Wordsworth??  And are anybody's words worth anything???

Is Chesterton the same as Darwin??

Was Cain the same as Abel??  They both had the same father ...and the same mother, Eve.  Did Eve view them as the same??   And did both Cain and Abel view their father the same, or did they not know him from Adam??

Could we group all authors as authors ...all poets as poets ...all kings as kings ...and all peasants as peasants, or do we say that they are all different people??

What if we say there is only one??  I believe in One ...God.  And perhaps you do too, so is it the same God??

Sadly, it is not uncommon for a child to have an alcoholic parent.  A small child says, "I like the happy Daddy!"

That same child says to the slightly older brother, "Do you think we are going to get the angry Daddy, today??"

Yes, the same person can be looked at in many different ways.

Yes, there are many different styles on how we worship. So, if we worship differently, are we worshiping a different God??

I wouldn't quickly draw that conclusion.

We can appreciate multiple characteristics of the God we worship.  But, the way we worship does reflect some things.  And the way we seem to worship other things outside of God, seems to tell even more.

Shouldn't a big part our our worshiping God be ...also glorifying our God??

And glorifying God, by definition, is revealing or making clear who our God is.

What does this all mean??

Well, just like the young child was looking for the happy Daddy, while still knowing there was also knowledge of an angry Daddy ...we also seem to look for what we want to, often not wanting to acknowledge what we may consider more difficult to deal with.

We look to a loving God, but too often question whether it is God who would require us to take a more challenging view. Yet, it should not be us doing the challenging ...though it is healthy conversation to lovingly discuss questions we may have, and keep open our door to dialogue.

I looked beyond the media's summary of important points ...and got more of the dialogue. Our friend, Larycia, elaborated a bit, stating that it is her belief, or not just her belief, but a fact ...that Islam and Christianity are different religions: and they differ on salvation, Christology (who Christ is), and how we get to God.  She stressed how solidarity is a Christian principle. Yet, I wonder how one can define a Christian principal without fully believing who Christ is.  

Second Vatican Council, Lumen Gentium 16, November 21, 1964

“But the plan of salvation also includes those who acknowledge the Creator, in the first place among whom are the Muslims: these profess to hold the faith of Abraham, and together with us they adore the one, merciful God, mankind’s judge on the last day.”

Paul VI, Ecclesiam Suam 107, August 6, 1964

“Then [we refer] to the adorers of God according to the conception of monotheism, the Muslim religion especially, deserving of our admiration for all that is true and good in their worship of God.”

 ...so this view seems to stress a bit of solidarity within some religious leadership groups.  But, while the Qur'an boldly states that Jesus was not crucified, the death of Jesus is paramount to the Christian faith.

Before the apostle Paul was converted, he was taking some rather violent stances on issues ...and many died because of those points of view. Yet, still breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, he was suddenly blinded.  He did not protest angrily against his sudden loss of sight, nor question his condition (he well knew the truth of who was committing violent acts ...he was), and he listened, as he was asked why he was persecuting.  

Many today, of the Islamic faith are having dreams and visions ...and are told the same thing by the same One whom converted Paul, "I am Jesus ..."

Yes, how wonderful that Jesus is revealing to them ...who He really is. Yet, sadly, only a few are chosen for this spectacular revelation ...and others instead do not dare challenge those who do as Paul did before his conversion.

If it were Cain and Abel having the discussion, would Cain say that God wanted him to kill his brother, Abel??  Would Cain reason the world would be a better place without his brother, or would he only be considering his standing in the world without such exhaustive comparisons. Do we strive to improve ourselves, or do we try to abolish the higher standard??

Did Jacob's other sons also think their life would improve without their brother, Joseph, around to draw a comparison to themselves??

Yes, sadly, there are many who still feel that Jesus is not the gracious and loving path to salvation.  They feel their sin is so great that they can only be forgiven by something greatly terrible ...in killing others.  And this is maddening, making no sense ...only making utter and complete nonsense.

 If you drop a valuable vase and it gets a small crack, you don't drop it several times more to fix the vase. It is a sin to commit adultery.  You don't make amends by sleeping with a half dozen other women. And you don't kill your way to life either.  Perhaps you may kill in self-defense to preserve this life on earth ...but never is eternal life promised for by a pledge or crusade to kill another human being.  The command is to live for Him, and to tell others ...so they can live for Him too.  And if they don't ...they have a lifetime to decide to choose, as we pray for them and continue to love them.

Why do we not feel this same way??  Well, with killing, perhaps only a small percentage of radial terrorists promote things like ethnic cleansing, or pointing out large groups of people as if they are the 'Great Satan'.  Jihad is usually a 'struggle' against sin and Satan, but it is a personal struggle ...and Jesus would have us not to judge nations, but to reach out to individuals. The majority of people may be inclined to be loving, but with lies and deception a kind and compassionate people can be misled. Large groups of people can be more easily misled when they are fed little bits at a time. And even more difficult is a society that does not promote individual thought ...where the leaders penalize those who think for themselves, and there is no fairness in the enforcing of laws.  

Is it a problem not having the same God, and also not having the same prophets??  After all, a prophet is not a prophet when he is wrong.  A prophet carries God's message. And do we agree on God's message??  Is it the same???

Why does it seem that there is more offence to what is considered the message of a prophet, than to our God, whom the prophet is supposed to be a messenger for??

And with God's message, it is a message of words ...passed on to us. Those Words, of course, are often considered sacred ...as believed as coming from God.  If one message is that Jesus was crucified and died for our sins, and another message is totally not that ...then that is not the same message, not the same word, and (from the Word that I read) not the same prophets.  Clearly we can read that there will be false prophets.  And Jesus & God are One (as well as the Holy Spirit) ...no, Jesus is not to be reduced to solely a prophet.

