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Christian and Muslim - at the same time?

Posted in Irshaddering Thoughts, Announcements, Q & A on Apr 12, 2009

The Lord works in mysterious ways.

I’ve just returned from Easter service at the Riverside Church in New York City. Before his impassioned sermon, the Rev. Dr. Brad Braxton announced that next Sunday, April 19, Riverside will host an Episcopal minister who’s just been defrocked because… she’s also a Muslim.

You got that right: Rev. Ann Holmes Redding is a Christian clergywoman who has converted to Islam but refuses to choose between the two religions. How’s that possible? I don’t know. But I can’t wait to find out.

It’s not just personal curiosity that propels me to clear my schedule and attend Rev. Redding’s talk next week. It’s also the fact that last week, I received a profound question from a student at one of my university lectures. After she heard me describe myself as a Muslim who appreciates multiple perspectives, the student wrote: “How can one have true faith in one religion and have a pluralistic attitude with which to meet people who hold other beliefs? Don’t these two ideas contradict each other?”

I don’t believe they contradict each other, and I’ll explain why in my next book.

But I also don’t go as far as Rev. Redding in acquiring a second religion to express my pluralistic impulse. It’s true that I’ve jokingly referred to myself as a Bu-Mu, or Buddhist Muslim. I think the Buddha got it right that attachment, including attachment to one identity, creates suffering since affixing ourselves to labels prevents personal — and communal — growth. For that same reason, I feel no need to “convert” to Buddhism or any other creed.

Which is why I’m intrigued that Rev. Redding does feel that need. Judging by this interview, she seems to be saying that Christianity is substantively no different from Islam, so embracing both is a blessing. But if there’s no real difference, then why go through the process of converting?

Moreover, why would a female Christian minister adopt a religion that has — count ‘em — not one official female cleric in its ranks? “It’s not about the dogmatic practitioners,” I can hear my own inner dialogue replying. “It’s about the God Who transcends human pettiness.”

But if the God of Christianity is the God of Islam, then we’re back to square one: Why bother converting? Why not love the best of each faith and dispense with the formalities; the very formalities that calcify faith into dogma and make people believe that God is some gatekeeper of club membership? (The fact that Rev. Redding now covers her hair around Muslims — a custom straight out of tribal culture, not faith — tells me that her Islam is already corrupted by the clubby consensus of the dogmatists.)

It seems to me that if God is love, then God accepts all attempts at sincere and peaceful communication, whether you bend, bow, breathe deeply, or simply whisper from the seat a of New York City subway train. If god isn’t so merciful, then I’m not convinced it’s a god worth worshiping.

Precisely because I appreciate multiple perspectives, I’ll be listening closely to Rev. Redding on April 19 at the Riverside Church. If you live in New York, please consider joining me.