Two Gods

Do the major monotheistic religions all worship the same God? Both Christianity and Islam claim to worship the Jewish Old Testament God. But if you go by the actions of religious people, there are actually two different Gods that they worship.

The first God is the one who created the universe recently, who created it and all of humankind to be the property of angry men with guns, and who plans for angry men with guns to bring it to a violent end in the near future. This is the God whom right-wing Christians and jihadist Muslims worship. They hate each other, but they worship the same God who has the same commandments.

The second God is the God of love who pervades the universe and wants us to take care of the world. This is the God whom moderate Christians and Muslims worship.

Moderate Christians have more in common with moderate Muslims than they do with right-wing Christians. And, though neither of them wants to hear this, right-wing Christians have more in common with jihadist Muslims than with moderate Christians. The fact that right wing and moderate Christians both claim to worship the same Jesus appears to mean nothing.