www.byzcath.org Forums General Discussions Town Hall Church in Cologne collects money for a mosque

http://www.eux.tv/article.aspx?articleId=4719

I have to say I was absolutely astounded by this story, for several reasons.

Nothing surprises me any more. The Catholic Church for the most part has been in a slow suicide mode for over 40 years now.

What I find interesting is that the priest's reasoning is that "the protestants helped us build our church, so we'll help the muslims..." (I'm paraphrasing).

If I were a protestant, I think I'd be insulted. I can sympathize with helping a protestant group since they are Christians. I can even sympathize with giving humanitarian aid to muslims, since they are human beings. Building a house of worship for a false god, that is quite another thing. Yes, I know that it is possible to see Islam as the partial and mistaken worship of the true God (they worship one God and insofar as they recognize God, they recognize what all religious people recognize). But the god of Islam is not the God of the bible. They do not worship the God revealed by Jesus Christ. I am not saying they are all damned to hell. We are not to judge. But they do promote a religion that was created in opposition to God's revelation. Islam is not an ancient pre-Christian religion, such as Judaism, Hinduism, or Buddhism. Islam is a religion founded on the explicit rejection of Jesus Christ as the Messiah. Therefore, I think that we should take that into account. It is a religion that is fundamentally a perversion of the Bible. I know that this isn't pc, but I am just pointing out facts. I respect the dedication, faith, and morals of mainstream, intelligent, and "moderate" (so to speak) muslims. Sometimes, they put us to shame. But they are a non-Christian cult along the lines of the Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses, and not one of the ancient, religious traditions of man. Of course, Buddhists and Hindus also do not worship the true God. But they are committed to a pre-Christian revelation and so they stand as pagans who still haven't fully received the revelation of the Gospel. I can't say the same for Islam (not talking about all individual muslims, but the religion as such). I think we should make a distinction between religions that have their basis in the limited pre-Christian revelation that was available to them and those (such as Islam) that are post-Incarnation, and which are founded upon an explicit rejection of the Gospel. It really bothers me that this is not something addressed by the ecumenical thinking of Vatican theologians.

Joe

It just makes me sick to see the extension of Turkey in Europe, and the church supporting it. Even if done by well intentioned people.

You are probably too young to remember the comic strip, "Pogo." A saying from that strip I remember is, "we have met the enemy, and it is us!"

Lawrence, I would say the attempt at suicide is definitely being reversed, but slowly...

Logos - Alexis