Huff Post Religion is filled with a lot of junk some of which I have responded to in the past on this blog. Three days ago there was this post titled “My Love Letter To Islam: Part 1.” It caught my attention. While looking up to see if she had more posts (if that was part 1, there must be at least a part 2) I noted her self-described biography:
I was raised as a meat-and-potatoes Irish Catholic girl, but life has transformed me into a vegan Muslim yogi.
A Vegan Muslim Yogi?
Yogi is a term to describe Hindus. Muslims are followers of Islam. Both Hinduism and Islam contain beliefs that are contrary to one another. Yet she claims to be both. Then she throws in a third description: Vegan.
Vegan Muslim Yogi sounds like the kind of left wing identity-politics label that screams for narcissistic attention where the more hyphen you can can add, the better. You know, to make yourself unique.
To add more twists her post is titled “My Love Letter To Islam: Part 1.” It’s like she’s covering all her bases to be the Millennial Progressive Poster girl(boy?).
The Christian apologist and theologian Cornelius Van Til once noted that there is a rational-irrational dialectic in unbelieving worldview in his books and writings such as the book “The Intellectual Challenge of the Gospel. By that Van Til means that there is a tension within an unbeliever’s worldview that pursues rationality while at the same time they are pursuing irrationality. One notes the same thing with this Vegan Muslim Yogi.
On the one hand this Vegan Muslim Yogi makes it an issue of her being rational in rejecting Christianity which she believes is irrational. She stated in her Huff Post piece that she was “unable to ever accept the concept of newborns entering this world carrying sins that must be forgiven” and has her “doubts about the details of his resurrection left my foundation as a Catholic impermanent.”
Yet on the other hand she’s trying to embrace the irrational with her new found identity as a ” Vegan Muslim Yogi.” It’s not just paradoxical, it is contradictory. And she embraces it. She adds more to the ecumenical irrational-fest by writing “I remained a Catholic, while I searched for a place that allowed me to preserve what I would not abandon and provide me clarity for what I could not accept.” As if “Vegan Muslim Yogi” was not enough of a contradiction, she’s a Vegan Muslim Yogi Roman Catholic. But a Vegan Muslim Yogi Roman Catholic who does not accept the full teachings of Roman Catholicism and its essential beliefs at that. Its like this lady’s irrational bent is out to destroy meaning and meaning of words doesn’t matter. She’s an antinomian when it comes to her philosophy of language.
I’m no Roman Catholic and it doesn’t take a Roman Catholic to see she’s abandoned her Roman Catholic faith in the regular sense of the word “Roman Catholic.” Yet the contradiction continues. Though she essentially abandoned her faith, she also states
Additionally, my chosen patron saint as a teenage Catholic was Saint Thomas More (a lawyer, philosopher, and Renaissance humanist); he chose death over abandoning his faith — his loyalty to God remains an invaluable inspiration to me.
So she’s inspired by Thomas More for not abandoning his Roman Catholic faith and this is even ” an invaluable inspiration” for her. Yet More’s virtue is the opposite of what this Vegan Muslim Yogi Catholic is pursuing. What More saw as vice this Vegan Muslim Yogi Catholic was celebrating as virtue in her love letter to Islam. Amazing the irrationality.
This Vegan Muslim Yogi Catholic’s post and others like it over at Huffington Post is like “Splenda,” “Sweet and Low” and other sugar substitute: They are trying to be sweet, are not the real thing and ultimately they are bad for you.
a marvelous observation Jim—sounds like a true oxymoron’s identity crisis for sure!!!
Definitely an oxymoron! Thanks Julie for reading this
This one resonates with my own experiences. Many Catholics whom I know embrace aspects of New Age spirituality and Eastern religions.
I can see that; I went to a funeral some years ago where the priest spoke “New Ageish” lingos partly because I think he thought that was his audience…but the hardcore faithful in the assembly didn’t appreciate it.
This was really well said, thank you! I like how you wrote about the way the irrational tries to rationalize itself. I keep saying we seem to be having a major I-dentity crisis on a grand scale. Too much “I” in our identities. All these statements begin with “I am.” But we are not the Great I am. That is the whole problem.
Welcome to my world, where nearly everyone is a vegan-yogi-muslim. The really important question however, is she gluten intolerant? Because if you aren’t gluten intolerant, it calls into question just how faithful you are. 🙂
I jest, but I always find the symbolism interesting. Many of these people reject literal bread and The Bread of Life, too.
Wow that was gold: “I jest, but I always find the symbolism interesting. Many of these people reject literal bread and The Bread of Life, too.” That’s the worst kind of gluten intolerance: intolerant of the Bread of Life. You make me want to write up a witty ditty post based upon that, can I use the idea with the credit going to you for the inspiration?
LOL! By all means,write that post. 🙂
You see this sort of thing a lot. I’m reminded of Paul Knitter’s book: “Without Buddha I Could not be a Christian.” Read the book and you find that Knitter is in denial. He simply wants the Christian tag because of his associations. Yet he’s no Christian. He loves Buddhism.
Wow I looked online that book seem not Biblically solid at all…crazy.
she probably wasn’t really a Catholic but wanted Irish Catholics to identify with her and ditch Catholicism that’s how they work – atheists are working really hard to phase out Christianity in Ireland and replace with stuff like Hinduism Yoga which are actually demonic
Reblogged this on Talmidimblogging.
Thanks for the reblog, how are you doing Vincent with your health?
You’re very welcome Pastor Jim. My health has been great praise God 🙏
Reminds me of the joke that ends with, “my name is Tonto Gonzales but my friends call me Bubba.”
This can only come from a narcissist who cares more about acceptance and being thought tolerant than anything else. Obviously she doesn’t know much about any of the faiths she claims to be a part of.
“This can only come from a narcissist who cares more about acceptance and being thought tolerant than anything else. Obviously she doesn’t know much about any of the faiths she claims to be a part of.”<–Exactly. She's trying too hard to be "hip" without knowledge.
[…] 2.) Over at Huffington Post Religion: A vegan Muslim Yogi’s rational-irrational tension […]