Over at The Geller Report I discuss the latest in Leftist Christian Islamopandering:
The story has by now gone around the world: on January 6 at St. Mary’s Cathedral, the Scottish Episcopal Church’s cathedral in Glasgow, a passage of the Qur’an was read out denying that Jesus is the Son of God, a core tenet of Christianity. The incident was emblematic of how the contemporary West has lost a sense of itself, and is so “open” to “the other” that it is ripe for invasion and conquest – which is exactly what the particular “other” that was allowed to proclaim its faith at St. Mary’s Cathedral has in mind. Yet after an international furor, Scottish Episcopal Church officials have not apologized; on the contrary, they’ve doubled down.
The Qur’an reading at the cathedral was apparently part or all of this: “And mention in the Book Mary, when she withdrew from her family to a place toward the east. And she took, in seclusion from them, a screen. Then We sent to her Our Angel, and he represented himself to her as a well-proportioned man. She said, ‘Indeed, I seek refuge in the Most Merciful from you, if you should be fearing of Allah.’ He said, ‘I am only the messenger of your Lord to give you a pure boy.’ She said, ‘How can I have a boy while no man has touched me and I have not been unchaste?’ He said, ‘Thus: your Lord says, “It is easy for Me, and We will make him a sign to the people and a mercy from Us. And it is a matter decreed.”‘ So she conceived him, and she withdrew with him to a remote place. And the pains of childbirth drove her to the trunk of a palm tree. She said, ‘Oh, I wish I had died before this and was in oblivion, forgotten.’ But he called her from below her, ‘Do not grieve; your Lord has provided beneath you a stream. And shake toward you the trunk of the palm tree; it will drop upon you ripe, fresh dates. So eat and drink and be contented. And if you see from among humanity anyone, say, “Indeed, I have sworn to the Most Merciful a fast, so I will not speak today to man.”‘ Then she brought him to her people, carrying him. They said, ‘O Mary, you have certainly done a thing unprecedented. O sister of Aaron, your father was not a man of evil, nor was your mother unchaste.’ So she pointed to him. They said, ‘How can we speak to one who is in the cradle a child?’ He said, ‘Indeed, I am the servant of Allah. He has given me the Scripture and made me a prophet. And He has made me blessed wherever I am and has enjoined upon me prayer and zakah as long as I remain alive and dutiful to my mother, and He has not made me a wretched tyrant. And peace is on me the day I was born and the day I will die and the day I am raised alive.’ That is Jesus, the son of Mary – the word of truth about which they are in dispute. It is not for Allah to take a son; exalted is He! When He decrees an affair, He only says to it, ‘Be,’ and it is.” (Qur’an 19:16-35)
That last bit, “It is not for Allah to take a son,” is in direct contradiction to what the Anglican Church is supposed to believe: “And the angel said to her, ‘The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God.” (Luke 1:35)
What kind of madness has overtaken the Anglicans in Glasgow, that they would allow what is ostensibly a central belief of their faith to be denied in the place that is supposed to be the site of the purest and most vibrant expression of that faith? In response to the outcry, the cathedral’s provost, Fr. Kelvin Holdsworth, wrote:
Those who came heard a confident Christian community proclaim their faith in Christ in no uncertain terms. We say the Nicene Creed at St Mary’s and we believe it. Indeed, I sometimes have to tell people that I say it without my fingers crossed. Our proclamation of the divinity of Christ is at the centre of every Eucharist that takes place every Sunday. And so is the greeting of peace which we offer to one another. Peace be with you. Shalom. Salaam….
Frankly, we think it is a good thing that Muslims are coming to church and hearing us proclaim the Gospel of Christ….
The truth is, people confident in their faith can often learn most from one another. We are confident in our Christian faith and enjoy sharing it.
The most perceptive comment this week came from someone who knows me well. “This is just absurd – St Mary’s doesn’t do syncretism it does hospitality”.
That’s it in a nutshell. We don’t do syncretism, we do hospitality….
“We don’t do syncretism, we do hospitality.” Very well. But Fr. Kelvin Holdsworth fails to explain why “hospitality” required that a Qur’an verse that denied a central tenet of Christianity be read out. Nor did he note that no mosque in Scotland or anywhere else is likely to feature a New Testament reading proclaiming the divinity of Christ: the “hospitality” goes only one way.
“Our proclamation of the divinity of Christ is at the centre of every Eucharist that takes place every Sunday”: apparently Holdsworth’s defense for featuring this Qur’an passage consists of noting that the cathedral often proclaims the divinity of Christ, so one denial of it isn’t bad. That’s like saying “I have met thousands of people in my life and only murdered one of them, so I uphold the sanctity of life.”
