Interfaith Blood Drive

At Grace Lutheran Church they have an Interfaith Blood Drive at the end of June every year to collect blood for the July 4th holiday and to promote understanding between different races, ethnic and religious groups in Toledo area. Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu and Baha'i are represented. An Interfaith Celebration is held on Sunday night following the blood drive.

I didn't feel well this weekend, but was keen to observe how things go in there. So, I went. The blood drive was like any other of its kind. The interesting part was the Interfaith Celebration at night. Representative from different religions would give short speeches accompanied by religious songs from each religion. The atmosphere was that of different religions putting their differences aside and coming together for a common cause. It was very fascinating, especially given the fact that it was the 20th anniversary.

When it came to Christian prayer, Pastor Jacobs and Rabbi Bienstock read together Psalm 8. The rabbi would read a few lines from Gates of Prayer in Hebrew and then the pastor would read the translation from Lutheran Book of Worship in English. They stood at left and right side of the altar.

And when it came to Hinduism, they had a full dance praying to the Sun and each of the planets, praising the significance of them. The choreographer explained a little bit about the meaning of some symbols and movements so that we could follow and understand different stages. It was a lengthy (10 minutes) performance and although I couldn't follow the symbolism to the end, I enjoyed the choreography. But even putting my Islamic beliefs aside, praying to the planets would sound pagan according to Christianity too. And doing it at the altar?

Well, I find it amazing that representatives of different religions could have tolerance for other religions but not for people of their own who happen to think differently about religious doctrines. I had seen that for so-called liberal Muslims who can respect non-Muslims but their tolerance ends for fellow Muslims (Sunni for Shia or vice versa). And today, I could witness the same in a church that has been hosting Interfaith Blood Drive and Interfaith Celebration for 20 years.

In the morning service, there were several inserts in the prayer bulletin. One of them informed people about the Jehovah's Witness coming into the city for their annual meeting in Toledo and it warned people that they would come door-to-door preaching their religious doctrines in a canned speech. And the pastor elaborated on the matter in his sermon. And to me, it sounded as if they warned people about the swarm of locusts.

And all that because those guys differ on some issues with mainline Protestantism (and it's difficult to speak of mainline given all the differences among Protestants). When I was in Nicosia, I had a chance to talk with one of those guys. And although I don't agree with all their convictions (e.g. issues like rejection of higher education or refusing blood transfusion that I find backward) I don't find them such horrible creatures to be seriously warned against in a Sunday Service. The guy in Nicosia was really cool and we enjoyed our time exchanging info about our religions and he didn't even try to push his beliefs (as evangelist kids here do so, wasting their time and mine).

Here, the main grievance (among others) was about their denial of Trinity and hence their belief that Jesus is not God. They do not reject Jesus as Son of God or Redeemer as some Christians accuse them; rather, they believe in the Kingdom of God where Jesus is the king and God's highest creature on earth. Is it such a big deal? To mainline Christians (who believe in Trinity) it is. Yet, those Christian who are so fond of interfaith dialogues and can get along with people who don't recognize Jesus Christ even as a prophet, can't stand fellow Christians who just deny Godhead of Jesus Christ. And I just wonder.

Traditional vs Contemporary Worship (5)

When I visited Gloria Dei Lutheran Church last Wednesday for a lunch with their electrical engineer pastor (and some of his elderly congregants), he showed me a book. When I saw the title (which is not so short), I didn't hesitate to borrow it:

Why I Left The Contemporary Christian Music Movement: Confessions Of A Former Worship Leader written by Dan Lucarini

The title is revealing enough. It's been written by a former contemporary worship leader who has repented from promoting Contemporary Christian Music (CCM) and now is leveraging his experience in the Contemporary camp to discredit his former cohorts and save butterflies (unaware Christians) from being rushed away and doomed by this storm of CCM. Although I knew what to expect in the book, I read it with interest. I strongly recommend you to read it, although with some reservations.

