Revealing, because it demonstrates to the Vatican and all Christians that segments of the global Muslim community have not forgotten and will not soon forget what they construed to be insulting and disrespectful, whatever the speaker’s intent.

But, it is unfortunate because one of the chief representatives of the “Jesus movement” (aka organized Christianity) now seems unable to imagine and execute dramatic action in pursuit of reconciliation.

We desperately need the Pope and all Christian leaders to be public theologians who can recover our common Abrahamic roots and educate believers in both religious ‘families’ on the subject of kinship ethics and the obligations we should embrace to respect and assist each other.

I do not presume to lecture or advise the Holy Father, but would humbly suggest that he along with all of us revisit Dr. Martin Luther King’s understanding and embodiment of radical Christianity.

In his final book, Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community? King wrote, “When I speak of love, I am speaking of that force which all the great religions have seen as the supreme unifying principle of life. Love is the key that unlocks the door which leads to ultimate reality. This Hindu-Moslem-Christian-Jewish-Buddhist belief about ultimate reality is beautifully summer up in the First Epistle of Saint John: ‘Let us love one another; for love is of God, and everyone that loves is born of God, and knows God.'”

This is part of the message that the Christian church in general should place before our Muslim relatives challenging them in humility and respect to oppose actions and rhetoric that deny our relatedness before a just and loving God. Killing innocent children cannot be justified as the will of our merciful and beneficent God. Political violence is a product of a politicized theology that has become unhinged from its deeper spiritual and ethical anchor.

It is now time for all believers to engage in developing and practicing a platform of interfaith public ethics, an agenda that begins with the contemporary meanings of love, power and justice. Above all, remember King's words about love as a social "force"; a force that guides but does not harm.