How Should Christians Revere Other Religions?

The day after we mourned and remembered the violent actions of Muslim extremists, our attention was once again drawn to the violent reactions in Libya and Egypt to an anti-Islamic film that has left 4 US Embassy workers, including the US Ambassador to Libya, dead.

These violent reactions of the Muslims in Libya and Egypt I will leave to the Muslims to address with their fellow Muslims. It is their faith and their responsibility to teach and correct if they believe there is cause to do so. I therefore am not going to write commentary on the use of violence in Islam, but I instead take to task my fellow Christians who incited the violence in the first place. Whether the reaction is being true to the nature of Islam or not is not the argument or the point here. This is about how Christians, in general, should treat people of other faiths, how WE should behave and react in the midst of religious differences.

While the person who made the anti-Islamic film that disparaged the prophet Mohammad in America has the right to do so according to our free speech rights, he did so claiming the Christian faith as his motivation and that's the part I take issue with. That is what I, as a Christian, call "foul" on.

In our zeal to proclaim the good news of the crucified and risen Christ, many believe it is also their task to disparage and "warn" about the dangers of other religions. In the process, they feel the way to carry this out is through scare-tactics and ridicule.

But are Christians called to do this? To out and out disparage other religions and their beliefs, mocking their most sacred elements?

Perhaps Jesus gives us a little insight into this issue.

Jesus' command was not to defile your neighbor or ridicule your neighbor and what he believed, but to love your neighbor. And who is my neighbor? (Believe it or not, this comes straight from scripture) Is my neighbor sometimes someone of a different faith? Someone I don't see eye to eye with? Someone I disagree with? Perhaps even someone that might want me dead?

The answer: Your most hated enemy and person who does not share your religious beliefs is your neighbor. In the case of the parable of the Good Samaritan (which is the story Jesus tells when someone asks him "who is my neighbor?"), Samaritans were hated by Jews. They were remnants of the northern nation tribes of Israel, they did not follow the Temple system of worship in favor of the "Sinai Covenant" made with Moses, rejected the Davidic covenant, had "defiled" themselves by marrying Gentiles, and had - shockingly - a religious perspective about God that differed from Judaism - yet claimed it was the same God they worshiped.

These are the people Jesus told us to love. You might say Muslims in many ways are to Christians as Samaritans were to Jews. Just as Samaritans rejected the Davidic King and all the messianic prophecies that came with it, Muslims reject Jesus as a savior and reject his divinity. Yet, Muslims still revere many of the same Biblical characters we do - Adam, Noah, Moses, Abraham, Joseph - and yes, even Jesus is revered as a prophet, though not as great a prophet as Mohammad.

We Christians disagree with Muslims on many fronts in regards to how all of these ancestors of faith should be viewed and interpreted. We disagree even on the very nature of God - Christians believe God entered into the human experience and got "messy" with the world. Muslims cannot fathom God ever doing such a thing, he is far too holy to ever bring himself down to our level.

But my disagreement should never result in the degradation and desecration of someone else's faith. Muslims may tell me I'm wrong in my understanding of Jesus, in some countries they may even oppress my right to follow Jesus as the Son of God and I might even be killed for it. Their attack may be on Jesus' followers, but the attack is rarely on Jesus himself. In fact, they have a high regard for Jesus. While they do not view him as the divine son of God, and in fact think Christians are polytheists and no better than pagans for this belief, you will not see them mocking or disrespecting Jesus Himself, because he is still a holy prophet of God in their eyes.

Do Christians take Moses and ridicule him so that we can show Jews where they're "wrong" because they continue to follow "the law of Moses"? Of course not. Why? Because we also view Moses as a holy prophet of God. We share this in common. We would never think of doing such a thing. Because Islam has a prophet we do not revere, that makes him fair game where the others are off-limits apparently.

Yet this is not how early Christians spread their message or engaged the non-Christian culture around them. This simply was not how the church functioned initially. In Acts 17, Paul was in Athens and was distressed by the number of pagan gods. However, rather than pulling down the gods or defacing them, or inciting a riot by attacking their places of worship, he instead "reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the God-fearing Greeks, as well as in the marketplace day by day with those who happened to be there." Reasoning and arguing about philosophy and theology is not the same as out and out disparaging another belief.