I've always felt uncomfortable with people who place themselves at the extreme end of any spectrum (religious, cultural, political). Such people tend to demonize anybody not thinking exactly like them. They claim their very doctrine to be the only and only right way. And it'll become more dangerous when people hop from one extreme to another. They switch from one absolutism to another and this transition (or hopping) makes them more rigid in their new position, because they come to believe they've come out of darkness and now they have a duty to help others toward salvation (or enlightenment, depending on the direction of their hopping). and they're prone to look at the world in a black and white way.

It doesn't sound like a recommendation, does it?

Well, when you read a book written by such people (especially the ones who've had a deep experience in their former position), you get familiar with the views of both sides as the writer explains what people in the other side think and then would give counter-arguments to refute their opinion. And this would provide you with a good opportunity to think about the beliefs of either group as they are. That's not the case when you read people who've never experienced or understood what they're opposing.

In the meantime, such people usually go to extremes to discredit their former buddies. In a nutshell, what you get out of this book is most of the CCM guys (if not all of them) are a bunch of immoral people who are overruled by their whims and egocentrism to infuse a dirty filthy sin-inspiring evil-motivated music (i.e. Rock music) into Christian worship.

Sometimes, he apparently tries to distance himself from a condemn-them-all black and white attitude which is present all over his book. But still, the essence of his reasoning to refute the use of CCM could be summarized as: what has come out of immoral people for immoral reasons (Rock 'n Roll) cannot serve God and people who use it are doomed because of the evil nature of this music.

He has a very interesting contemplation on worship and its true heart (chapter 4) and if it were not for an ignorant comment on Islamic worship (page 54), you could assume this chapter was written by a conservative Muslim. Actually, his thoughts in this chapter reflect very well the true meaning of Islam (submission to God). I probably will write in another post on worship, but to make my records straight with him, I put a short clarification here. After talking about prostrating in worship, he says:

We may recoil from that thought as we consider the images on our television sets of Muslims, for example, performing their prayer ritual, which includes an act of prostration that at least in its form fits the meaning of worship. But God sees our hearts; he is not fooled by the form of prostration, he desires a broken and penitent heart that is committed to him.

For your information, what we Muslims do is not merely a form of prostration. Actually, we do say some things during our daily prayers not merely bowing and raising and what we say reflects our supplication and humility before God. When we put our forehead on the ground (where we have come from and where we will end in), it's not just a form of ritual. We express our humility to God when we say: "Praised is my Lord the Most High and thanks be to Him". And while we speak of Him being the Most High, we place ourselves in the lowest position by putting our forehead on dust or clay, understanding there's no reason for vanity while God has created us out of dust. Is it clear? OK, back to the book.

Most of his reasoning on condemning CCM could apply as well to Traditionals. That the worship team being comprised of men and women and that their mixing, intimacy, etc could seduce them and others and even lead to divorce (chapter 6) could be true in any mixed setting (and that's why Islam discourages mixing men and women in worship so that the focus be only on God). Splitting Churches (chapter 7) isn't just a result of music style; disagreement on anything and forcing any specific viewpoint could lead to split (and I've witnessed church splits over issues other than music). And sometimes when he fails to give effective counter-arguments, for example, addressing why he believes worldly music of past centuries are OK while worldly music of our time is evil, he hopes that we see both the foolishness and the arrogance of CCM defense (page 110).

The cornerstone of his counter-arguments against CCM is that such people have personality problems (self-centered, whimsical, immoral, etc) and he's quick to refer to his own dark background as the proof for his argument. Clear enough? Not completely.

You've heard the famous quote: "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder". Sometimes, I feel like giving a new version as: "Ugliness is in the eye of the beholder". When you choose to view people in a distorted way, you will.

I agree with him that personal preferences could lead into using worldly music in worship (and Islam solves the problem: leave all music out of worship; when you worship God, just do that and nothing else). But when you accept the very presence of music in the worship, you cannot accuse people of different taste to be possessed by all sorts of personality problems, just because you were so (or you prefer to think of yourself as such).

