Are Christianity and Islam Compatible?

I came into the office last week with the intent of writing a blog piece on another element of our Shared Christian Heritage—Compassion. I was ready to go; fingers were limbered up for a 1,500-word theological deep-dive, but I made the mistake of logging into X (formerly Twitter) and found a particularly disturbing piece by Tucker Carlson in which he makes an impassioned plea to anyone that will listen that “Muslims love Jesus too.”

All thought of a nice, safe blog piece went out the window. But as I considered it over the past long weekend, I realized that perhaps this is exactly where true compassion begins. Real compassion isn’t found in papering over fundamental differences for the sake of political gain; it is found in telling the truth about the only Name by which we must be saved. To suggest that Christians and Muslims worship the same God isn’t expedient or even intelligent – it’s a form of spiritual malpractice.

It’s no big secret that the cultural left has been fascinated with Islam for going on a decade now (much longer in academic circles) and if we are really honest, it’s not hard to understand why. Given the lefts self-loathing of Western culture and history, which are evil and deserve to be torn down, Islam is a natural ally. But recently, a favorable view of Islam is being explored by some on the right.

Former Fox News star Tucker Carlson is one of those venturing into these waters. In Tucker’s mind, the culture of Islam, with its focus on traditional marriage, gender views, etc. is a natural ally in the cultural war against secularism. Let me be clear; secularism and our current brand of progressivism needs to be resisted. Islam, however, is no ally for a number of reasons. I will address three of them below. There are plenty more, but I don’t have that much space. Christians and the cultural right need to reject Tucker’s type of thinking because of 1) How Islam really views Jesus, 2) the theological chasm between real Christianity and what Islam believes and 3) the long, bloodstained witness of the history between Islam, Christianity, and Western culture.

The Jesus of the Quran: A Prophet, Not a Savior

To begin to understand why the claim “Muslims love Jesus” is so misleading, and dangerous, we must first understand exactly who the Islamic Jesus (Isa) really is. The Quran (the holy book of Islam) does mention Jesus frequently. Given that Islam was born in the 7th century in the Arabian Peninsula (specifically the region known as the Hijaz), and the prevalence of Christianity in the surrounding areas at the time, we should not find this surprising.

In the traditional Muslim view, Isa is one of the most important prophets sent by Allah. The Quran affirms his virgin birth to Mary, who, to my knowledge, is the only woman mentioned by name in the whole Quran. He is described as a worker of miracles—he spoke from the cradle and breathed life into birds made from clay—but always "by Allah’s permission." The Quran honors Jesus as a prophet.  However, the Quran is very specific in what it denies. Jesus is not the Son of God (Allah has no son). He is not divine. He is not the savior.

To the orthodox Muslim, Jesus is one of the many precursors to Muhammed. He is a man, sent specifically to the Children of Israel to confirm the Torah and to announce the coming of a future messenger named Ahmad (Muhammed). In fact, traditional Islamic eschatology (end times beliefs) teaches that when Jesus returns, he won't return to judge the world as the Son of Man; he will return as a devout Muslim to "break the cross"—a symbolic and literal dismantling of the very heart of the Christian faith.

The Theological Chasm: The Trinity vs. Shirk

The love Muslims have for Jesus is a respect for one prophet among many that pointed toward Muhammed. This creates an irreconcilable theological chasm. Christianity is not a generic monotheism; it is a Trinitarian faith. We worship one God in three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

The Quran does not merely offer a different perspective on Christian theology; it is an intentional rebuttal of the Christian theology. Take Surah 112, which is a staple of daily Muslim prayer: "He neither begets nor is born, nor is there to Him any equivalent." Considering that the Nicene Creed states that Jesus Christ is “the only Son of God, begotten from the Father before all ages, God from God…”  This is a direct shot across the bow of the confession that Jesus is God.  A truth confirmed by the New Testament beyond doubt (John 1:1, 14; Colossians 2:9).

In Islamic theology, to claim God has a Son is the sin of shirk and is considered the highest form of blasphemy. Furthermore, the Quran (Surah 4:157) explicitly denies the Crucifixion, claiming it only appeared to happen. If there is no Cross, there is no Gospel. If Jesus is not the Eternal Son of God, there is no salvation. When pundits, like Tucker, try to tell you we worship the same God, they are ignoring the fact that the Islamic definition of God is built, in part, on the explicit rejection of the Fatherhood of God and the Deity of Christ.

Muslims may "love" Jesus, but only so long as that Jesus is subordinated to Muhammed and stripped of everything that makes him worth worshipping.

