As a matter of full disclosure, I have a degree from a college in Iowa. It isn’t Luther College however, where the head of the religion department has made the assertion that Jesus was a member of a religion that didn’t exist until 600 years after he was dead:
“Was Jesus a Muslim?” asks Prof. Robert F. Shedinger in the beginning of a book he published this year entitled Was Jesus a Muslim?: Questioning Categories in the Study of Religion” I will answer with a very qualified yes.”
In a recent interview Shedinger also defended his controversial thesis explaining that a Muslim undergraduate student had sent him on academic odyssey that culminated with him asking himself “Was Jesus a Muslim?”
“Even as a Christian I have to answer yes to that,” said Shedinger, who is the head of the religion department at Luther College in Iowa.
Shedinger also argued that Islam is a better fit for Jesus since it is not a religion but a “social justice movement.”
“I had to rethink what Islam is… I came to the conclusion that it was a social justice movement and I think that’s who Jesus was in the first century so I conclude Jesus is more like a Muslim,” he said.
Now wait a second, let’s use his logic. According to this guy, Jesus fought for social justice, and Islam is a social justice movement, ergo Jesus is a Muslim.
Do you know what that means?
Barack Obama, champion of social justice for decades, is a Muslim.
(now click the video)
One would think a published position such as this would garner some negative attention, possibly resulting in removal from a position as a teacher, let alone the head of the religion department. Surely the college is going to make some changes:
A spokesman for Luther College, a small liberal arts school affiliated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, told Campus Reform on Wednesday that the administration stands fully behind Shedinger’s scholarship.
“The administration is very very comfortable with the proposal, with the book, and with what his statements about this situation are,” said Jerry Johnson, the school’s Director of Public Information. ”[T]he ground he is breaking with this book is not anything exactly earthshaking.”
You know there’s only one way to end this post.
Jesus facepalm:
Just tickling their ears, my friend. Tickling each others ears. Stupid is cute in a three year old – what about this? Alas, the title “professor” isn’t a bad one. You don’t have to know a damn thing for truth in order to profess whatever you want these days. Most modern institutions of higher learning have reduced themselves to glorified day care centers. Let them play in their little sandboxes and every once and a while we’ll come by and cover up their poop and break up their petty squabbles.
I love patronizing the intellectual elite. It really incenses them.
Oh, wait a minute. This is even better. Let’s suggest to professor whatever his face that he write a sequel entitled “Mohammed was a Jew”. Then encourage him to put out a press release that he is going to travel through the Middle East to do his research.
Problem solved.
The good “professor” might also want to include that whereas Jesus was known as a carpenter, Ol ‘Mo’ was known far and wide as a swineherd of epic proportions and hands-on sausage maker who wore pigskin sandals and underwear.
That ought to do it!
Have a nice (if brief) book tour, Prof!
P.S., just tell us where your Islamic friends should send the body and if the head should be sent to the same place….
I would have pegged Judas as the Muslim. Silly me.
Besides, Jesus was clearly a Mormon.
Making up crap is fun!
Unholy Alliance: the American Left and Radical islam by David Horowitz.
he is not alone
http://t.co/M2Avd7Qa
This not only speaks of the professors not believing the bible, but volumes of a Christian college who backs this.
Luther would be spinning in his grave at supersonic RPMs at the college bearing his name. It could bring him out of “retirement” to nail a new set of theses to this moron’s forehead with the understanding that the apparent frontal lobotomy this ersatz “teacher” has already had would mean that a nail in the forehead would pose minimal risk to his existing mental capacity (neither of his operating synapses would likely be threatened).
Robert F. Shedinger is an Assistant Professor of Religion at Luther College (Decorah, IA).
His argument wouldn’t pass a high school philosophy test.
There have been ads, paid for by Muslim groups (and probably CAIR) claiming that Abraham, Jesus, and Moses were all Muslims.
The prof said “… so I conclude Jesus is more like a Muslim …”.
yeah…and Buddah was a christian…