SCHOOL BOARD MEMBER CONCERNED AFTER HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENT CLAIMS CHRISTIANS & MUSLIMS WORSHIP SAME GOD

 
SCHOOL BOARD MEMBER CONCERNED AFTER HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENT CLAIMS CHRISTIANS & MUSLIMS WORSHIP SAME GOD
BY HEATHER CLARK
  
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
 ELGIN, Ill. — “Do you know what your children are being taught: Muslims 
believe in the same God as Christians and Jews?” That’s the question a school 
board member in Illinois recently posted online after her daughter came home 
with an assignment that included an article claiming that Christians and Muslims 
worship the same God.

Jeannette Ward of the U46 School Board posted the text of the assignment to her social media page
to show others the kinds of messages that are being presented to
students, and to outline why she voted no on the curriculum the previous
year.

“Judaism, Christianity and Islam are three of the world’s major
religions. While they have many differences, they all believe in the
same God,” the assignment read.

“In each religion, God is ‘revealed’ by a chosen messenger, called a
prophet. Some of the prophets that Jews follow were Noah, Abraham and
Moses. Christians follow these prophets too. They also think that Jesus
was another prophet of the same God,” it stated. “Later, Muhammad
founded Islam by declaring himself a prophet. He said he was the next in
the same line of prophets. He also said that he would be the last.”

The article also claimed that Jews, Christians and Muslims simply
assert that their teachings about that same God are the most accurate
and that these groups have brought violence into the world by seeing
others as being “beyond saving.”

“Muslims, Christians and Jews all worship the same complex God. But
each religion believes that its books and teachings reveal the true
nature of that God,” it read. “This disagreement has shaped the course
of history. The followers of each religion believe that only they will
be saved by God. They see all others as damned. This way of seeing
people, as damned by God and beyond saving, has led to violence and
hatred. It is why these religions both unite and divide.”

The assignment also included quiz questions that featured answers
such as, “Judaism, Christianity and Islam believe in the same God; in
all three religions, prophets revealed that God is complex and that only
certain people will be saved by God.”

Ward became concerned about the lesson that her daughter, who is in
the sixth grade, brought home from school as she called it “utterly
incorrect and false on many levels.” Her post drew much discussion, and a
number of clergymen have weighed in on the matter during the December
and January U46 School Board meetings, including even just this past
week.

One group of religious leaders stated that while they “sympathized”
with Ward’s concerns about the article, they also disagreed with Ward’s
“approach” in expressing concern.

“Each of us believes our own traditions are holy and true. Each of us
also believes that each person, regardless of religious tradition is
valued by God and is therefore worthy of dignity and respect,” they said
in a joint statement. “We believe that honoring these holy teachings of
our varied traditions means engaging in respectful dialogue and using
care when exercising the responsibilities and privileges granted to us
as leaders.”

Ward replied that she saw nothing wrong with her approach as she
simply shared the assignment and advised others about what children were
being taught in the district.

On Monday, a number of other clergy members and citizens spoke in
support of Ward, stating that she should be commended for bringing the
matter to light.

“To say that Allah of the Quran and the God of the Bible are the same
is simply absurd,” said Art Ellingsen, founder of Talk 2 a Pastor,
according to the Chicago Tribune.

“It’s not just something flying in the wind, it’s not just a
political issue, it is a faith issue, and faith issues are very
important to a lot of people in this community,” also said Mark Frusti
of Faith Lutheran Church.

Frusti was one of 12 pastors who also submitted a letter to the board, which served as a response to the statement from the other clergy, and also a means of support for Ward.

“Without proper guidance, this type of article can do nothing but
foster confusion and undermine the work of parents and faith leaders as
those responsible for the spiritual health and wellbeing of our
children,” they wrote. “For that reason, we strongly advocate for its
removal from use within the curriculum.”

As previously reported, in
2016, then-Wheaton professor Larycia Hawkins drew concerns after she
posted to social media a photo of herself wearing a hijab and claimed
that she was doing so to stand in solidarity with Muslims.

“I stand in religious solidarity with Muslims because they, like me, a
Christian, are people of the book,” Hawkins asserted. “And as Pope
Francis stated last week, we worship the same God.”

Hawkins eventually left the college after controversy erupted, not
about her hijab, but her assertion that Christians and Muslims worship
the same God.

Some used the opportunity to outline why the concept is flawed in light of Scripture.

“Muslims hold that ‘God is one.’ Allah has no partners and assigning
partners to him is shirk, the highest blasphemy,” explained Thabiti
Anyabwile, pastor of Anacostia River Church in Washington, D.C., in a
blog post for the Gospel Coalition. “Christians believe ‘God is one in
three Persons.’ Each Person in the Trinity is fully and eternally God.
Yet there is one God.”

He noted that as Muslims do not worship Jesus, who is God, Christians and Muslims do not worship the same God.

“No one knows God who does not know the Son, who is the only mediator
between God and man,” Anyabwile said. “The goal of Christianity is the
salvation of sinners through the righteousness, substitutionary
atonement and resurrection of Jesus Christ.”