The Long, Bloodstained Witness of History
Even if you completely ignore the theology of the statement, the idea that Muslims love Jesus or Christians, or anyone but Muslims for that matter, completely collapses with a rudimentary knowledge of history.  Raymond Ibrahim’s Swords and Scimitars provides a sobering overview of what 1,300 years of interaction between Christianity and Islam actually looks like. Muhammed initially tried to bring the Christian and Jewish populations under the banner of Islam during his early years in Mecca. After being rejected on theological grounds, his “revelations” took a turn. As he moved to Medina, the strategy shifted from religious persuasion to military conquest. Essentially saying, “If they will not be converted by preaching, they will be converted by blood.”

From the 7th-century conquests of the Christian Levant and North Africa to the fall of Constantinople in 1453, the expansion of Islam was characterized by systematic bloodshed, treachery, and slavery:

1. Conquest: Two-thirds of the formerly Christian world was subsumed by Islamic jihad within a century of its inception in the 7th century.  These wars continued across the Middle East, Africa, Asia and Europe for centuries.
2. Treachery: Treaties (or Hudnas) were historically used as tactical pauses to regroup before resuming the fight, a lesson our European, African and Asian ancestors learned at great cost.  Deception and treachery in Islam are looked on favorably, so long as they advance the causes of Allah.
3. Slavery: Millions of Christians, and others, were abducted under a system of slavery that lasted well into the 19th century.  It is estimated that 13-17 million people were abducted from the the regions of the Red Sea, to the villages of Eastern Europe, to the Sahara Desert, and the Indian Ocean.

To ignore this history for the sake of a modern culture war alliance, for either the left or the right, is the height of ignorance and for Christians is a betrayal of the memory of the martyrs who died rather than deny the Divinity of the Son.

Standing Firm: Love God, Love Neighbor

As we navigate these shifts, we must recognize that the Church is being squeezed by two competing, yet equally secular, socio-political frameworks.

To our left, we see a fascination with Islam rooted in the language of intersectionality and oppressed classes. Here, any critique of Islamic theology is dismissed as bigotry, and the mission of the Church is replaced by a secular quest for social equity. To our right, we see a growing fascination with Islam as a cultural ally; a partnership against the common enemy of secular progressivism.

As a church, we must reject both.

We cannot accept the narrative of the left, which asks us to stay silent for the sake of political inclusion. To treat our Muslim neighbors as members of a protected class rather than as individuals made in the image of God, who desperately need the Gospel, is not compassion; it is spiritual abandonment. Nor can we accept the emerging narrative of the right, which would have us trade the Scandal of the Cross for an alliance of traditionalism. A culture saved from secularism but lost to a Christless theology is not a culture that has been redeemed.

Our calling is to speak with a clear prophetic voice to a culture that is profoundly confused. We do not look for allies to save our way of life; we look to the Savior who has already won the victory. We should be the best neighbors possible to our Muslim friends in Ledyard and across Connecticut, but we must never stop telling them who Jesus really is: the Son of God, the King of Glory, and the only hope for a dying world.

To the King of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.

Your Christian Heritage: The Scandal of Equality

Equality.  Human rights.  These are words that resonate deeply with us here in America.  The idea of equality is perhaps the most foundational and important value in our culture.  It doesn’t matter whether we are discussing healthcare, economic policies, justice, or sexuality, we start with the immovable assumption that every single human being possesses equal dignity and worth.

But have you ever stopped to consider why you believe that?  Where does that idea come from?  Why do you believe so deeply?  The answer to all of those, is because it has been hammered into our collective souls for centuries through a very specific story.  A Christian story.  And here is the catch…without that story, it won’t last much longer.
 
The Immense Value We Place on Human Rights
Consider the COVID pandemic, a phenomenon where we saw almost the entire world grind to a halt to protect the vulnerable.  We made enormous economic, relational, and educational sacrifices because we believed the lives of the elderly, immuno-compromised, and others were of infinite value.  We did not just let nature take its course; we valued the individual over the system.

Consider also our reaction to international human rights abuses.  Even when an injustice happens across the world to someone who we do not know, will never see, and share nothing with, we feel a visceral sense of indignation a their being taken advantage of.  We believe they have rights, simply because they are human.  Not because of any particular property that they have.
 
The Problem: Where Does Equality Come From?
The reality is, equality is a very difficult thing to prove without a religious foundation.  Science, the overlord of modernity, can tell us what is (i.e., how photosynthesis works, the chemical composition of a substance, etc.), but it cannot tell us what ought to be (i.e., how we should treat people, why a particular action should or should not be done).  Yuval Noah Harari, a noted historian, says this “Take a human being, cut him open, look inside; you will find the heart, the kidneys, neurons, hormones, DNA.  But you won’t find any rights.”  Rights are not natural features of human beings; they are moral claims.

