I'm really looking forward to Ramadan. There's nothing inherently odd about that, but as a Christian believer in membership of a church which is in turn a member of the Evangelical Alliance, and having just enjoyed a bacon roll (settling my stomach after yesterday evening's cider), I think it probably requires a little of what we clumsily call "unpacking".
On the face of it, it's jolly simple. I failed to participate in Lent in any way, having just started a demanding job and suffering cumulative jet lag from repeated short trips from London to Hong Kong and back again. The annual spiritual discipline of self-denial and moral reflection has always been important to me, and so I felt this failure profoundly.
And so, with an opportunity upcoming to join a communal exercise which is essentially similar if a little more prescriptive, I thought it would be interesting to share with millions of Muslims in what is their holiest month, and perhaps their most famous religious practice. Though a key ingredient for me as a Christian would be missing - the culmination of the period in a (chocolatey) celebration of the fundamental achievement of my faith, the defeat of sin by the resurrection of the Messiah - consciously turning away from material preoccupations and rededicating my life to God is an exciting prospect.
But for many of my co-religionists, the idea of joining in an Islamic practice might be troubling at the very least, as it seems to defy commitment to the uniqueness of Jesus Christ. "I am the way, the truth and the life" he says in our Scriptures, notwithstanding that those Scriptures for most mainstream Muslims form an earlier, inchoate part of "the Book" which they believe to be the revelation of God's self to humankind; a pearl on a thread alongside the Torah and the Qu'ran.
We can get fixated on difference. "Do not conform" warns St Paul, and there is a full spectrum of opinion on the manner and extent to which Christians and their churches should engage with the wider world. It is a distinctive mark of the Jewish community that its members neither eat pork, nor mix diary produce and meat, whereas the Pagan cultures around used to boil young animals in their mothers' milk. It is distinctive - certainly in Britain - that Muslims do not drink alcohol, though there are moral considerations of greater importance than merely appearing distinctive, just as in the Middle East there were health considerations related to eating pork, shellfish and dairy produce before the advent of electric refrigeration.
With what do we as Christians feel the greatest discord? Some feel that other religions are more dangerous then apathy, as they do not seek to lead people to Jesus. Some even feel that this is the result of a malevolent spirit. However, I believe that the materialism prevalent in the world, and the selfishness that results, are by far the most likely factors to lead people away from God and from the mindful development of the human soul, and it is against these things that I would most like to establish points of difference. I can therefore join in with the practices of a religion which professes to be seeking - and to be wanting to help people to find - the same God as my own, with far greater ease than I can walk through a shopping centre. Our Muslim cousins, and those of other faiths, share the same genes, and it would be well that we consider joining together in arguing against the godlessness of our age.
We can get fixated on difference. "Do not conform" warns St Paul, and there is a full spectrum of opinion on the manner and extent to which Christians and their churches should engage with the wider world. It is a distinctive mark of the Jewish community that its members neither eat pork, nor mix diary produce and meat, whereas the Pagan cultures around used to boil young animals in their mothers' milk. It is distinctive - certainly in Britain - that Muslims do not drink alcohol, though there are moral considerations of greater importance than merely appearing distinctive, just as in the Middle East there were health considerations related to eating pork, shellfish and dairy produce before the advent of electric refrigeration.
With what do we as Christians feel the greatest discord? Some feel that other religions are more dangerous then apathy, as they do not seek to lead people to Jesus. Some even feel that this is the result of a malevolent spirit. However, I believe that the materialism prevalent in the world, and the selfishness that results, are by far the most likely factors to lead people away from God and from the mindful development of the human soul, and it is against these things that I would most like to establish points of difference. I can therefore join in with the practices of a religion which professes to be seeking - and to be wanting to help people to find - the same God as my own, with far greater ease than I can walk through a shopping centre. Our Muslim cousins, and those of other faiths, share the same genes, and it would be well that we consider joining together in arguing against the godlessness of our age.
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