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Pope calls for Christian, Muslim understanding
JTA News ^ | May 10, 2009 | Staff

Posted on 05/10/2009 6:05:11 AM PDT by VRWCTexan

JERUSALEM (JTA) -- Pope Benedict XVI .... calling for more understanding between Christians and Muslims.

He encouraged Christians and Muslims to oppose terrorism. "Muslims and Christians, precisely because of the burden of our common history, so often marked by misunderstanding, must today strive to be known and recognized as worshippers of God, faithful to prayer, eager to uphold and lift by the almighty decrees,"...

...At the mosque, in a meeting with Muslim leaders, he called for a "trilateral dialogue" including the Church to help bring Jews and Muslims together to discuss peace

(Excerpt) Read more at jta.org ...


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: b16; benedictxvi; catholic; ecumenism; islam; pope; vatican
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At the risk of offending my Catholic friends it disturbs me greatly to think that the Pope truely believes that Christians and muslims actually worship the same God?
1 posted on 05/10/2009 6:05:12 AM PDT by VRWCTexan
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To: VRWCTexan

Seems to me this is characteristic of the Roman Catholic approach to holiness through morality. The Muslims have a vigorous moral code, ergo they just need a little more guidance to get to the Kingdom of Heaven. (Never mind that that code is one twisted sister.)


2 posted on 05/10/2009 6:09:48 AM PDT by HiTech RedNeck (Beat a better path, and the world will build a mousetrap at your door.)
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To: VRWCTexan

Ben, please step away from the holy wine.


3 posted on 05/10/2009 6:11:39 AM PDT by bgill (The evidence simply does not support the official position of the Obama administration)
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To: VRWCTexan

I just read the full text of the Pope’s address at the mosque in Jordan. He did NOT mince words. This is one courageous and deeply thoughtful Pope. He went into the heart of darkness and preached God’s word.

“...so is My word that goes out from My mouth: It will not return to Me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.” Isaiah 55:11 NIV


4 posted on 05/10/2009 6:18:09 AM PDT by bboop (obama, little o, not a Real God)
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To: bboop

If we see Muslims becoming Christians from that witness, I’d believe that this is what that is. Otherwise color me a doubting Thomas.

I get the sense that Muslims scoff at the Pope as much as they do at anything else in the Western world.


5 posted on 05/10/2009 6:21:33 AM PDT by HiTech RedNeck (Beat a better path, and the world will build a mousetrap at your door.)
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To: bboop

Good ! - Thanks


6 posted on 05/10/2009 6:28:23 AM PDT by VRWCTexan (History has a long memory - but still repeats itself)
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To: VRWCTexan

Outside of a man’s mind, how can more than one God exist?

If there truly is only one God, and a Christian and a Muslim and a Jew say a prayer, what happens?


7 posted on 05/10/2009 6:51:16 AM PDT by stuartcr (If the end doesn't justify the means...why have different means?)
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To: VRWCTexan
I think we Christians understand muslims well enough.


8 posted on 05/10/2009 6:53:21 AM PDT by Iron Munro (Suppose you were a clueless idiot, and suppose you were Barack Obama; but I repeat myself)
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To: VRWCTexan
He encouraged Christians and Muslims to oppose terrorism.

What, the Pope is ragging us Christians about opposing terrorism now too? Well I guess I'll oppose it then.

9 posted on 05/10/2009 6:58:28 AM PDT by jiggyboy (Ten per cent of poll respondents are either lying or insane)
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To: VRWCTexan
Also on Saturday, the pope visited the King Hussein bin Talal Mosque in Amman. He did not remove his shoes while visiting the mosque and he engaged in silent reflection, rather than prayer, according to reports.

Good for the Pope. Unlike our Muslim in chief capitulating to a potentate

10 posted on 05/10/2009 7:03:50 AM PDT by Popman
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To: VRWCTexan
Christians and muslims actually worship the same God?

Depends: "I testify that there is no God but Allah," and the other "I testify that there is no deity but God."

11 posted on 05/10/2009 7:09:58 AM PDT by Popman
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To: VRWCTexan

What is so hard for him to understand? Islam dominates non-Muslims.


12 posted on 05/10/2009 7:24:12 AM PDT by Islaminaction
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To: VRWCTexan
The answer to that question is simple. Insofar as they are human, and they approach God the Creator by the light of their nature reason, they worship the same God that Jews and Christians worship. If you would read Aristotle's Ethics, Politics, and Metaphysics, you would find that he indeed worshiped God, and knew many of His attributes, solely by the use of right reason. In fact, Aristotle stands out as a singularity of how close the reason can get to knowing God without the aid of any revelation. This science is called “natural theology”. When you add to reason the gift of revelation, starting with the Old Law, and continuing with the New Law of Grace, you have what is classically known as “sacred theology”, which uses revelation for its first principles. Jews and Christians indeed worship the same God of revelation, albeit the Christians benefit from knowledge of the Trinity, the Incarnation, and Redemption.

What a Muslim knows through his source of “revelation” is where the road forks. For the revelation received through the false prophet is at odds with the Way, the Truth, and the Life. While Islam mimics true religion in many aspects, it is an obvious counterfeit, inspired by hateful jealous spirits who are insane with the envy of our redemption and salvation.

So in summary, a Muslim does indeed worship the same God as Jews and Christians through natural theology, through the right use of his reason. While what he knows of God via false revelation is indeed false, and stands in contradiction to everything we know to be most true and beautiful about God.

13 posted on 05/10/2009 8:38:47 AM PDT by blackpacific
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To: HiTech RedNeck

Of course the Muslims scoff at the Pope. They have a chip on their shoulders and take offense at anything.

The Pope’s job, as is ours as Christians, is to speak the Truth in Love. It is God’s job to open hearts and ears and plant the seed, not ours, and not the Popes. How can we control THAT? And how can we measure it?


14 posted on 05/10/2009 10:35:36 AM PDT by bboop (obama, little o, not a Real God)
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To: bboop

At some point the dust has to be shaken off the feet and the pearls ceased to be cast. Individual witnesses to individual Muslims may or may not proceed well, but “as a group” they take to it very unkindly.


15 posted on 05/10/2009 10:56:05 AM PDT by HiTech RedNeck (Beat a better path, and the world will build a mousetrap at your door.)
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To: bboop
It is God’s job to open hearts and ears and plant the seed, not ours, and not the Popes.

Looks like someone forgot the purpose of the Great Commission: And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." Amen. (Matthew 28:18-20)

16 posted on 05/10/2009 11:13:29 AM PDT by usconservative (Barack Hussein Obama: Destroying America, One Executive Fiat At A Time Since 1/21/2009.)
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Comment #17 Removed by Moderator

Comment #18 Removed by Moderator

To: blackpacific

Excellent summary!

I think this was essentially what the Pope was saying and why he was inviting them to consider reason. Interestingly, the Muslims seem to have realized this, and many of them are furious with his speech - they wanted an “apology,” which of course he would not and did not give them, and in fact he repeated much of the essence of the Regensburg lecture.


19 posted on 05/10/2009 11:39:28 AM PDT by livius
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To: Popman

If a person, regardless of their faith or the name they use for God, prays for God’s help, who would hear them?

Could false god even exist, outside of someone’s mind?

Who created those people that believe in a false god?


20 posted on 05/10/2009 1:31:29 PM PDT by stuartcr (If the end doesn't justify the means...why have different means?)
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