One God? Or Two?

A young chaplain at Duke Chapel announced it was time for the University to transform its gothic cathedral into an enlightened multicultural center with Muslims chanting  azans from the bell tower while Methodists prayed in the sanctuary below – and without knowing it she crossed an invisible line.
 
Word spread and praying to two different gods in one church left a lot of folks scratching their heads: Were the multiculturalists at the chapel worshiping one God or two? And if one, which one? And if it was the God of Abraham why would a Christian chaplain encourage someone to pray to a God she didn’t believe existed?
           
The chaplain, I guess, might have said, I did it out of simple courtesy – but, courtesy notwithstanding, wouldn’t it still be like encouraging prayers to a false god?
 
Finally the older heads at the University  stepped in to still the controversy: There had been, they said, a “serious security threat” so there would be no Muslim prayers in the bell tower.
It was a dodge that would make a politician proud.
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Carter Wrenn

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One God? Or Two?

A young chaplain at Duke Chapel announced it was time for the University to transform its gothic cathedral into an enlightened multicultural center with Muslims chanting  azans from the bell tower while Methodists prayed in the sanctuary below – and without knowing it she crossed an invisible line.
 
Word spread and praying to two different gods in one church left a lot of folks scratching their heads: Were the multiculturalists at the chapel worshiping one God or two? And if one, which one? And if it was the God of Abraham why would a Christian chaplain encourage someone to pray to a God she didn’t believe existed?
           
The chaplain, I guess, might have said, I did it out of simple courtesy – but, courtesy notwithstanding, wouldn’t it still be like encouraging prayers to a false god?
 
Finally the older heads at the University  stepped in to still the controversy: There had been, they said, a “serious security threat” so there would be no Muslim prayers in the bell tower.
It was a dodge that would make a politician proud.
Posted in ,
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Carter Wrenn

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