Who Do You Really Worship?
Why your tribe becomes your God
In December of 2015, professor Larycia Hawkins of Wheaton College, an evangelical university in Chicago, got into trouble with College administrators when she posted a picture of herself wearing a hijab on Facebook.
The caption to the photo read: “I stand in religious solidarity with Muslims because they, like me, a Christian, are people of the book. And as Pope Francis stated last week, we worship the same God.”
According to Wheaton College, this attempted act of solidarity violated the school’s “Statement of Faith and Educational Purpose,” which all professors agree to endorse and abide by as a condition of employment (Professor Hawkins and the college eventually agreed that she would leave her position voluntarily, though the exact terms were kept secret).
This dispute has in turn ignited a larger discussion about whether the claim, so often made about Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, that they all worship the same God, is really true.
Let’s assume for the sake of argument that there is a God. If there is a God, then by definition it’s an exclusive status, so no matter what the content of your worship is, it’s all directed at the same Thing. In that case you’re fighting over whether you are observing the correct formalities, not whether you…