I admit that Christian worship is becoming more and more an issue of entertainment rather than worship, but people are not either black or white. Whenever I hear people demonizing their opponents or accusing them of being immoral just because they choose to see them as such, I come to think of an interesting memory from my undergraduate years. It may sound irrelevant, but I find it very illuminating for all people who tend to see the world through a dark distorted lens.

First time I taught SIGSYS software as a teaching assistant for the Signals & System (my favorite course) in our computer lab, I had not yet passed the course myself. And it was my first time teaching a class ever. And the perfectionist that I was, it was so important to me that everybody completely understood the notions and learned how to work with the software. And I was so obsessed about it all. So, you can imagine how stressing and challenging it felt to me.

As the majority of students were my friends, I tried to reduce my stress by way of handling the class in a friendly casual way. When I attended to the questions at each computer workstation, I would pat people on the shoulder, joke, etc. And I was an orthodox Muslim, kinda Taliban-esque, over those years (I'm still a conservative Muslim, somehow moderated though). And as instructed by Islam, I was observant of Islam guidelines about interacting with girls in a modest sober way keeping distance. The rest of the story may sound like a cartoon, but that's exactly the way it happened.

When I left one of the workstations, I felt something was unusual. I couldn't say why or what, but I just felt that way. And just like those cartoons, I tried to rewind the scene to figure out what looked wrong. And while I was on my way to the next workstation, a sequence of rewinds and flashbacks ensued: something looked unusual, what was that? the student was sitting in an awkward way, why? probably, the student didn't feel comfortable, why? probably, it had something to do with the way I was attending the workstation explaining and pointing to the monitor, how? I tried to remember my posture. I was standing at the workstation, putting my hand at the back of the seat bending over the shoulder of the student (just the way I did for others), pointing to the monitor, explaining the waveform on the screen.

Then, it became clear to me, making my heart sink. The student was a GIRL (and an orthodox one)! And you can imagine how comfortable she must have felt. And yet, the only thing that was completely absent from my mind while bending over her shoulder was her gender. I was so obsessed with explaining what was on the screen that I couldn't think of anything else. I was so lucky that I just put my hand on the back of her seat and didn't pat on her shoulder (the way I did on my friends). Believe me, I could've done so without ever noticing that it was a girl!

On another note, I can think of my different ways of worship over my undergraduate years. I've always said my prayers to God exactly according to the guidelines He's ordered us Muslims to follow. But to do supplementary prayers, I sometimes used my electronic keyboard to talk to God. I always did so in my solitude and I would never let that lessen, distract or mix with my ordinary way of prayer. And while I played, I never used music that would remind me of immoral musicians and their culture.

Years passed and I became an engineer and my career made me so busy that my keyboard began gathering dust and I didn't have time (or mood) to use it much (either for pleasure or worship). And now that I've come here, it is still gathering dust. If I were able to carry it over with me, probably I wouldn't use it for worship here either. Not that I've repented from what I did then nor I ever feel I was corrupt over those years. Now that I look back, I can say with 100% certainty that while I used my keyboard as a supplementary way of worship, it was me, not the devil who was playing and I earnestly talked to God by way of playing my keyboard.

And over my church visits, I've witnessed people playing guitars or even drums (as he seems to be very concerned about that as the most very evil instrument). And what I've observed has not been always showy or worldly (as the book maintains unfairly). Sometimes, what I observe in some of them is (or looks to me) the same way as I used to talk to God playing my keyboard.

I don't rule out devil playing into people's mind even during worship (and that's why prayers in Islam are just prayers and just focusing on that and nothing else). But you cannot judge people without knowing what goes on in their mind. God is the only one to judge. But still, I admit that worshipping God should be done exactly the way He has ordered, not the way we choose.

And yes, I completely agree that God would accept us as we are provided we do not remain as we are. Whatever we are, we must change ourselves according to His will and do our best to follow His word. And we always need to ask for His grace and mercy to that end.

Conversion from Islam to Christianity, A True Story

I received a comment on my post on Happy Easter. I went through the comment, pondered what to do and eventually felt like deleting it and putting a reply for the writer. Then, I thought better of it. Why not share my reply as an individual post? Here we go.

