Carl Medearis will be teaching alongside Rick Love at the online Modern Middle East Studies program through William Jessup University, starting in March. Carl Medearis will be teaching about Jesus in the Muslim Context, and Rick Love will be teaching a course on Muslim-Christian-Jewish Relations. The program is online and open to students anywhere in the world.
My friend Dr. Rick Love, founder of Peace Catalyst International and consultant for Christian-Muslim relations in the Vineyard USA, was recently invited by the Turkish “Building Bridges Gateway” television program to talk about Christian-Muslim relations and peacemaking. This was an amazing opportunity to talk about the Prince of Peace (Jesus) to a global audience 60 million people!!!
What’s even better, is that, thanks to the internet, we here in the USA can watch the program that originally broadcasted on January 16th. 😀
Now for the a few highlights from the interview:
First off, I thought Rick did a great job in sharing the value of peace with the hosts. He also talked a bit about his work through Peace Catalyst International in bring conservative Christians, Muslims and Jewish leaders and lay-people together for friendship dinners. I really enjoyed the points he made when talking about the freedom of religion around the world – as in, people of all faiths should be allowed to build places of worship and talk about their beliefs without fear of persecution. The show hosts and other guest all agreed with this comment, saying how the freedom of religion is one of the first steps towards world peace.
Having very little personal interactions with Muslims (there are not many followers of Islam in rural Idaho for some reason…), I was taken back when one of the host’s made the comment that there was no such thing as a “Muslim terrorist.” Basically, according to the host, that label is an oxymoron as people who kill innocent people are violating the words of the Quran and, therefore, fall outside of Islam. He then backed this up with a quote from the Quran and in commenting about how there were Muslims and Jewish deaths during the 9/11 attack as well as Christian (I would add, atheists and other religions…but the show’s host didn’t mention that…). Powerful words coming from a Middle Eastern television personality….
wow…powerful stuff… I definitely recommend watching the program as it gives a different prescriptive on Christian-Muslim relations (especially since the main USA networks have a tendency to…hmm…well…bend things a bit…)