Furthermore, if we look out into the natural world we find inequality everywhere.  Some are faster, some are smarter, some are stronger, some are more beautiful…the list goes on and on. With nature as our guide, inequality is the rule and the survival of the fittest, whether it be in love or war is the only law.
 
Consider also certain religious stories outside of Christianity.  Many have codes of justice, but they are almost all written within a framework of a very specific hierarchy.  For example, in Islam, there is no equality and rights are based on a hierarchy that begins with the Muslim male.  He is at the pinnacle of the social order and he alone has the right to lead families, the state or many business enterprises.  Muslim women are a decidedly second-class citizen, often prohibited from learning to read or write and forced to remain covered in public.  Even further down the hierarchy are those conquered and subjugated by Islamic regimes or forces.  They are the dhimmi’s and must pay the jizya tax.  They have rights in-so-far as their Muslim overlords choose to give them.  At the bottom of the hierarchy are the unbelievers and polytheists who have no rights and are often given the choice to convert to Islam or die.  In this system, your rights are based on your beliefs and your gender.

My point here is not to denigrate other belief systems, but instead to help you to realize that what you believe comes from a very particular God story, and without it what you believe makes no sense.
 
The Vertical Connection: A Love Story That Levels the World
So where does this idea of human rights and equality come from?  If we can’t find it in the natural world, or science or pretty much every religion, where does it come from? The answer is as beautiful as it is scandalous to us.  It comes from Christianity and the very radical idea that our equal worth is a gift given to us from above.

The Bible begins with the book of Genesis, the origins story.  In it we find a God who creates out of love; not out of need or accidentally.  The first chapter of Genesis chronicles the rhythmic work of the Lord in speaking and creating and pronouncing that what he has created is good.  When he reaches the pinnacle of his work, the creation of the man and woman, he does something new and different, he breathes his own life into us.
 
Genesis tells us that every single human being has value not because of how we look, or how smart we are or how much money we can earn, but because of the fact that we are created in the Imago Dei – the image of God.  You have value because you are a child of God and are stamped with his image and likeness.  You are his regent here on this earth; here to exercise dominion over the world God created and tasked to fill it and subdue it. 
The Apostle Paul, in the New Testament, writing to the church at Galatia, and to a culture deeply divided by race, status and gender, reminds the church in Galatians 3:28 that:

"There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus."

One simple sentence levels all the hierarchies in the world.  Now, keep in mind, Paul isn’t saying that categories don’t exist – they do.  He was saying that your value or your worth isn’t defined by whatever category you fall in.  The Roman emperor was not inherently more valuable than the slave or the barbarian.  You want to talk about a cultural and theological grenade?  That idea seems second nature to us, but that is because you have been taught it for centuries.  It was not natural to them; it was scandalous and dangerous.  Paul and Christians were imprisoned and executed for ideas like that.  

Listen, please.  You believe that the person standing next to you at the grocery store, the child halfway across the world, and the neighbor you disagree with all have equal rights. But it is only the Christian God story that makes sense of that conviction. It is the only story that says your value is absolute, unchangeable, and given by a God who loved you before you ever drew a breath that makes sense of that.
 
We still value equality in 2026, but when we try to hold onto it and let go of the God and story that gave it to us, it’s like trying to enjoy the light of a lamp after you have unplugged it.  The light fades and darkness falls.  I am inviting you to see that what you believe can only be sustained by the faith that brought it to you in the first place.  Maybe you should give it another or deeper look.  Maybe you will find a foundation on which to stand in this crazy world.

Join me next week as we look at the second value in our heritage: Compassion.

Are Our Values Really as Obvious as We Think?
The second paragraph of the U.S. Declaration of Independence famously states: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal…with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”  To us today, these truths remain part of the very landscape of our culture. They are so ingrained that we treat them as common sense. They are the water we swim in, and we rarely stop to ask why. Why are these truths self-evident?

The uncomfortable answer is that, outside of a very particular Christian worldview, they aren't self-evident at all. To see this clearly, we have to look at the world from a few different vantage points.

The View from Antiquity
Ancient cultures, whether Roman, Persian, Mongolian, or Mayan, were built on a foundation of power, not equality. In first-century Roman culture, the weak were expendable. The widows, the sick, and the poor were largely invisible. Unwanted infants were frequently "exposed"—left on hillsides or trash heaps to die or be claimed by slavers.

In the ancient mind, there were superior races, superior sexes, and superior classes. Justice was simply the enforcement of these inequalities. The idea that a commoner or slave had the same inherent "right to life or happiness” as Caesar would have been laughed out of the Forum. The water we swim in simply did not exist.

