The social and political upheaval in our country makes these challenging days for preaching. What is the right word, the needed word, the faithful word in a world where there are so many other words?
Sometimes it helps to look elsewhere for inspiration, to look outside our normal purview to gain insight and clearer perspective. So I was glad to learn this week of Prince El Hassan bin Talal of Jordan, a leading Jordanian intellectual and devout Muslim, who was commissioned to study and work toward peaceful coexistence and interfaith cooperation among Jews, Muslims, and Christians, which, to a great degree, happens in Jordan.
Much like our own country, Jordan has suffered from extremism. One of the worst instances was the 2005 suicide bombings of three prominent hotels in Amman in which 57 were killed and 112 were wounded.
In response, the prince gathered 12 leading Islamic scholars, who wrote the "Amman Message," the purpose of which was to "recover Islam's unity around core principles," including the following: the Koran honors every human being, without distinctions of color, race, or religion; Muslims are called to act gently on earth, to shun violence and cruelty and speak with kindness and respect.
The Message "urges tolerance and forgiveness and opposes extremism, exaggeration and intransigence."
The Message says, "We denounce extremism today, just as our forefathers did throughout Islamic history. On religious grounds, on moral grounds, we denounce the contemporary concept of terrorism-including assaults on peaceful civilians."
It makes me wonder if we, as Christians, can do the same thing.
We'll talk about it more in depth this weekend. Read this passage, come ready to think, and let's grow together.
Peace,
