Comments on: Vatican baptism raises questions about Catholic-Muslim dialogue

By: Collin Michael Nunis

Collin Michael Nunis — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 11:45:58 +0000

There are two unwritten rules about conversion that even the most insane of Catholic clergy will remember:-

i) Never publicize your conversion, except among family members. If that is good enough to stir up sentiment, think about the globe.

ii) Never diss or slander your former religion, no matter what has been done. If you’re a true Christian, frustrations with past associations are to be suppressed and possibly, put behind. The joy of baptism and accepting is Christ brings us far from all these sorrows but it seems that he was baptized in fear and skepticism. Apparently not in the case of this man.

By: Grady

Grady — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 21:02:12 +0000

As a non-denominational protestant, I have observed a great difference between strongly devoted Catholics and strongly devoted (militant) Muslims – the former can take a joke, even when its in bad taste.
In most situations, a rational public debate can be held between Catholics and members of most non-Catholic religions. This debate is based primarily on historical and scientific facts, definition and interpretation of Scripture, and the like.
With the Muslim world (taken as a whole), however, such debate is not possible – merely stating the most inarguable historical facts becomes a virtual causus beli: leading to rioting, the burning of cities, and other acts of gross public violence.
In light of this inability to carry on a reasoned debate, I find that I am unwilling to place much weight on ‘how the Muslim world will take’ any particular issue – since almost *any* statement can become a deadly insult in the eyes of all too many Muslims.

By: Kelly

Kelly — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 13:50:16 +0000

The Pope’s actions – including the Regensburg speech – have not set back anything, they’ve moved things forward. I admire the Pope for not being afraid to speak the truth, and calling for religious freedom and reciprocity. Baptizing Magdi Allam was a wonderful demonstration of religious freedom. Nothing we should be afraid to do publicly.

By: Mr X

Mr X — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 04:29:34 +0000

Don’t intellectualize this. Islam will cut your head off if you convert. And this article whines about the Pope converting one person as if the Pope was a dangerous fanatic. Amazing.

By: Jim Kalb

Jim Kalb — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 00:40:07 +0000

There are a couple different standpoints you could take on this. From a liberal freedom-and-equality-of-all-religions standpoint, the personal right of conversion is absolute and giving conversion a high profile makes that point.

Or if you don’t like that standpoint, and think that more attention ought to be paid to the particular views of the parties,
then it is the position of the Catholic Church that accepting Christ is a supreme good. So from that standpoint it was also
right for the Pope to act as he did.

The argument against is that you shouldn’t raise issues that upset people. That doesn’t make sense to me. Islam has been around for 1400 years, and Catholicism for 2000, so the issues aren’t going away. They’re important issues–understandings of God and man and human obligation are important–so it’s better to deal with them however you can than pretend to deal with them while trying to keep them under cover.