Now, this "reasoning" got him dragged to a meeting of the Areopagus - which was essentially a court of appeals. There he appealed to their religiosity. "Men of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious!" He picked up on the fact that they had an altar with the inscription, "to an unknown god." He took that "unknown god" and reasoned with them that there was no need to worship something unknown - but to proclaim how God had become known through Jesus Christ.

There was no disparaging of the other gods. Paul's argument did not involve burning effigies of the pantheon or emperor. He respected their faith and their decision to either accept or reject his message, even if he felt it was misguided and wrong.

Today our job is no different. We are proclaimers of God's Word and Christ. We respect people's choice to either accept or reject that proclamation.

How incensed do these same Christians become when their own faith, their own view of God, is disparaged by atheists and other non-Christians? They don't like it much. They fight back - though their fight is usually verbal. (Though this has not always been the case historically speaking.) Many would argue that Jesus is fair game to be made fun of by a multitude of people. Indeed, He is. But does that mean we should respond in kind? "Do not repay anyone evil for evil." Just because someone mocks my God does not mean, as a Christian, I am supposed to do the same thing. We are called to be different. To not act the same way as the "Gentile" world (as Paul would have called it). To not allow such futility and hatred take over our actions and thoughts.

Ultimately Christians are not called to be fear-mongers and spreaders of hatred, but are called to be messengers of hope. Whether living in America or Egypt, my role as a Christian is the same - to profess Christ crucified and risen. This is how we are called to engage other faiths.

I am called to be humble.

"He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God." - Micah 6:8

I am called to live in peace with my neighbor.

Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everyone. If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” says the Lord. On the contrary: “If your enemy is hungry, feed him;if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.” Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. (Romans 12:17-21) 

Make every effort to live in peace with everyone and to be holy. (Hebrews 12:14)

I am called to speak the truth... in love.

"Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ." (Ephesians 4:15)

While Islam can be a very difficult faith to engage because most Muslims believe they understand Jesus better than Christians do, the engagement should still always be focused on who and what Jesus is; what he accomplished through his death and resurrection. We can argue and disagree about this with Muslims - we can even argue and disagree about Mohammad - and in some countries, that may get a Christian killed. But that's on the followers of Islam who are choosing to be oppressive and choosing to interpret their scriptures the way many misguided Christians in the past chose to interpret their scriptures. Whatever actions they take against us for this disagreement is not on us.

Therefore Christians should never engage in these same oppressive practices. It's anti-thetical to our beliefs and our teaching. We teach freedom in Christ. Christ is the one who frees us from oppressive tyrants, governments, powers and principalities. Christ is who frees us from the consequences of not living up to the standards of God's law.

To mock and disparage a holy figure in Islam is not "doing what is right in the eyes of everyone." You want to warn of the perceived dangers of Islam? You want to engage a discussion about why you disagree with Islam? Fine. But as a Christian, you are called to do so with love and respect for your Muslim neighbor, to love him/her as yourself. To live in peace, as far as it depends on you, with everyone around you - regardless of your differences in beliefs. We are not called to take their holiest of prophets and degrade him.

I may not believe in the teachings of Mohammad. I may not revere the Qur'an as a holy book that came from God. But Muslims do. I don't have to agree with it. I can even list all the reasons I think its wrong. But I take my cue from Paul. "When the Jews opposed Paul and became abusive, he shook out his clothes in protest and said to them, "Your blood be on your own heads! I am clear of my responsibility."

We need not resort to such harmful and disrespectful practices. Christ states we are to be known as his followers by our love - not our hate.

9/11: A Day That Changed Everything

Eleven years ago today I awoke to the sound of my phone ringing (yes, I was still in bed at about 8:45 am on a Tuesday morning - the joys of working from home for a company two time zones behind you). It was my mom, telling me I needed to turn the television on - one of the Twin Towers had been hit by a plane. It took me a moment to comprehend what she was saying, but I eventually managed to fumble around and find my remote and flip the television on. Moments later, I watched in horror along with the rest of the country as the second plane smashed into the South Tower. Not long after that, the Pentagon was hit as well. Then the rumors began - the Capitol had been hit, the White House, etc. It was pandamonium in New York and Washington, D.C. while the rest of the nation sat glued to their television sets.