Why did I feel like deleting the comment?

1) It was irrelevant to my post.

2) It was too long (13 pages, just to be continued with more) and above all, I found it a waste of time for readers of my blog who are interested in true stories and real observations.

3) This is my personal blog and it's not a place for evangelism. Please feel free to post your long testimonies to your own blog.

Anybody familiar with me, my beliefs and my views as reflected in my posts will easily understand my earnest respect as a practicing Muslim for true Christians. Actually, I feel like a brother in belief with them. But ...

I've found a few things in common in all testimonies by evangelists who claim conversion from Islam to Christianity.

a) Very shallow understanding of Islam as seen in their inconsistent (sometimes incoherent) accounts. And this shallow understanding manifests itself in their claims about absence of love, salvation, etc in Islamic teachings and that they've found something completely new in Christianity that they lacked altogether beforehand.

b) Life-changing experiences and personal encounters with Jesus (I’ve had many dreams with our Imams, so what?).

c) Renouncing their dark past before accepting Jesus in their heart (BTW, it's not we who accept Jesus; it's he who gives us the honor to enlighten our heart with his grace).

Although I'm not a greenhorn in evangelistic literature (I used to read such stuff long before I came here), sometimes I feel dumbfounded or may I say fed up reading (or nowadays hearing) sheer ignorance about very basics of Islam. And when I read no-brainers like the following, more than being offended religiously, I find it an insult to the IQ of the reader:

Later, I decided to focus on Muslim religious studies, and took a course in order to become a Muslim preacher. Just a few days before I was supposed to give my first Friday sermon, I had a car accident and broke my legs. It was a compound fracture. I was hospitalized for 50 days and bed-ridden for a year. However, it gave me time to reconsider what I want to do in life. In order to pass the time, I started reading comics in Arabic and English. It was expensive to devour those comic books, so I switched to reading novels. After a year in bed, I was able to read unabridged English novels. When I was able to walk on crutches, I went back to high school and kept reading novels. I stumbled over a Western novel written by Louis L' Amour who wrote around a 120 novels. I read them all. I got really better in English and passed the American University of Beirut English Entrance Exam.

Now, let me write up an analogous story:

Later, I decided to focus on Christian religious studies and took a course in order to become a Christian pastor (sic, becoming a pastor after just taking a course). Just a few days before I was supposed to give my first Sunday service sermon, I had a car accident, blah blah, I went back to high school.

So, let’s think about my story again: a high-schooler takes a course, becomes a pastor and is ready to give a sermon. As easy as that! Impressing, eh? Well, any high-schooler (or maybe junior high) with an IQ somewhat above 80 would laugh at me and my story (if he ever finds it funny). Last time I checked, my IQ was way above 80 and I don’t find your story funny. I strongly recommend you to just keep reading unabridged novels (in batches of a 120) that would be less expensive than comic books, instead of trying your chance with writing stories.

Apart from the inconsistencies in your comment, evangelism does not fit with your previous comment on my Nowruz 1386 post where you'd written: "Religion is not attractive", which makes me think twice about your true belief in Jesus Christ.

And I refer you to my previous post On Bigotry, Prejudice & Guaranteed Salvation. You have picked the wrong person. God has already given me the honor to have Jesus Christ in my heart and I already believe in his words which are already present in Quran and other Islamic teachings.

Jesus is the light of God and His very Spirit and Word sent to the world. He doesn’t need inefficient pestering advertisement by ignorant people. That has proved to turn off even people born into Christian families. The same holds true for ignorant people who preach Islam or what they think to be Islam after reading a few books (or maybe after taking a course).

Poor advertisement does more harm than good. The most it could produce is likewise ignorant people with a shallow understanding in their newly acquired religion.

