A New World Religion

There has always been a movement to unite the world’s religions, either by stamping them out or co-opting into a ‘new world religion’. Mohammed tried to do it by mixing Christianity, Judaism and Arab tradition. Hitler tried to impose himself as the object of worship. The Soviets tried to get people to worship the state. The Romans worshiped Caesar.

Well there’s this new movement out there that bothers me, and it tries to meld religions together. It’s called Faith Shared, and it’s a project of the Interfaith Alliance.

Here’s a description of what they are trying to do:

Faith Shared asks houses of worship across the country to organize events involving clergy reading from each other’s sacred texts. An example would be a Christian Minister, Jewish Rabbi and Muslim Imam participating in a worship service or other event. Suggested readings will be provided from the Torah, the Gospels, and the Qur’an, but communities are encouraged to choose readings that will resonate with their congregations. Involvement of members from the Muslim community is key. We will also provide suggestions on how to incorporate this program into your regular worship services. And we will assist local congregations in their media and communications efforts.

While there is a strong preference for all of the events to happen on the same day, a number of congregations held interfaith services in January and February giving us wonderful examples of how communities can come together in support and fellowship. We will be posting photos, sample programs and audio files from theses services.

Faith Shared will collect images and videos from these events to use in our efforts to spread this message of respect and understanding from America.

Does this sound like a good idea to you?

Well, not to me either.

Here is a list of religious institutions participating in this program:

Did you, by any chance notice any mosques listed? Any Muslim worship centers, or such-like?

Me neither.