“Muslims, Jews, and Chrisitans need to stand in unity.” This is a belief growing in popularity in America, (for some it is becoming a demand) espcially since one so-called Christian pastor advertised that he would burn the holy book of Islam. Is there a need for Christianity, Judaism, and Islam to stand in unity? Should they stand in unity? How can they stand in unity?
Unity of faith in God is impossible. The views of God are too different. For Christians, Jews and Muslims to stand in unity in their doctrine and theology would mean that all three would have to deny the basis of their own religion. Each believes that their religion is the only true religion; none can, or should, deny their own basis for life.
Should the three stand in unity? Absolutely, but how? Each questions the other in some way or other, or perpaps mistrusts the goals of the other. The anti-government, anti-semetic, anti-black, hate-mongering cults that claim Christ are vehemently denied by Christians, and rightly so. It is disappointing to Christians that most moderate Muslims do not do the same concerning violent Muslim extremeists. The Jewish community tires of Holocaust denials by some militant Muslims and militant Christians, the seeming increase in the return of Jewish stereotypes, especially in Europe. Muslims are at times even fearful that practicing their faith could lead to violence against them. Though all three know that these things are wrong and reject them, still it is not possible for any of the three to stand shoulder to shoulder with the others and proclaim religious brotherhood, or approve of the other’s beliefs. Not if each is true to his own faith.
Yet, we can all stand in unity. We can do it without agreeing with one another’s faith; without reading the Gospels of Christ in a mosque or reading the Koran in a Christian church, or all three worshipping together in a synogogue.
We can stand in unity because we are all Americans. We may not be brothers and sisters in religious faith, but we are brothers and sisters who are related through our belief in America as the greatest country in the world. We can stand side by side in celebration that we can each follow our religions faithfully, and still care for one another; still stand against violence directed at our country or any religion practiced here.
If you have been in agreement with the idea that America’s three major faiths should approve of each others doctrines, you don’t understand faith. If you are convinced that we need to quit bickering and stand together for each other’s right to worship as we believe, and stand together as Americans in a time of danger and change, then you are right on!