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Uproar in Michigan over church's refusal to allow Adhan performance
A concert scheduled on Veterans Day at the First Congregational Church in Traverse City Michigan was to include a recording of the Adhan, the Islamic call to prayer, played in the church during a display of a video. This had been arranged by the church's music minister and Jeffrey Cobb, the director of the public school chorus which was also to perform during the event.Does anything else think that the term 'clueless' applies to that music minister? Senior church official refused to allow the playing of the Adhan weeks before the performance. Cobb knew of this ban but kept it to himself until the last minute. He said he had previously hinted to the choir the prayer might be cut. He delayed the final announcement to stem controversy and because he held out hope the church would relent, or at least agree to offer an explanation to the audience, he said. Disingenuous, to say the least. Church officials stood firm. That Sunday, with hundreds in the audience, the video showed Muslims bowing to Allah, but with no accompanying prayer, only silence. The church's decision to ban the prayer sparked protest by choir and community members. Northwestern Michigan College (NMC) officials held an impromptu meeting hours before Sunday's concert and said the college would withdraw as an official supporter of the event. College officials chastised Cobb for failing to inform them sooner so they could have tried to avert the problem, NMC Vice President Marguerite Cotto said. Is 'chastise' a new synonym for 'fire'? David Walls, First Congregational's senior minister, said he and other church leaders rejected the prayer because they did not want to offend audience members. "We were concerned that there was potential that some of our active military personnel, military families with sons or daughters in Iraq, who have even lost their lives there, would find it much too hard to handle," he said. No mention, of course, made that the Adhan contains the basic formula by which one converts to Islam. Would any mosque allow the chanting of the Nicene Creed? "A prayer in Arabic, addressed to Allah, with references to Muhammad for an event that was intended to honor veterans," Walls said. Doug Bishop, vice president of the church council and an NMC board member, agreed with Walls and does not consider the decision a form of intolerance. "From a Christian viewpoint, a Christian's acceptance of other people's rights have nothing to do with requiring their views to be espoused from your pulpit," he said. "Given the realities of what's going on in the world and then to have it start out with a Muslim Call to Prayer," he said. "We are clearly a Christian church and we don't apologize for that. We have the right to control our content." I rewrote this article, omitting a fair amount of hoo-ha and hurt feelings. Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 2012-11-17 |
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