Saturday, April 04, 2009

Muslim-Episcopal Minister Finally Defrocked

A couple years ago, I blogged about the Episcopal priest who became a Muslim and stayed a priest. At long last, the Episcopal church has resolved the issue.

CNN reported Thursday that the Episcopal church removed her from the priesthood.

For nearly 30 years, Redding has been an ordained minister in the Episcopal Church. Her priesthood ended Wednesday when she was defrocked.

The reason? For the past three years Redding has been both a practicing Christian and a Muslim.

Redding said her conversion to Islam was sparked by an interfaith gathering she attended three years ago. During the meeting, an imam demonstrated Muslim chants and meditation to the group. Redding said the beauty of the moment and the imam's humbleness before God stuck with her.

Ten days later Redding was saying the shahada -- the Muslim declaration of belief in the oneness of God and acceptance of Mohammad as his prophet.

But Redding said she felt her new Muslim faith did not pose a contradiction to her staying a Christian and minister.

"Both religions say there's only one God," Redding said, "and that God is the same God. It's very clear we are talking about the same God! So I haven't shifted my allegiance."

Umm... there's that little question of Jesus. Islam teaches that Jesus is just another prophet, and He isn't the greatest prophet, either. Christianity teaches that Jesus is NOT a prophet but the unique Son of God.

Redding said she sees the theological conflicts but that the two religions, at their core, "illuminate" each other.

"When I took my shahada, I said there's no God but God and that Mohammed is God's prophet or messenger. Neither of those statements, neither part of that confession or profession denies anything about Christianity," she said.


The Diocese of Rhode Island, where Redding was ordained, told her to leave either her new Muslim faith or the ministry. A diocese statement said Bishop Geralyn Wolf found Redding to be "a woman of utmost integrity. However, the Bishop believes that a priest of the Church cannot be both a Christian and a Muslim."

It has been said about the mainline denominations that have cut their moorings to Scripture that when they believe in nothing, they'll believe in anything. Redding illustrates this point perfectly.

5 comments:

Christina said...

Wow, that woman's idea of Christianity is just plain scary.

I'm very glad that she was finally defrocked, but what in the world took the church so long?

janice said...

I jumped for joy upon hearing they finally gathered the...um...you know, to defrock this idiot.

Clearly, both (or all three as I've also heard from muslims) religions do NOT believe in the same God. Only Judaism and Christianity are connected.

And I become very offended when I hear some imam, muslim or islamic scholar say islam is a continuation of those religions. The only thing islam has in common with Judaism and Christianity are the traditions mohammad stole from both faiths.

Clearly this religion was the brainchild of an illiterate, nomadic bedouin who was aflicted with epilepsy, believing he was posessed by demons, tried to kill himself.

Maybe I should tell you all how I really feel about this.....

ChuckL said...

We're talking the Episcopal Church in America ere - the denomination that has an active homosexual serving as a Bishop.

There must have been a change in leadership someplace, because when I used this story a few years ago, her (or some) Bishop gushed that it was a wonderful example of interfaith cooperation.

Sadly, there are a lot of pastors and leaders in mainline denominations who believe that Jesus is NOT THE way, THE truth, or THE life and compromise with many other faith groups (be assured that "other faith groups" does not include conservative evangelicals).

Malott said...

The Episcopal Church never disappoints... Their vague, fuzzy theology, where anyone's version of God is as good as anyone else's... The only absolute truth is that there is no absolute truth.

The symmetry between Episcopal theology and liberal Democrat political theory is astounding.

A Muslim wouldn't last 3 years in my Church's pulpit.

Tsofah said...

Praise G-d that those who love the Lord are not afraid to stand up to misleading teaching and blatant lies. Now, if only more denominations would start actually reading the scriptures instead of trying explain something they obviously haven't read themselves.