First and foremost as-salamu alaykum my brothers and sisters. I’m a Catholic Christian who believes true to the word of the New Testament that we should treat others as we wish to be treated and we should love each other.
I grew up as a Catholic in a major western city and I had friends of all religions, races and backgrounds and I tried to and mostly never took into account what a person was but who they were (and are). I had an unfortunate incident with a minister almost dehumanizing followers of Islam and I reached out to the Christianity subreddits and while I received some beautiful responses I found other folks having a similar viewpoint as this Christian minister and it has caused great discomfort in my heart. I am basically reposting exactly what I posted elsewhere to get your take on this matter.
Peace be with all of you.
—— Original post:
My parish (catholic) has had bible study mondays and tuesdays led by a visiting priest (Father Peter)during lent and i've really been enjoying it. Father Peter just graduated with a PhD from a university in Israel and he's a good teacher. I'm the youngest consistent attended. Most of the people are women in their 60s and I'm a 37 year old male. One other girl ~30 attends once in a while and she's the only other person not of retirement age here. I always enjoy scripture and the history of the holy land, so this is enjoyable for me.
I told father Peter that I work a a web engineer in passing so yesterday the Pastor (Father Dante). After yesterday's lesson, Father Dante told me he'd like for me to develop their website which I happily said I'd love to do so. He said I'd be working 1 on 1 with Deacon Ted (both Ted and Pastor are in their 60s, kinda relevant if you want to think generationally) who's handling administration. I never was formally introduced to Ted until last night. I thought OK great. Pastor asked for my contact info and I told him I'd give it to him on the next night at the bible study as I wanted to read to my daughter before bed and it was getting late.
Today I spent some time and put together a plan of action to give to Father Dante or Deacon Ted tonight. I was and still am excited about the project. More on that in a bit.
During tonight's study, other religions came up and father Peter brought up something about Islam and made a broad statement connecting Islam to violence and how Islam claims its a religion of peace, it was a bit anti-Islam feeling. I didn't know what to think, but moved on. Then I hear from the back Deacon Ted "can you believe Muslims slit people's throats." To that, I spoke up and asked if he was really disparaging 1 billion people over a fanatical minority. He told me, rather nastily "I don't see Christians doing that, why don't ya read the papers."
I bit my tongue. This was not the time or the place to bring up the KKK, Crusades, the Spanish Inquisition, etc.
The bible study ended, I thanked Father Peter and bolted out. I believe that part of the reason Deacon Ted was there was to talk to me about the site and I had a rush of emotions and didn't want to say something I would regret.
So, Deacon Ted obviously has his own opinions and that's fine. If this were a lay person it would be one thing. But acting as an ordained minister of the church in a Bible study, really?
At this point I question if I should even be a member of this parish if this a member of the ordained ministry freely like this at a church sanctioned event. Let alone working with him to create a representation of the church.
I'm planning on contacting the pastor and explaining that I am happy to work on the site, but I cannot in good conscience work with Deacon Ted, who I would essentially be in league with in the creation of this website.
Am I overthinking this? maybe. but I take Christianity and loving thy neighbor extremely seriously and as a lay person I'd expect someone who is ordained to have a bit more understanding and act in a more Christian manner.
Basically looking for feedback to this situation...
TL;DR I was supposed to work on a Church project with an ordained Deacon who condemned all Muslims as terrorists during a bible study. I still want to work on the project but not with this Deacon. I am planning on telling the Pastor that I'm happy to work with anyone else but cannot in good conscience work with the Deacon
[link] [comments]
from Islam https://ift.tt/2CXtJUD
Post A Comment:
0 comments so far,add yours