In the Middle East, the heavens are falling, and the Earth is wracked by failure. The result was predictable, had we been willing to open our eyes. From the confusion of Reformation-era Europe to China suffering the advent of Western gunboats, history saw human beings react to cultural crises by fleeing into cults that sought revenge.
Instead of returning to a ”pure” Islam, the terrorists are building a blood cult, a deformed offshoot of their faith that revives the most primitive and grotesque of religious practices. Human sacrifice pervaded early societies, from pre-Columbian America through Europe and across Asia. Yet we have grown so accustomed to gentler forms of religion that the discovery of a ritually murdered corpse in alpine ice shocks us. When bones unearthed in the American Southwest bear the markings of ceremonial murder and cannibalism, the politically correct shout their denials. But the truth is that our ancestors bribed their gods with blood.
A paradox of this era of technological wonders is that its dislocations have conjured primitive impulses from the past. This is the great age of both satellites and revived superstition, of all-seeing sensors and blind faith.
Every one of the great religions is under siege. But the crisis is nowhere as intense as in the Middle East, where treasured values and inherited behaviors simply do not work in the 21st century.
Nor is the cult of human sacrifice unique to ”Islamic” terrorists even now. What was Jonestown but the murder of hundreds of humans in service to a warped religious vision? From spaceship cults in California to the killing of ”witches” in the developing world, the impulse to please one god or another by spilling blood remains more deeply ingrained than we like to admit.
USA Today link via Religion News Blog
Signposts
This is an ethical dilemma for a couple of church leaders. What would you do?
Published 4 years agoI wrote here about the request from the organisers of the Franklin Graham tour extravagenza to use the new ministry centre at Northern for the follow up sessions of their tour. The idea is that after the events at Telstra Dome (a big AFL stadium), that those people in the Northern suburbs who were not attached to a Church would have a followup event to mentor them in their faith.
It is one of those times where your principles clash with your desire to grow your Church.
As you know I have significant problems with Franklin’s comments on the Muslim faith that it is “wicked, violent and not of the same god.” So, I decided to ask the organisers what their position was on these types of statements. I was told that Franklin probably regets the statements and that they were said in the heat of the moment in the nationalistic spirit in America just after the terrorists attacks on September 11, 2001. Fair enough! We have all said things in the heat the moment that we have regretted. So, I asked whether a followup statement of apology had been issued. I was told that Franklin didn’t want to apologise but rather put the comments in context. I asked what that meant and was told that what I needed to realise that the comments were said about American Muslims and not Australian ones. Mmmm….
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But the Moslem faith IS wicked, violent, and not of the same God. My only reservation about Franklin Graham is that sometimes I fear his religion is also founded on some god who is not truly God.
What would I do? Continue to ignore Franklin Graham as I currently do, recognizing that the work of the true church of God cannot be orchestrated in concert with tours, media events, and photo opps.
These “church leaders” appear to tie themselves up in knots because they want to operate a sort of “big business Christianity”. And while it’s not at all unChristian to recognize that Allah is not Jehovah, the real problem is that often Christians find other counterfeits far more deceptive than Allah and humbly submit themselves to those gods and their prophets.
The adherents to the Christian faith have been wicked, violent and unfaithful to the God of the Bible.
The great faiths have theological differences, that’s a given. The distinction is subtle but important here. Let’s not foster stereotypes on either side of the theological fence. There is some violent stuff being preached in Canadian mosques, and likewise I think divisional things in Christian churches.
As for the ongoing exporting of big business Christianity from the US we are guilty of gobbling it up as fast as it can be exported.
Um yes, but denying the Trinity IS wicked. And denying Christ IS wicked. And preaching that conquest is a legitimate means of gaining converts IS wicked and violent.
When “Christians” launched out on crusades, they violated the Word of God. The Lord Jesus clearly said in at least two instances that Christianity cannot advance by military conquest or strength of arms. The actions of “Crusaders” testified that they had departed from the faith they claimed. But when Moslems banished and exiled (and sometimes killed) those who would not embrace Allah, they were obeying the Prophet. Their actions and the decree given to them were in line with each other.
I believe that religious tolerance is essential because love and gentleness are at the heart of what Christ teaches. We cannot (and must not try to) coerce salvation.
That doesn’t make other religions sound, good, or magnanimous. Like anything else that comes from the heart and mind of man, other religions are wicked, corrupt, deny the truth, and will corrupt those who follow them (one way or another). That includes counterfeits of Christianity that call themselves “Christian”. But it in no way excludes religions that are unique from Christianity, even if they contain worthy substance.
In the end, there is still One Lord, One Faith, One Baptism, and salvation only in Jesus Christ. So every other creed leads human souls to hell. And that makes all other creeds wicked and not of the same God. The violent aspect may vary, but while the current state of Jihad is a political ploy, Islam has practiced conversion by conquest under the blessing of its founder.