Thoughts on Monotheism

This is a fascinating article about a female Espicopal minister that adopted Muslim beliefs and was finally defrocked. I found these comments particularly interesting:

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.”

There’s a much longer post lurking about the concept of monotheism and whether we’re all just worshipping the same God, but I’ll restrain myself to a couple points:

• The pastor’s claims are basically what the B’Hai believe – that Muslims, Jews, and Christian are all worshiping the same God, just in different ways with some differing details. They worship a single, mono-theistic entity – the “God of all religions.”
• “Allah” is Arabic for “God.” What would happen if you stood up in (Christian) church on Sunday and yelled “Allah be praised!”?
• When CNN puts subtitles on the words of a Muslim, why do they choose not to translate the word “Allah”? Would they translate “Dios” from Spanish?
• When a Muslin prays to “Allah,” who is he praying to? Is there some kind of traffic cop that directs his prayer to his God, and my prayer to my God?
• I am a Christian. When I walk through the Pearly Gates decades from now, will I find a bunch of Muslims sitting around?

I don’t have answers to any of these questions, really, but they’re interesting to consider.