This year, the event is being held under the motto "Christians and Muslims are witnesses of hope," the state PAP news agency reported.

Source: Poland's Catholic Church marks Day of Islam

Ice on our Xmas lights late last night

Opinion:

The medium is not the only message

Pop culture scholars will know I am referring here to the late, great Marshall McLuhan who coined the phrase, "The medium is the message." For McLuhan, this meant that different electronic and traditional mediums demand varying degrees of consumer involvement--from hot and cool media to those in between.

A Neo-Marxist could take that idea to argue that no matter what we watch on TV, the corporate message stays the same. One creative player beams out a signal to many consumers, a signal that effectively says, "We are telling you how it is, you passive stooge."

However, critics add that regardless of how the message is disseminated its actual content matters too.

So I am watching CNN right now. If I change to FOX news I will get a similar kind of corporate message ("We are telling you how it is, you passive stooge") but the actual message content will differ between these two channels.

  • Undocumented immigration is good vs. undocumented immigration is bad
  • Joe Biden had a "challenging year" vs. Joe Biden isn't "cognitively fit" to be the most important political figure on Earth
  • America is evolving into a new kind of beast vs. America needs to remember its constitutional roots

Point is, these are not minor differences, America has corporate competition, conflict and that's all part of the game.

Blurred by mistake - we can see the lights but not the house

So what does this have to do with interfaith dialogue?

Well, we can emphasize the apparent commonalities among different religions, and that most likely has certain benefits. But we should never mention similarities at the expense of overlooking glaring differences---not just theologically but also experientially.

Ever have noticed how the Catholic Church bends to political correctness in some areas but not in others?

They would rather celebrate a religion that says Jesus Christ is not who the New Testament says he is while at the same time shut down Catholic women who wish to be priests.

Why do they do this?

Well, there is a flimsy biblical rationalization of the Church's Old Boy sexism. I won't bother to elaborate here. Well, we can talk about that in the comments area if anyone is interested.

But for now, if you think religious posturing is devoid of politics, power, perceived threats, and economics, think again.

As for what God thinks about all this, we can only hope to get it right---if not immediately, eventually.

 

 

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