But Holdsworth has more important things on his mind: he “cannot believe that moderate churches in the West should follow a policy of appeasement towards those who are Islamophobic.” Appeasement of Islamic supremacists? That’s fine. But “appeasement of those who are Islamophobic”? That’s over the line!
Note also his sly moral equivalence in referring to “moderate churches,” as if there were “extremist” and “moderate” Christians just as there are “extremist” and “moderate” Muslims — a central, albeit wholly fictional, talking point of the contemporary Left.
Lord, what fools these Anglicans be. They have a perfect right to read from the Qur’an denying core aspects of Christianity during Christian worship. And free people have a perfect right to hold them in contempt as dhimmi appeasers giving away their own identity, culture and religion for the sake of “deepening friendships” with people who will never really consider them as friends, for they are forbidden to do so by that same Qur’an (5:51).
The entire incident epitomizes the malady of the Western world. Clearly the religion of those at the Glasgow Anglican cathedral is not Christianity in any form, but Leftist multiculturalism. What they will ultimately find, to their shock and horror, is that their Muslim partners in this multicultural endeavor have no intention of reciprocating their generosity and hospitality, but will ultimately only subjugate them under the hegemony of Islamic law. They’re already halfway there.

samdav7 says
Fr. Kelvin Holdsworth is either uneducated or a little puppet of a big conspiracy against the whole Christian world .. as we can see what the leftists are damaging every single day !
LOL very funny verse in the Quran ( shake toward you the trunk of the palm tree; it will drop upon you ripe, fresh dates. So eat and drink and be contented )
LOL you’ll get fresh dates so eat and drink dates in the middle of a huge dry desert !
Obviously ! the weird God of Muhamad is talking to donkeys ! or worse than donkeys ! his followers at the time used to be called and known as ” THE IGNORANTS ” .. that was fourteen centuries ago .. and guess what ?
They still are !
mortimer says
Anglican theologian Mark Durie wrote: “…the elites of Europe (have) embarked on decades of religiously illiterate appeasement and denialism.”
THE LEADERS of ST MARY’S CATHEDRAL HAVE A MORAL DUTY TO INFORM THEMSELVES ABOUT ISLAM AND UNDERSTAND 1) the Jihad Doctrine 2) the Taqiyya Doctrine 3) the Kafir Doctrine 4) the Islamic Apartheid Doctrine (al Walaa wal Baraa) 5) the Dhimmitude Doctrine 6) the Supremacist Doctrine of Political Islam. Without a solid understanding of those key doctrines of political Islam, the leaders of St Mary’s Cathedral are the BLIND LEADING THE BLIND.
… if politicians are unacquainted with the above five essential doctrines of political Islam, I consider their lack of interest in learning a form of culpable negligence on their part.
samdav7 says
Not just the leaders of St Mary’s Cathedral are the BLIND LEADING THE BLIND .. it’s the leaders of all the Christian establishments all over the world !
Alexius Comnenus says
Thank you for being among the few people who understand what is going on in todays world.
pandainc says
No, it is not.
john spielman says
this apostate priest is lying to cover his evil deed, he has embraced the darkness of islam rather than the light of Christ. He favors “chrislam” which is simply islam with out the murderous threats that real islam poses to unbelievers The only good news here is that these apostates liberal churches like the Scotish episcopal church are dying rather quickly!
mortimer says
Any church leaders who believe they can make church policy in respect to relations with Islam but have NOT MASTERED THE KEY DOCTRINES of Islam are in my view CLEARLY CULPABLY NEGLIGENT.
Leaders cannot lead without knowledge of the terrain into which they are leading. DENIALISM AND APPEASEMENT OF SUPREMACISTS DOES NOT WORK.
Kay says
It seems one of the Queen’s chaplains, Gavin Ashenden, who has been vocal about this incident, has also had a small part in raising awareness of the violent nature of Islam in a political climate that seeks to silence that awareness.
Of course there will be those who try to tear down Ashenden by pointing out his imperfections. Pray the armor of God for Ashenden as he seeks to be a voice for truth.
gravenimage says
Yes–that story is covered here, Kay:
“UK: Queen’s chaplain says cathedral that featured Qur’an reading should apologize to persecuted Christians”
https://www.jihadwatch.org/2017/01/uk-queens-chaplain-says-cathedral-that-featured-quran-reading-should-apologize-to-persecuted-christians
Kay says
(:
Troybeam says
When priests, pastors, rabbi’s bend over backwards to appease Islam for fear of being a victim of Islam they not only put the church in danger but their followers as well, Jesus may have said love your enemy but he did not say leave your faith for fear of death and convert to Islam to save your life. Think of whats missing today verse what men and women did in Jesus’s time, they stood fast even in the face of death to proclaim their faith not cower in fear and deny it or take another belief that kills.
no_one says
Leave them, they are blind guides. The gates of hell shall not prevail over the real Church. And I don’t mean RCC.
