I FEEL QUITE CERTAIN THAT THIS IS NOT IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE GOSPELS: Why German Protestants Will Stop Converting Muslims.

Barbara Rudolph, head of the Ecumenical Department of the Protestant Church in Germany’s Rheinland region, recalls speaking some time ago with Austrian sociologist Mouhanad Khorchide at an academic seminar. Khorchide, who holds the chair for Islamic Religious Studies at the University of Muenster, was explaining his belief that God loves all people – no matter their religion, or lack thereof – and that God only expects compassion and kindness towards others, not pious dogmas.

Rudolph asked herself why she should wish to convert such a good man. “He would have been well within his rights to view that as a slap in the face,” she recalls.

Christianity isn’t about faculty-lounge etiquette, and those who confuse the two . . . well, frankly, they’re pretty likely to hold important positions in Christian churches these days, actually. But jeez, I’m just the son of an unfrocked (not defrocked, I hasten to add) preacher and I know better than this crap.