My father-in-law recently pointed me to an interesting article called “Who Gets to Define Islam?”, a review of a new book by Lawrence Wright called The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the road to 9/11. George W. Bush, Muhammad Ali and a host of other public figures say that Islam is a religion of peace (and therefore terrorists cannot be true Muslims). But it isn’t that simple, as Prothero says in his closing paragraph:
The Looming Tower gives the lie to the idea that there is one Muslim world. It also steers clear of the pious foolishness that no real Muslim could crash a plane into a building of innocents. After all, those who steered those planes into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon were convinced that no real Muslim would refuse such an honor.
OK, but what about Christianity? Who gets to define it? What would a real Christian do or refuse to do? The problem for Christians, as for Muslims, is that there is no one Christian world. The two presidents in my lifetime who were the most vocal about their Christianity are George W. Bush and Jimmy Carter, two men with entirely different ideas about faith and war. Which is correct? Is either?
Is Christianity a religion of peace? From the things Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount, you’d think so. But many of us seem to prefer an Old Testament style of conflict resolution. No wonder Christianity, like Islam, has a bad image problem.
4 responses so far ↓
1 Jeff Mullen // Mar 28, 2007 at 11:06 am
How could you ever determine this by looking at a nation or a President? The very essence of Christianity in our day is the presence of the Holy Spirit within each of us. I would think that the question would have to be answered by examining how individual Christians reflect the love of Christ to others, how they turn the other cheek, and how they forgive.
2 Kristen // Mar 29, 2007 at 9:24 pm
“Turn the other cheek.” Oh, that’s just what we tell our kids in order to get them to stop fighting. Imagine if we really meant the things we said… Hmm, I’m imagining a different world.
“Love your enemies…” I wonder what he meant by that…
3 Dennis Mullen // Mar 30, 2007 at 9:04 pm
Thanks for your comment, Jeff. BUT: 1) Much of the “Muslim world” (or one of the Muslim worlds) looks at America and thinks: “Christian nation, Christian president - this is Christianity - McDonalds, Madonna, Anna Nicole, Wal-Mart, Bush, Clinton, Carter, Donald Trump, American Idol - this is the fruit of the Christian west.” 2) The individualism reflected in your comment shows “The Great Evangelical Weakness” I’ve mentioned in earlier posts. People who are peaceful in individual dealings together form a warlike nation. People who forgive their closest neighbors demand retribution for 9/11. There’s something missing in our practice of Jesus’ words.
4 Sam Clark // Mar 31, 2007 at 1:12 pm
I’m in the last chapter of “The Myth of a Christian Nation” by Gregory Boyd. His book is a good source for additional study on this topic. He suggests throughout his book that we need to look for ways to be “power under” instead of “power over” in bringing the Kingdom of God to bear on our world. I wonder what kind of world it would be if 41% of the U.S. federal budget were spent on diplomacy and international aid instead of where we currently spend it, defense. I’ll bet it would help our own economy also.
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