Gloria Dei Lutheran Church

I had heard that the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod (LCMS) is the conservative brand of Lutheranism in America. Unlike Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) who tends more towards liberalism and all-inclusiveness, LCMS people are very strict about their religious doctrines. At Hope Lutheran Church which is affiliated with ELCA, the pastors always emphasize before Communion that anybody regardless of denomination is welcome. Once, a doctor (who has been a Hope member for over 20 years) told me that's not the case with LCMS and they don't offer Communion to non-members. And they're very strict about other things also. And immediately, I felt like visiting an LCMS church some day to see how they look like and how they perform compared to ELCA. But again, the same problem of lacking a car and difficulty with access to known LCMS churches in far away places.

I was looking through my church roster this Wednesday and I preferred to attend a Lutheran Church. I had forgotten about the LCMS issue and I just picked up Gloria Dei Lutheran Church as one of the churches that had a Wednesday afternoon service and was not so far away. When I arrived there, I saw nobody around. I doubted whether they actually had a service. It had occurred to me twice to visit churches just to discover what I'd seen on their website had not been so accurate.

Then, as I was exploring the empty sanctuary, the pastor emerged from his office to see who's there. I introduced myself and explained about my research and then asked out of the blue whether they were an ELCA church. I was answered no. So, it was my first chance to observe an LCMS service and make a comparison.

Gradually, the members appeared and the service started. And another wrong assumption went away. I had assumed that Wednesday afternoon services have to be contemporary as opposed to the traditional ones at Sunday morning. This one appeared to be completely traditional in style without a single note of music. It just had a few rituals less than Sunday service and the rest (including the sermon) were exactly the same as the one on Sunday. However, the pastor told me that the traditional service on Sunday would have some music accompanying the hymns. This service was very low-populated and people left just after it was over. It appears that Wednesday afternoon service here is merely a complement to the normal worship for people who for whatever reason cannot make it on Sunday (or maybe for people who need another dose of worship in the middle of the week).

I continued with my questions and found out that LCMS doesn't ordain homosexual pastors (a difference with ELCA where they are split over the issue). Not so surprising given their very orthodox stance on Communion (which was mentioned in their prayer bulletin also and visitors were advised to consult the pastor before the service). But they don't even ordain women as pastors. Now, this is a big difference with many denominations as ordination of women has become a common practice long after the emergence of feminism movement.

My other inquiries revealed that the church and its pastor are conservative as goes the reputation of LCMS. For example, they believe in Biblical innerancy (i.e. every single word in Bible is the word of God and should be followed as such). Or they don't accept practicing homosexuals as members; they may be allowed to attend the service as visitors in the hope of being corrected by God.

He also explained why they don't offer Communion to non-members (actually, non-LCMS visitors). According to LCMS doctrine, Communion is not just a remembrance of Jesus and his Last Supper, nor is it consuming bread and wine as merely disunited symbols for the body and blood of Jesus; rather, it's a deep thoughtful sacrament of unification with Jesus as a whole and they don't offer Communion to other denominations (even ELCA) as they don't seem to understand the rite the way they do. I mentioned that at ELCA churches (even Hope with their all-invited policy), I've heard exactly the same wording as his over Communion and that suggests they probably understand it the same way as LCMS. Well, he was not convinced.

But in the end, I got a surprise. Concluding my ad-lib interview (which he patiently answered) I asked about his education, the question I ask every pastor to match their religious and ecclesial views against their college background before attending seminary. And voila, I found this conservative pastor who seemed to have similar views as mine (as far as I could probe over that limited time), to have trodden exactly the same path as me.

He has been an electrical engineer and even after getting his Master of Divinity, he has continued with his engineering career for some more years before settling in the Lutheran Church as a pastor. And his motives behind this change of career? Just like me, he had been drawn to math and physics which led him toward engineering as a job. However, since childhood, while attending church, his utmost passion has been religion and serving God and eventually that landed him in his current job after so many years in engineering.

After Dr. Rubin Patterson (one of my professors at UT), he's the second electrical engineer I've discovered here who has made such a career change. Well, I'm aware of other engineers who've switched to non-engineering careers, but being around electrical engineers who've done so, sounds and feels different. I'm looking for more.