Driving back from the airport today, I had one of the Bible channels on the radio, and the show was a lesser known ultra-right-wing talk show run by a guy with a memorable name, but for the life of me I can't remember his name right now. Doh! :-) Anyway, this guy's guest was a specialist in Islam. Citing some of the fundamental problems with Islam, the guest said something to the effect of "You know, hate speech is based on when you start to claim your ideology is better than someone else's ideology." I was thinking "that's the pot calling the kettle black."
The guest then went on to speak about how violent Islam is, adding a comment to the effect of "all you have to do is look back through history to see that it promotes violence." I was thinking "as opposed to Christianity's history?"
After that guest, the host spoke about how Christian persecution is one of the most under-reported stories in the world today. The host was actually making a pretty accurate case here, based on the tidbits of news of persecution I have heard. The persecution is ongoing in countries which are dominated by Muslims, and the host brought up certain examples. The one example which caught my ear was the report of the persecutions in Egypt. With Mubarak gone and the military in charge, many of the more radical (more conservative) Muslims have amp'ed up the persecution, and the military is turning a blind eye to it.
This struck me a particularly interesting, because right after Mubarak left, interviews of Egyptian Christians on similar talk shows I heard at the time had a revelation. To the Egyptian Christians, Mubarak's ousting was an answer to their prayers. They had been praying for this very liberation. Praise God!
I am certainly not gloating about anyone's persecution, so don't take this the wrong way. I am simply pointing out that this is yet another case where people have mistaken events for evidence of God's actions.
I was watching the news last night and they were showing the fallout from the latest skirmish on the Pakistani border. There were many bodies covered in white cloth and the voiceover was a Pakistani soldier saying, "God has taken many, so many of us." He was speaking in English and those were his words. I couldn't help but think how sad it was that this man really thinks that these deaths occurred because "God" had ordained it.
ReplyDeleteYeah, stories like that break my heart, D'Ma. When you think that God is in charge, there is a certain mental release of responsibility which hinders the pragmatism behind real change. I find it extra saddening to hear of the Christian persecution in Muslim countries, like Pakistan, because if given the choice between ideologies, it appears to me that Christianity is less volatile as a whole and so I'd rather all the Muslims convert to it. But my perspective is a pretty limited based on my Western upbringing and lack of first-hand Middle-Eastern experience.
ReplyDeleteChristian persecution saddens me too. Maybe because I once had a very strong Christian faith and hoped that if challenged with standing up for Jesus or dieing I would choose Jesus. I wanted to believe I was that strong that I would gladly give myself as a martyr. But then, as you said, I only have my Western perceptions of Christianity so I have no idea what hell these people go through before they have the choice of denying their faith or death. A lot of them are tortured mercilessly.
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