This evening Kendell and I attended a panel discussion on Islam and Christianity hosted by our church. Members from the local mosque here in town came to be in the audience and 4 to sit on the panel. We had 3 Christians sitting on the panel as well.
Our pastor had been very clear in the morning service that this was not to be a debate but open discussion to better understand the two faiths and to understand the differences.
I love discussions like this and have always been intruiged by the Muslim community. Kendell and I looked forward to the night.
Both the Christians and the Muslims on the panel were careful not to get into the nitty gritty of the issues which I was disappointed to hear. When the woman speaker for the Christian side discussed a woman's place in society she clearly stated that she was going to talk about this from the Baptist woman's place. She was clear to point out that we answer to God and our relationship with Him is of our own personal choice but she didn't go to the point of sharing with the Muslims in attendance that we as Baptist do not believe woman should lead a Church. That she is to submit to the husband (and by the way that is not a degrading thing) etc. The Muslim speaker on the same topic was careful as well leaving out that man has the right to beat his wife.
In the end the discussion was so/so but what was most startling and upsetting was the behavior of our worship leader who was sitting in the audience. Our church hosted this event and as I stated earlier, our pastor was clear that we were to be hospitable hosts.
As with any time you get an audience of people there is always that one person that wants to stand up and give his/her thoughts on every topic. They always talk too much and never really have anything of value to say. These people usually don't realize they are annoying. We had one of those folks in the audience. He wa an elderly man and Muslim. He got up several times to give his thoughts, never being rude or argumentative though. The last time he stood up someone behind me yelled loudly "No! Sit down! He's not on the panel!" Guess who? Our worship leader and he got a couple of the other guys sitting next to him to yell it as well. I was appalled.
Later when a nice Muslim man on the panel stood up and was trying to explain Jihad and what it meant to Muslims (and no it didn't mean to him what it meant to the terrorists on 9/11) our lovely worship leader said loudly, "That's not what it meant on 9/11!" and he didn't say it with a sweet voice.
So in the end while the Muslims are clearly wrong and are following a crazy pedophile for a prophet they this evening where much more pleasant and respectful than our Christian brother. I wanted to hold up a sign that said "I'm not with him."
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