In
fact, I've just learned that the Koran says Abraham and his son Ishmael came
down to where Mecca now stands and built the very first mosque (place of
prostration). It's the Kabaah that they encircle during Ramadan, the lunar
month that celebrates Muhammad's receiving his first revelation of the Koran.
Islam's symbol is a lunar crescent to signify that month and a star enclosed.
But some Muslims allow no symbols, lest they become idols or images of Allah,
both of which are strictly forbidden.
"Too much religion" is the theme of this extra column. It's a word used very sparingly in Scripture (KKV) and that only in the New Testament. In our western tradition we usually see religion as meaning Godly and here in America even Christlike. But in this new century' I've chosen to use it as a universal attribute of man that can be for either good or evil. Homo sapien is inescapably religious because there's always a God or god somewhere in his consciousness, whether he's aware or not. The very term "religio" has the same root as ligament, or that which binds all else together. So it can very easily become a sort of bondage. We certainly see that in pagan customs sanctioned by various divinities. And even where monotheism has replaced polythistic belief, there are idols galore that claim the allegiance of segments of the society. Into whatever a person puts their ultimate faith becomes of necessity their deity. So even contemporary non-theism (which has frequently replaced old fashioned atheism) has many false gods still operating in the lives of those belonging to that camp. They are merely deluded into thinking that the God question has become irrelevant. Thus secular concerns have risen to be paramount. Now this writer has grown more tolerant of that view after watching the increase of so much dangerous fundamentalism e.e. the Wahhabis of Islam. For a long time I've shifted my focus from Christianity to Christ, because the first is so easily accepted as a substitute for the latter. In fact "organized religion" nearly forgets going on to the inwardness of true belief in Jesus as Savior and Lord. We see so much competition between this or that denomination, ministry, or spiritual leader which compares to the secular market place of sell, sell, sell. Paul said "We preach Christ," but that message gets dimiished in the din and roar of programs and activities. Christianity becomes a rival religion with the other faiths of mankind, while the Kingdom Jesus died to establish is ignored. So religion, while it is necessary, can become a substitute for divine reality. Whenever it is an end in itself, that's just too much religion. I never thought I'd say such things, but too many of the trouble spots around the globe today are religions in collision which can't be the Kingdom Jesus establshed, nor the one for which we are asking in the prayer He taught us, "Thy Kingdom come They will be done, on earth as it is` in heaven."
Halloween was mild Wednesday night as so few trick or treaters came to the door. About half of our sacks of candy were left over. Then I went out back and saw that full moon above with a h-u-g-e ring around it taking up half the sky. It was an eerie feeling as I stood there. Thursday on the radio I heard that it was a blue moon I saw, a second one in the same month which happens very rarely; every fifty or so years. So that was a night sight to remember, the full blue moon on Halloween, with it's circle in the heavens. Guess I've still got a streak of superstition in me, God forbid. The number 19 has been haunting me since the OKC bombing of April 19 and the 19 children who were killed that the bomber called "collateral damage." Now I'm learning that it's a mystic number in the Koran and the reason 19 suicide terrorists died in 9/11. It divides four times into the 114 chapters of that book which Muslims are claiming to be proven by some sort of mathmatical miracle. All kind of spooky stuff. BUT WHAT FOOLISHNESS NUMEROLOGY IS.