Posted on 06/14/2017 3:56:41 AM PDT by NYer
Catholic Cardinal Raymond Burke, an American and former head of the highest court at the Vatican, said that Christians and Muslims do not worship the same God because the Islamic god “is a governor,” and Islam is Sharia, the law “which comes from Allah” and which “must dominate every man eventually.”
“I hear people saying to me, well, we’re all worshipping the same God, we all believe in love,” said Cardinal Burke in an August teleconference about his latest book, as reported by EWTN’s National Catholic Register.
“But I say stop a minute and let’s examine carefully what Islam is, and what our Christian faith teaches us both,” he said.
The cardinal, who is an archbishop and the patron of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, explained that in Christianity God is the creator of reason and the “giver of revelation,” and His law is written “on our hearts” and “we’re given a divine grace to live according to that law.”
“This is not true in Islam,” said Cardinal Burke.
“I don’t believe it’s true that we’re all worshipping the same God, because the God of Islam is a governor,” he said. “In other words, fundamentally Islam is, Sharia is their law, and that law, which comes from Allah, must dominate every man eventually.”
“And it’s not a law that’s founded on love,” said Burke. “To say that we all believe in love is simply not correct.”
“And while our experience with individual Muslims may be one of people who are gentle and kind and so forth, we have to understand that in the end what they believe most deeply, that to which they ascribe in their hearts, demands that they govern the world,” he said.
“Whereas, in the Christian faith we’re taught that by the development of right reason, by sound metaphysics, and then that which leads to faith and to the light and strength that’s given by faith, we make our contribution to society also in terms of its governance,” he said.
“But the Church makes no pretense that it’s to govern the world,” said Cardinal Burke. “But rather that it’s to inspire and assist those who govern the world to act justly and rightly toward the citizens.”
If we follow the relativistic idea that there is no real difference between Christian teachings and Islam, if we think we are all worshipping the same God, said Cardinal Burke, “ultimately it will be the end of Christianity.”
Our Catholic ancestors “had to fight to save Christianity,” said Cardinal Burke, “[b]ecause they saw that Islam was attacking sacred truths, including the sacred places of our redemption.”
“We have to have a profound respect for right reason, for the natural law which God has written in every human heart,” said the cardinal. “I think most people don’t realize that there is no natural law doctrine in Islam and neither is there an ocean of conscience -- everything is dictates of the laws that are given by either in their sacred text or by those who are entrusted with interpreting the law.”
Cardinal Raymond Burke, 68, is the former bishop of LaCrosse, Wisc., and former archbishop of St. Louis, Mo. Between 2008 and 2014, he was the Prefect of the Apostolic Signatura, the head of the highest court at the Vatican. He is an expert on Canon law, the law that governs the Catholic Church and its teachings. He also is a member of the Vatican’s Congregation for the Causes of the Saints.
Catholic ping!
Fantastic book that I strongly recommend.
Written by a woman born Muslim in Egypt, who moved to the USA at age 30 and converted to Christianity.
“Wholly Different” by Nonie Darwish
Papabile
Can we get US coins to say: “Allag is the Devil” ?
Pope Obvious. Does anybody really believe Christians and Muslims worship the same God (ours) / god (theirs)?
Finally - a Cardinal who is willing to call a spade a spade!!!
While there have been and continue to be heresies, most Christians believe that truth exists, and that there are two witnesses to the truth: natural and special revelation. This view can be said to be shared by other enlightened religions. Even if so, we, as Christians, still have something to offer mankind that is unique and wonderful, namely Jesus.
“To say that we all believe in love is simply not correct.”
At a particular theological level, that statement reflects our differences in our understanding of the nature of the Supreme Being: for Christians, it’s Trinitarian, for Muslims, it’s not.
And that matters because ‘love’ is a transitive verb - it requires an object. Christians can truthfully say that God is Love, because through all eternity, love united the Three Persons of the Trinity. But not so for the allah of Islam - through eternity allah is a figure of a solitary will - in that misunderstanding, their god had nothing to love, and even after the creation of mankind, he expressed that will in a demand for submission, not love.
Unitarians’ll believe anything...
Of course we don’t worship the same God.
The God of Christianity commands us to love our enemies.
The god of Islam commands them to kill their enemies.
I am reading this book now. It is eye-opening.
As a Christian speaking to a Muslim, “Your god is my satan.”
Excellent article. God bless Cardinal Burke.
Damn right we do not.
The true God has two important characteristics: will and reason. Allah is built on the ancient Roman and Greek pagan creations that had only wills, with no reason. This leads to a flawed understanding of a divinity set up as a whimsical tyrant who cannot be understood even in simple terms because there's no rationale to his existence -- and therefore, by extension, there's no rationale to ours.
That's why the practice of Islam is polluted with all of these references to "Allah's will" -- and really nothing else. Islam does not see the physical world as a manifestation of a rational God, so there is no attempt in Islam to really understand it. The inevitable result is that Islam may have made sense to nomadic tribes in the Middle East, but it is fatally flawed when it tries to exist in a culture built on reason and a natural order.
Thanks for that link. I have long understood the lack of reason in Islam. I have never seen it explained so well. Now I have an argument.
Second it!
Look, we are dealing with a religion that is from the devil.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.