The Ugly American Christian
This is not a
defense of Islam, nor am I a student of Islam. I am a Christian believer and
student of the Bible. This is rather a respectful, hopefully graceful plea to
my Christian co-believers to think twice or even thrice before venturing onto the slippery, downward slopes of openly
denigrating other peoples' religions and faiths. Please give ear to my heart.
In my world
travels, I have encountered many of the so-called ‘ugly Americans’ traveling
overseas. You know well the profile – in the public sphere, they are boisterous,
ignorant and disrespectful of local cultures, attracting undue attention to
self, loose with money, critical, showing too much flesh, etc. Ask yourself,
“What summary image of Americans does such behavior project to our
international audiences who are both here at home and around the world?”
Now consider
translating the broad strokes of this idea, this concept to the ugly Christian – in the public
sphere, boisterous and critical about other religions and faiths, unduly waving
the flag of religious superiority over other religions and faiths, triggering
people’s natural defensive mechanisms, disrespecting/bad-talking and avoiding
people of other religions and faiths, spreading perceptively venomous information
about other religions and faiths in the name of doing Christian due-diligence, etc. Now ask yourself:
- What summary image of Christians does such project to all our non-Christian audiences at home and around the world?
- What benefit or damage might such behavior have on our Great Commission to make disciples of all?
- Since our thoughts, words and actions are indeed seeds that will bear fruit, whether good, bad or ugly, what likely fruit will such behavior produce?
Perhaps the very
best way to appeal to the minds of those who are doubtful about or who
staunchly reject the verity of the Bible’s message of Truth (non-believers) is
simply to live out its guidance and share with graceful words if/as The Spirit
of God gracefully creates opportunities to do so, rather than spend our
spiritual, mental and physical energies denigrating the faiths of
non-Christians. Denigrating people’s beliefs neither wins them to Christ, nor
does it allow any seeds of The Gospel to remain in the ground of their hearts,
as they may naturally become defensive, as
you do or would do when your beliefs are denigrated.
Similarly, sharing with
co-believers disrespectful, denigrating information on other people’s religions
and faiths will be ineffectual in prompting the Christian hearers/readers to
stay on the quite narrow path of Christian values. Rather, it may prompt them
to stray significantly from that path, and mistakenly do so in the name of Christian due diligence. What values do
I speak of? Here are a few:
--Let
your speech be always with grace [including
written/typed words in social media], seasoned with salt, that you may know
how you ought to answer every man. (Colossians 4:6)
--If it is
possible, as much as depends on you, live peaceably with all men. (Romans
12:18)
--Let your gentleness
be known to all men. The Lord is at hand.
(Philippians 4:5)
--Therefore I exhort
first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all
men… for
this is good and acceptable in
the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be
saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. (1 Timothy 2:1, 3-4)
--For the grace of
God that brings salvation has appeared to all men…Let no one
despise you. (Titus 2:11, 15)
-- …speak
evil of no one… be peaceable, gentle, showing all humility to all men. For we ourselves were also
once foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving various lusts and pleasures,
living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another. (Titus 3:2-3)
--If anyone among you
thinks he is religious, and does not bridle his tongue [i.e., his words, spoken
and written] but deceives his own heart, this one’s religion is
useless. (James 1:26)
I do not recall
Christ attacking the beliefs of non-Jews. Rather, He saved His harshest criticisms
for the so-called diligent keepers of their (mal-aligned) faith – the
equivalent of the ugly Jews. Interestingly, the Bible condemns pagan
and idol worship, but does not directly address the many ancient Eastern
religions. Though by doctrine it does not agree with eastern religions, it
clearly does not condemn them. Rather, it points to Truth. Pointing to
Truth apparently is much more effectual than condemning that which is not
Truth. Undoubtedly, this is a worthy lesson to learn and apply, especially in
our fast-paced social media exchanges that become permanent records, read by
many the world over, and accessible for eons to come!
Most Christians are
unaware that the Koran speaks much more of Jesus (whom it calls Messiah and
apostle) than of Mohammed; cites Jesus as The Word; and notes God created all
things by The Word. With this in mind, ponder the following points on the two
most virulent criticisms between the Christian and Islamic faiths:
1. One of the
strongest criticisms of Christianity by Islam is regarding the triune nature of
God (the Trinity), which Islam rejects. Christians criticize Islam for
rejecting this Biblical assertion, yet we rarely, if ever, hear Christians
criticizing Judaism, which also staunchly rejects the Bible’s assertion of a
triune God. Could this be a case of discriminatory criticism?
2. Christians
criticize Islam for being a religion that promotes
death of infidels (non-believers). However, we conveniently forget and
side-step the following facts:
a. Judaism, which is
a type of seed of the Christian faith, introduced to the world the first recorded notion of a type of genocide and driving out of infidels living
across the vast territory called Canaan Land – the land God promised to the
seed of Abraham (which, by the way, does not mean all Jews ever born of Abraham
through Isaac!). The message to Israel was essentially ‘destroy/drive out the
inhabitants of the land, or become corrupted by their ways and eventually be
destroyed/driven out of the land yourselves!’ (See Deuteronomy 4:25 – 28) The
young nation of Israel refused to carry-out fully God’s genocidal/drive-out
orders, and God revealed the people left alive in, or not driven out of the
land would be a thorn in Israel’s side, drawing them away from God into idol
worship. (Numbers 33:55) This is exactly what happened. Failure to commit His
ordained genocide/drive-out instructions God called sin, and Israel reaped, and is still reaping the fruits of its sin.
b. The New Testament
includes 7 citations (regarded the Biblically perfect number) of the phrase, “There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth”. In
the context of this article, recognize this is God’s message, delivered
through Christ and iterated across the pages of The Bible, that infidels
(Christ rejecters) must and will die the eternal second death. However,
rather than instructing Christian believers to kill infidels, He lovingly and
gracefully instructs us to LOVE and extend GRACE to non-believers, patiently
taking advantage of opportunities He creates in our lives to live out our faith
before them, and if necessary, to use words
seasoned with grace and salt.
So death to infidels
is not unique to Islam. Perhaps many, if not most religions and faiths have
similar assertions. Keep in mind, the kingdom of satan can do nothing original,
but can only corrupt and twist all original things and concepts from God. Thus,
the Kingdom of God set the righteous standards from which all unrighteous
things derive, including (the eternal second) death to infidels (Christ-rejecters).
My Prayer~
Perched in pews and on walls of social
media, so smugly,
From which it’s tempting at other
religions and faiths to sneer,
Ignoring Your example, rather choosing them
all to smear,
Lord, help us resist temptations to become
‘Christians-ugly’.
To show love to each other, and live at
peace with outsiders,
Your Great Commission is for us to
make disciples of all.
But this we can’t do, if about their beliefs we ball and squall,
Leaving Your Great Commission, to
become The Great Dividers.
