Thursday, August 16, 2007

Dutch bishop: Call God ‘Allah’ to ease relations

This will make a lot of people happy! He actually has a point only in reverse. You don't use a foreign term for God "allah" in an established country with its own liturgy and theological language. In the Middle East the term "allah" can be redefined and used for the God of the Bible but a ton of explanation and teaching must follow. The English term for God comes from the German "Gott" and was originally a tribal deity. So a redefinition of the term can be done.

This Bishop however, is going in reverse all in the name of being politically correct. A sort of cultural relativism in reverse:

AMSTERDAM - A Roman Catholic Bishop in the Netherlands has proposed people of all faiths refer to God as Allah to foster understanding, stoking an already heated debate on religious tolerance in a country with one million Muslims.

Bishop Tiny Muskens, from the southern diocese of Breda, told Dutch television on Monday that God did not mind what he was named and that in Indonesia, where Muskens spent eight years, priests used the word "Allah" while celebrating Mass. Read More.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

The Bishop's head is in the right place in trying to offer some focus on the commonality of monotheism. However, the emotion (the heart) of the situation calls for more consideration of the differences.

Gott, Allah, Dios, are all linguistic equivalents of God. But "God" because its English and associated with western society and "Allah" because it Arabic and associated with the cry "Allahu akbar" can not yet be cultural equivalents. "Gott" and "Dios" have far less negative connotations associated with them.