Before I begin:
1. I am grieved by what the ISIS is doing to Christians.
This post is not talking about them.
2. I believe ‘Chrislam’ is utter heresy. I’m sure there are
many Muslims who would agree.
Speaking nothing but hatred for Muslims seems to be a
fashionable thing to do in conservative circles. But my siblings in Christ,
please don’t participate. It does nothing to advance the gospel, nothing to
help the victims, and nothing to change the hearts of Muslims. If anything, it
is the sort of response the devil is trying to provoke, as it builds a wall
between followers of Christ and the unsaved, and it distracts us from living
out what Jesus commanded us: Love the Lord your God with all your heart and
with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength; and love
your neighbor as yourself.
“But are the Muslims really my neighbors?” you may wonder.
Maybe not phrased as bluntly as that.
Let me tell you a story.
A homeless man was trying to find food and shelter when
winter came. The rains made his clothes damp, the evening chill seeped into his
bones, and the bitter north wind beat his face, leaving him thoroughly cold and
half dead along the road. A priest happened to be driving down the same road,
and when he saw the man, he avoided eye contact and accelerated past. So too, a
church elder, when he came to the place and saw him, crossed the street and
passed by on the other side. But a Muslim, as he traveled, came where the man
was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. He got out of his car, went to
him, and gave him balm for his chapped face. Then he brought the man into his
warm car, took him to get some hot food, and after that
went looking for a shelter where the homeless man could find the assistance he
needed.
Which of these three was neighbor to the homeless man?
“Hey, all she did was tell the parable of the good
Samaritan, except she changed everything to be modern.”
Yes, that’s exactly what I did.
“But there are no good Muslims,” say the intended audience.
Maybe they don’t say it so bluntly, but the sentiment is still there. Funny,
the Jewish society that Jesus lived in would’ve felt the same way about
Samaritans, who were the descendants of Jews who intermarried with Gentiles. In
Jesus’ parable, the priest and the Levite avoided the potentially dead victim
because contact with a corpse would defile them, to great inconvenience and personal
cost. However, the Samaritan investigates (he’s under the same defilement
taboos as the Jews, BTW) at his inconvenience and personal risk (traveling with
an injured person would’ve been slow-going, leaving them at risk of bandit
attacks) in order to show some mercy to this battered body next to the road.
Not all Samaritans would be like that example, obviously.
Some were quite violent against the Jews. However, Christians aren’t always
loving and even-tempered, or even true followers of Christ; in any large group
of people you will find a wide spectrum of character. There’s been great good
done in Christ’s name, such as the casting out of demons, the caring for of
orphans, and many, many meals cooked up for a sick friend. But there’s also
been some extremely evil acts done in the name of our good Lord. The Catholic
Church of the Renaissance era was extremely corrupt, and the Spanish
Inquisition was a part of that. For a modern-day example, just look at Westboro
Baptist Church. Not only do they not resemble Christendom in general, they
aren’t even similar to other Baptists!
When someone devotes themselves to a cause that is apart
from Christ, they will inevitably go down a destructive path, whether it’s
Islam, atheism, environmentalism, activism, food, movies, or gaming. Just like
everyone else, Muslims desperately need the love of Christ, and hateful talk
will not help them see it.
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