Subtitled The Qur’an, the Media, and that Veil Thing. The front cover alone lets you know what to expect: a smiling woman, with nothing that really marks her as “other” — no headscarf, wearing Western clothing, a touch of make-up and a contemporary hairstyle. She doesn’t even really look like the daughter of Indian immigrants that she is, and the message that this picture communicates is “we Muslims could just as well be your next-door neighbors and we’d fit right in.”... Read more
Allow me to be contrarian. Per my prior post, and all over the internet, Wheaton College professor Larycia Hawkins was suspended from her position for saying that Muslims and Christians worship the “same God.” Now everyone’s rushing to her defense, and citing various Catholic documents asserting the fact. But let’s back up. From a Muslim point of view, there is a definite continuity. When they say, “we worship the same God,” they mean, “we believe that God revealed himself to... Read more
Here’s the deal: You’ve likely heard about Larycia Hawkins, who declared in a Facebook post that she was going to wear a headscarf during Advent in solidarity with Muslim women being harassed for wearing a hijab, and subsequently was suspended from Wheaton College, an evangelical college with strict requirements that all faculty conform to the college’s statement of faith. The college later said she wasn’t suspended for the headscarf-wearing but for her statement that Christians and Muslims have the “same God.”... Read more
Posting’s been light due to busy-ness at work and at home, but here’s something to share with you: No doubt you’ve read the “party line” about the Muslim hijab, that it’s a wholly-optional free choice that some Muslim women make as an expression of their faith. And, true, there are surely many Muslim women who feel they’ve freely chosen it, or have come on their own to believe that God calls them to wear it. But how optional is it?... Read more
The “Baby Jesus people”: that’s the name our kids had for the nativity set when they were small, especially the Playmobil version with more “play value.” (The image below isn’t our actual set; ours came with a cardboard “stable” but had extra pieces in the form of three wise men and a camel, and it really did get played with.) They’ve grown past that now, but this year, wanted a stable for the front yard, and my husband, always up... Read more
Yeah, three wholly unrelated topics for this morning that came across my twitter feed and/or the morning newspaper: 1) “Merkel Aced Her Most Important Speech,” as reported at Bloomberg View: Angela Merkel on Monday gave a key speech to party leaders (well, some 1,000 of them) setting out her policy with respect to the flood of asylum-seekers. “We want to significantly reduce the number of refugees,” she said, arguing this would be for the good of Germany, given the difficulty... Read more
When you grow up LCMS, you memorize scripture, such as this one: “You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth. “You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me,... Read more
Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love. I cite this in the King James Version not out of concern over copyright violations but because that’s how I learned it, back in my childhood at Camp Cilca (yes, this is a Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod camp), where I learned a number of similar... Read more
Yes, it’s that time of year when everyone is flogging their carefully-curated list of gift suggestions which helpfully generate a bit of commission back to the the blogger. Well, I’m not going to do that. Yea, partly because I never got around to setting up an Amazon Associates account. But mostly because I’m not very good at it. In fact, I’ll turn the tables: Child 1 is 8 years old. Loves legos, but, let’s face it, I’m getting a bit tired... Read more
First, from Charles Krauthammer (in this case, in the Washington Post): “Why take the Trump stunt seriously?” I decline to join the chorus denouncing the Trump proposal as offensive and un-American. That’s too obvious. What I can’t get over is its sheer absurdity. . . . Dozens of others have already pointed out how strategically idiotic is Trump’s exclusion principle. Absent a renewed Christian crusade against radical Islam — with those fabulous Hollywood-wardrobe tunics — the war on terror will... Read more
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In