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The radicalism of Jesus [readings for Pentecost Sunday, May 11, 08]
I was magnetized, attracted, to Jesus Christ. Especially as a university student, thirty-five years ago, his fearless declarations of world altering radicalism gave me goosebumps. He felt the tragedies that others overlooked. He saw the people that others overlooked.
And he infected his disciples. Imagine how, in an ethnocentric culture, these words might have been heard on the day of Pentecost:
“Aren’t these all Galileans? How come we’re hearing them talk in our various mother tongues?
Parthians, Medes, and Elamites;
Visitors from Mesopotamia, Judea, and Cappadocia,
Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia,
Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene;
Immigrants from Rome, both Jews and proselytes;
Even Cretans and Arabs!
God, whom we believe had entered human culture through Jesus Christ, was at it again. This time, he began by stripping away barriers between human cultures, valuing each by speaking their native languages. He builds the bridge. He shows respect.
And there’s more. Read the rest of this entry »
What a Billion Muslims Really Think
“[N]o one in Washington had any idea what 1.3 billion Muslims were thinking, and yet we were working on intricate strategies that were going to change the world for all time.” (-Jim Clifton, Gallup Chairman and CEO.) But there’s good news:
In order to discover what Muslims truly think, Gallup spent 6 years interviewing nearly 50,000 Muslims from 35 countries representing the most comprehensive analysis of the wishes, desires, grievances, complaints, and opinions of nearly 1.3 billion Muslims.
The results were collected and analyzed by John L. Esposito, a leading American expert on Islam and University Professor at Georgetown, and Dalia Mogahed, a senior analyst and executive director of the Gallup Center for Muslim Studies, in their new, groundbreaking work: “Who Speaks for Islam? What a Billion Muslims Really Think.“
Get it? For the first time, ever, we have a basis for saying “most Muslims are of the opinion … “ And the conclusions may shake things up.
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