The View from Nature
If we look away from history and toward the natural world, the picture becomes even colder. Alfred Lord Tennyson famously described nature as "red in tooth and claw." In a purely Darwinian or naturalistic worldview, there is no such thing as a "right." There is only the biological imperative: the strong survive, and the weak are eliminated.

Nature does not recognize equality. In fact, evolution relies on inequality—on the reality that some organisms are faster, stronger, more intelligent or better adapted than others. If we are nothing more than highly evolved animals, then our impulse to care for the weakest among us is actually a move against nature. From a purely naturalistic perspective, compassion is an evolutionary glitch, and equality is a fiction. Nature doesn't care about your "unalienable rights"; it only cares about your survival.

The View from Modernity
In more recent centuries, we have tried to ground these values in "Modernity"—the era of Atheism and Marxism. We tried to keep the Christian values of equality and justice while discarding the God who defined them. But as it turns out, when you cut the flower from the root, the flower eventually withers.

Pure Atheism struggles to explain why a human being is any more valuable than a rock or a virus or a Koala. If we are just or biological machines, rights become nothing more than convenient social contracts.  They are rules we make up today that can be changed or erased tomorrow; perhaps against our wills.

Marxism attempted to create a form of equality, but it did so by stripping away the dignity of the individual. In the Marxist view, you are not a person made in the image of God; you are a member of a class, a cog in a giant economic machine. History has shown us that when the state or the collective becomes the source of our values, the individual's right to life and liberty is the first thing to be sacrificed. Without a Lawgiver higher than the government, rights are just permissions that can be revoked at any time.

The View from the Cross
So, why do we still feel, in our very bones, that every human life matters? Why do we feel a rush of indignation when we see the weak oppressed?  It is because, we are living in a world that has been fundamentally reshaped by the birth of Jesus. These truths are only "self-evident" to us because we have spent two thousand years sitting at the foot of the cross.

Our Western values of equality, compassion, and freedom didn't emerge from the brutality of nature or the cold logic of atheism. They were endowed to us by our Creator. They flow from the radical Christian claim that every single person—regardless of their strength, status, or utility—is made in the Imago Dei, the Image of God.

As we continue this series, we’re going to look at these values one by one. We’ll see how the water we swim in was poured out by a Savior who took the place of the weak so that we might truly be free. I hope you'll join me next week as we dive into our first value: Equality.

The Water We Swim In
If you live in the West, whether you were raised in a pew, haven't opened a Bible in years, or find yourself skeptical of organized religion, there is a story beneath your story. Whether you identify as an atheist, a seeker, or simply "spiritual," the values you hold most dear did not emerge from a vacuum. They have roots, and those roots are deeply Christian.

In his book The Air We Breathe, Glen Scrivener offers a capturing illustration: "Goldfish don’t see water. Goldfish see what is in the water, they see what’s refracted through the water, but... goldfish don’t see the water itself. And yet there it is. It’s their environment. Universal but invisible."

For those of us in the modern world, Christianity is that water. It is the air we breathe and the soil in which our morality grows.

The Values We Take for Granted
If you are reading this, I suspect you value things like equality, scientific inquiry, human progress, compassion, and individual freedom. We often treat these ideas as "common sense" and obvious truths that any rational person would eventually land on.
Yet, history tells a different story. These concepts are not the default setting of humanity; in fact, for most of human history and in many parts of the world today, they are considered quite radical. They didn't appear by accident; they were forged in the fire of a specific worldview.

A Journey of Discovery
The purpose of this series, "Your Christian Heritage," is to pull back the curtain on our most cherished ideals. We want to explore where these values actually come from and why the teachings of Jesus provide the only sturdy foundation to keep them from crumbling.
Over the coming weeks, we will "set the table" by looking at the world as it existed before Jesus—a world that was often much harsher and more indifferent than the one we enjoy today. Then, we will take an honest look at six distinct values:

• Equality & Compassion
• Consent & Freedom
• Science & Progress

An Invitation to See Clearly
If you aren't a follower of Jesus, this isn't necessarily an invitation to believe something entirely "new." Rather, it is an invitation to explore the origins of what you already believe and to see a deeper, more robust version of your own convictions. My goal is not merely to contradict your perspective, but to provide a context that makes sense of it and perhaps to invite you to begin a journey to rediscover the roots of your beliefs – the person of Jesus Christ.

And if you are already a Christian, I hope this series equips you to understand our culture more deeply and gives you a warmer, more confident way to engage with your neighbors.

Pull up a chair and let's look at the water together.  

I will try to publish a new post each Thursday.  

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This series will draw primarily on the following books.  I highly recommend them:

The Air We Breathe, Glen Scrivener
Dominion, Tom Holland
How Christianity Changed the World, Alvin Schmidt