Whose God?

          In her letter to the editor of the Perquimans Weekly on March 4^th, Nancy Theodore attempts to refute Warren Boiselle’s assertion that because of all the atrocities we see committed by Muslims these days, Christians and Muslims must worship a different God.  Ms. Theodore makes the case that if some passages in the Koran have Allah advocating violence, the God of the Old Testament does as well.

          Although Ms. Theodore is correct as far as that goes, I’m disturbed by her attempt to equate today’s jihadist violence with examples of Christian excesses of the past.  In that she echoes President Obama’s recent speech in which he admonished Christians to “get off their high horse.”  The facts are clear: a long list of atrocities perpetrated by Muslims since 1979 were all committed in the name of Allah.  There is no modern equivalent among other faiths.
          We can argue all day that ISIS perverts Islam, and that the majority of Muslims are peace-loving.  That misses the broader point, which is that all religions that claim to have a corner on divine inspiration are inherently flawed.  God does not speak to us in a human voice; divine inspiration must be translated in human terms—by prophets, mystics, and others with spiritual insight.  But humans are not perfect.  Sometimes they get the message wrong, as when they invoke divine authority to justify evil. 
          Warren Boiselle was right.  Christians and Muslims do have a different God, because they hear their God speaking to them in a different voice, in their own language. Paradoxically, God does not make us in His image…We make God in ours.
          People of all faiths must come to understand that sacred texts are not authored directly by God but by men prone to misunderstanding and error.  Jews and Christians for the most part no longer subscribe to a literal understanding of the Bible. Yet, that does not prevent them from professing their faith in a loving God.  Muslims must do the same with respect to the Koran if they are ever to break the shackles of Islamic fundamentalism.