I’d thought better of you, Mrs. Don-O.
Odd that your church reaches out so, to what you term the “Reformers” of Islam today, while the heirs of the Protestant Reformation reject them.
The cognitive dissonance must be deafening.
Mrs. Don-o has a point. The Puritans were iconoclasts, not above the use of violence, banned Christmas, etc.
If “Reformers” are the people who want to “rediscover” the “original form of the religion” based upon a narrow reading of the scriptures then early Protestants and Muslim extremists today share a few traits.
I did not say the Islamic Reformation was or is morally, spiritually, or intellectually equivalent to the 16th century Christian Reformation. If you assumed I was saying that, it is not so. Whatever the net result, the 16th century Reformers were trying to draw nearer to Jesus, and Jesus is the true Savior of the World. Their faith communities retain much that is of truth and value, and retain as well many of the means of salvation which Christ gave to His church, and--- as the Catechism teaches --- Protestants and Catholics are brothers and sisters in Christ.
None of that is true of the Islamic Reformation. They are trying to draw nearer to Muhammad, not Jesus; and their very founder, in practice and in precept, was in a large measure demonic.
The Catholic Church --- as a previous poster mentioned --- tried to reach out to Islamic scholars pn the basis of reason in 2006 when Pope Benedict gave his Regensberg address. That yielded, as far as I know, nothing except rioting on 3 continents and 19 dead, including an elderly Italian pediatrician missionary nun in Yemen who was shot in the back.
Nevertheless, we maintain our missionary outreach in any Islamic country that will allow it. And the intellectual outreach to Protestant world has been much more fruitful. It enables me to enjoy the friendship of co-believers like yourself.
Have a good and a godly day, Regulator. Please pray for me as well. I am having some moderately disabling health difficulties right now, just as we in TN are involved in a big push to amend our Constitution in a pro-life direction. If you know any Tennesseans, please urge them to go out there and vote for Proposition One. Early voting is October 15-30.
Thank you.