The same God would not be giving us mixed messages ...unless, of course, you are talking about the ancient Greek ...Mania. 

And though the ancients were considered brilliant in their day, how about more modern times?  Some of our top intellects saw problems with sameness. 

And I would add, you can't do something different over and over again ...and expect the same result.  

And though different people can be (and should be) expected to be treated the same ...their different actions shouldn't be.

So, what can we conclude ...

Is sameness the same??

And what of unity?  Unity must beg the question: "With whom?"

And of peace??  If it extends beyond our nose, is it merely peace of mind ...giving a piece of our mind ...or do we mean world peace??

Do we believe that sameness or unity can bring about world peace??

Has our same God done this??  

I believe He will.

But, it won't be through our imagining of it, nor our dreamy efforts to pretend that sameness is a reality.

Yes, we are all created equal ...the same.

We are all given the choice ...to think for ourselves, let others think for us, or to not think much at all. And doing too much of any of those can be dangerous.

So, we can all choose to want the same peace, yet we should not want to believe so much in it that we can be deceived into it. And we should especially be on our guard, so we don't too easily accept the guise of non-reality to establish our reality. 

Yes, sometimes Daddy can be happy and sometimes Daddy can be angry.  And often there are reasons ...and we should not ignore the possibilities of reasons.  But, unlike some Daddies, God does not get drunk. God has good reasons, and we may even understand some of those reasons if we are looking to follow God for who He is.  We can read His message, His Word ...the Bible.  If it's not the Bible, then it's a different message, different prophets, and a different god.

When we follow the same Bible, do we follow the same God??

Sometimes it appears not.

But, if the Bible is our authority ...how then could we still have differences??

When I worked in the prison, I came to know of a 'white supremacist' who was a prisoner there.  We correction officers were doing our searches, for contraband, and I made mention to him about his Bible and other study books (which were not contraband).  I asked him how a person can be 'saved' ...how one could gain the assurance of eternal life in heaven with God. He said it was simple.  I asked how.  And he said it was by simply believing in Jesus.  I asked, "Is that all?"  And he smiled, "That's all it takes!"  I then told him that I know of many black people who dearly love Jesus, so if they'd die ...then they would go to heaven. I made mention of the other 'white supremacy' books he had, and asked how he reasons himself supreme down here on earth, while condemning black people ...and especially how he'd be supreme to a black person in heaven praising God? I felt like telling him he was supremely stupid, but that would have probably done little in the way of potential rehabilitation.

From the tenth Chapter of Luke, we read:

On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?”

“What is written in the Law?” Jesus replied. “How do you read it?”

He answered, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind; and, Love your neighbor as yourself.”

“You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.”

But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”

At this point Jesus told a story of how someone had been beaten and needed help desperately.  A priest and others considered to be 'good' walked by ...but a Samaritan, whom other thought not to be good, stopped and helped.  He also made provisions for the man until he got well.

Many people who read the Bible do not read it well ...or don't read it much at all, and they listen to those who lie.

We know about birth ...and that's how we come into this world.   We should have equal standing ...as God loves each of us.  This process of birth had a beginning ...and it was not evolution.  I know many Christians who believe in evolution, yet on this point I am closer in agreement with the Muslims who say we were created. Yes, there are many truths that we do share ...but, there are many lies that have been spread, and sadly accepted also.

Let's stick to the truths. If we bake a cake, we can add some really good ingredients ...but, if we add one wrong ingredient, we may have a very bad cake. Likewise, we can all add much good to this world ...but, one wrong thing often seems to have the greatest effect. None of us can always do what's right ...yet, like a boat in a huge ocean, a little off course can end up more than a little off course.  Corrections must be made to set the course right. Not to blame anyone, but we all mess up ...and we all need correction.  But, then again, if deliberate sabotage is involved ...then blame becomes more of an issue.

It could take some time to get into that, but let me say, in short, that there was only one way to make it right. The biggest problem is the lack of concern ...but the biggest concern is in viewing how things are made right, and the judgment involved with that. Of primary importance is the fact that we should not esteem ourselves to think we are to get involved in the judgment of others (nor are we to judge ourselves too harshly ...but, merely reconcile our actions).  When Jesus was put to death, things were made right ...yet, it may not always be the way we see as right.  Jesus did not remain dead long ...in less than half a week, He was alive again, and continuing to teach us how to live.  He also gave us a way to get to Heaven, that was not available to us beforehand.  Jesus is the way ...and if we are told we need more than Jesus, that is not what Jesus said.  I don't like to say that people lie ...yet, if anyone tells us something contrary to that, what then would you call it??

We'd all find much to like if we'd follow the same God, if we'd only follow the true God.  There's much to like, especially when considering eternal life. If one says the Bible is truly God's Word, and truly God ...and another says it is not, then that is not the same.

Sorry, but I don't make the rules.  No, I take that back ...I am not sorry.    I don't want to make the rules, and you wouldn't want me to either. It's not that I'd be without compassion or understanding ...it's just that I'm too much like you.  We are all errant and without perfect discernment and wisdom. And I am never as near to what God would have me be ...or me have me be. And my behavior is not perfectly in line with what He would have me do ...but, nonetheless He has me as a follower. Never do I stand sufficiently straight or tall ...but I look up and point humbly to the love of the Father who sent His Son for us.

And there is the Holy Spirit also ...Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; not multiple gods, they are One.  

If we want to have one understanding, then let's talk.  If we believe we have the same God, let's talk about our God ...and not be offended by the conversation. Let's not be the ones who decide who He is ...let Him reveal that to us.  

And I believe He has ...and I'd love to tell you how I believe He has done this.

Thanks for listening. 

I'll listen too.

Try to be kind ...and I hope I come across that way too.