Kay says
There were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will introduce destructive heresies and even deny the Master who ransomed them, bringing swift destruction on themselves. Many will follow their licentious ways, and because of them the way of truth will be reviled.
2Peter 2:1-2
Adrian Johnson says
Fr. Kelvin Holdsworth is a Judas who has invited blasphemy into a Christian church. He should be unfrocked.
Angemon says
Imagine my surprise…
gravenimage says
Robert Spencer: Scottish Cathedral That Featured Quran Reading Denying Key Christian Tenet Doubles Down
…………………..
Suicidal madness.
Nassir says
Robert, stop wasting your time and your money. Islam will conquer the west. It’s Allah that is in control, it’s HIM that is spreading islam. You a mere human being, there is nothing you can do about it.
Submit or hell will be your final destination.
Mark Swan says
Nassir
GOD is in control—Allah is a thing of nothing.
There is a real GOD—your Allah is Baal worship embellished, you bow to Allah you are bowing to Baal,
this is demonic and unacceptable to the living GOD—take care what you take-up to worship.
gravenimage says
Nassir wrote:
Robert, stop wasting your time and your money. Islam will conquer the west. It’s Allah that is in control, it’s HIM that is spreading islam. You a mere human being, there is nothing you can do about it.
Submit or hell will be your final destination.
……………………………
Typical hit-and-run Muslim supremacist–Surrender, Dorothy! Resistance is Futile!
The funny thing, though, is that far from being a fait accompli, “Allah” has *never* been able to conquer the West. Islam was turned back at Poitiers, at Lepanto, and at the Gates of Vienna.
It was *driven out* of Spain, of Portugal, of the south of France, of Sicily, of southern Italy, of Greece–all things that Nassir, no doubt wants us to forget, or hopes we never knew in the first place.
Either “Allah” is quite the failure, or “mere human beings” like ourselves have more efficacy if we act bravely and decently than Muslim supremacists like Nassir would like us to believe.
Mark Swan says
Absolutely gravenimage.
dragaozao says
In the East people are dying for thing the west doesn´t bother to defend. Middle east christians are the real ones. The rest is fake.
gravenimage says
Are you a Middle Eastern Christian? Disparaging good Christians here who stand against Islam is appalling. The idea that one is only a good Christian if murdered by Muslims is pretty perverse. Many are trying to ensure that no one else is victimized by murderous Muslims.
FYI says
The very “Irreverend” Kelvin Holdswworth should be doubled down alright .he should be on his knees begging the Lord’s Mercy for his disgraceful performance worthy of judas Iscariot.
Warning against False Teachers
2 Peter 2 v 1-4
“They will deny the Master who redeemed them and so they will bring upon themselves sudden destruction”
AND…Note this ….
“Who then is the Liar?It is anyone who says Jesus is not the Messiah.Such a person is the enemy of Christ.He rejects both the father and the Son.”
I John 3 v 22
And isn’t this the reality of what this clergyman did??
Allowing quoting from the koran: a book whose sole purpose is the Denial of Christ?
Dustin says
Christ did not say to love Satan and invite him into your church.
Anne Smith says
A lot of comment on Rev Holdsworth, but it seems to me he is really just very stupid and probably vain as well and thought this sillly charade made him seem important.
Yes, the members of the church should have left in disgust, but that is not how the British react, they tend to absorb things rather slowly and only react when they have had time for it to sink in. Even now they probably don’t realise what was said or implied and just think they made a nice caring gesture to another religion.
Carolyne says
I believe the reading was in Arabic so I doubt that many, if any, members of the church understood that this person was denying the divinity of Christ, as Christians believe. They likely just though it was a feel-good message of peace from those nice folks who brought us 9/11. Now that they know, they should take action against those who arranged this baloney. Expelling him from the priesthood sounds appropriate to me since he doesn’t seem to understand Christianity’s core tenet and apparently doesn’t want to learn,.
gravenimage says
Very true, Carolyne.
Mike Lyons says
Which part of the following verse from the Quran causes the most confusion??
Quran (8:39) – “And fight with them until there is no more fitna (disorder, unbelief) and religion should be only for Allah”
Mike