Episcopal Muslim Priest

WorldNetDaily reported yesterday about an Episcopal priest in Seattle.

A veteran Episcopal priest says she became a Muslim just over a year ago and now worships at a mosque Fridays – but that hasn't stopped her from donning her white collar Sunday mornings.

"I am both Muslim and Christian, just like I'm both an American of African descent and a woman. I'm 100 percent both," Rev. Ann Holmes Redding told the Seattle Times.

Kurt Fredrickson, director of the doctor of ministry program at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, Calif., told the Times there are "tenets of the faiths that are very, very different."

"The most basic would be: What do you do with Jesus?"

Fredrickson explained that while Christians consider Jesus Christ to be God, Muslims regard him as only a prophet.

Redding, 55, doesn't think it's necessary to resolve all of the contradictions, arguing even people within Christianity can't agree on all the details.

"So why would I spend time to try to reconcile all of Christian belief with all of Islam?" she asked. "At the most basic level, I understand the two religions to be compatible. That's all I need."

Somewhere along the way, this woman turned off her brain, and it appears to have atrophied.

"It wasn't about intellect," Redding said. "All I know is the calling of my heart to Islam was very much something about my identity and who I am supposed to be.

"I could not not be a Muslim."

My concern with her is not that she converted to Islam. People do that, and as a Christian, I respect her free will to believe whatever she chooses.

But Islam says it's not compatible with Christianity. And Christianity says it's not compatible with Islam. So her dual faith is a theological impossibility.

Then why on earth is she still a priest in the Episcopal church?

Redding's embrace of Islam has been affirmed by her bishop, Rt. Rev. Vincent Warner, who thinks the interfaith possibilities are exciting.

He's an idiot too.

Perhaps if some lone Muslim fanatic attacks her church instead of a Jewish group, all in the interest of saving the priest's Muslim self from the infidel Christian influence, then the bishop might decide that's a little too much excitement. But I'm not holding my breath.

And how on earth will Redding counsel her flock? Will Episcopalians who come to her with questions be given Islamic answers? How will she be able to keep the lid on her religious blender so her special puree doesn't splatter all over the congregation? It's a recipe for disaster.

Too much of the Episcopal church in America has thrown Christian doctrine out with the trash in favor of feel-good social policy. Without the foundational tenets of the Christian faith, starting with the divinity of Jesus, you're left with nothing more than a social club whose leaders wear frocks and funny little white collars.

I'm skeptical that Rev. Ann Holmes Redding ever accepted the real Jesus as her Savior, or that she ever embraced Christianity. She sounds like someone who does what feels good and goes where she feels she belongs--someone tossed around by the waves of her own emotions.

And how does the imam down at the mosque see her dual faith?

She has been accepted by the mosque she regularly attends, the Al-Islam Center of Seattle. But Hisham Farajallah, president of the Islamic Center of Washington, is among the Muslim leaders who don't understand how she can remain an Episcopalian.

It seems strange to say it, but I'm with the imam on this one.