There were a lot of emotions that went through me that day. Naturally, there was fear. Not just for myself, but for the friends that lived and worked in or around the WTC and the Pentagon. I breathed a sigh of relief when I heard from one of my friends who passed under the WTC every morning - she was at her school as a teacher on lockdown - but was ok. Then I heard from friends at the Pentagon. One was in a meeting on the other side of the building when the plane hit - but his office was struck and he lost almost his entire staff. Another friend had just been standing where the planes hit about two minutes earlier and was walking out another set of doors.

I would later become well acquainted with someone else who lost 39 of his co-workers that day as he sat on a plane and watched the fireball from the Twin Towers from his seat on an airplane on the way to Vegas to get married.

But of my personal friends - at that moment, it seemed everyone who was in Harm's way was OK... or so we thought - until we got word that a friend of ours from Kansas City, Randy, had been in a building next to the WTC and during the evacuation, was struck by a piece of falling debris when the second plane struck. He'd been on his phone with his wife following the first plane to let her know he was fine and was being evacuated. He said he would call when he got to wherever they were being evacuated to. He never called back. His phone was eventually answered by someone who had picked it up off the street. He hadn't even had time to put it away before being struck in the head. That day, a total stranger had seen to it Randy was taken to the hospital and stayed with him until his family arrived a few days later (which was it's own interesting tale trying to get into New York City in the days following 9/11). Randy remained on life support for two more weeks until they were able to transport him to Kansas City and have the machines removed.

The night before the funeral, we sat in the hotel room with his parents, and I remember as we talked about the events, his mother sat there and said, "I know God has a plan. That this will all be for some kind of purpose."

I also remember thinking, "That's a pretty crappy plan." But I admired the woman's steadfast faith. I wondered how, in the midst of that grief, anger and pain, she was able to remain so calm and so sure.

While Randy's death was indeed sad, and was intermixed with a nationwide mourning and grieving, I soon came to realize - my world had utterly changed. Not only had my world changed - but I had changed. While there was a period of bitterness and anger that permeated many of my thoughts, there was also the slow realization regarding how insecure our world and our lives really were. There was a realization that the world I had grown up in, the world I had come to know and been so sure of, was not the world of my future. Life was no longer about just doing my job, paying my mortgage, and having a little fun along the way. Life, I determined, had to be about something more. There was no security in that life anymore.

So on a trip to Los Angeles for work just a few weeks after the airlines began running again, I remember sitting on my hotel bed, watching the news, reading my Bible, and going - "What a messed up and scary world we live in." (Because in LA, pretty much the first ten minutes of the news is the violent death report). And in that same breath/thought, I went, "There has to be more to my life than sitting in a hotel room ordering room service watching the nightly death-toll." Surely in this  hurting world, I had something else to offer?

In 2001, the thought/idea of becoming a pastor was still a few years away - but the seed had been planted. (It still is sometimes a bit of  reality check to be honest) Part of my journey was mingled with the pain and confusion of trying to figure out what that possible "plan" Randy's mother talked about could have possibly been. Where was God and what was He up to with that terrible day?

It took time, but I eventually came to realize - as horrible as the terrorist attacks on 9/11 were, they were a drop in the bucket when you look at the atrocities committed on a daily basis throughout the world, of human suffering being inflicted by other humans, genocide being perpetrated on epic scales throughout many third world countries. Syria, Rwanda, Serbia/Bosnia, Liberia - I remember my first year of seminary sitting and listening to a classmate of mine from Liberia talking about how three times she had been the next in line to be shot by militants - and every time someone had stepped in and saved her. She had watched family and friends gunned down in cold blood, raped, abused and mutilated. And she wanted to go back. To bring the hope and light of Christ to her people so divided and damaged by civil war. Her world was a world I did not fathom - a world I barely knew existed. Sure, I'd heard about such things - but until you're face to face with the reality and its repercussions, it doesn't fully sink in. The tragedy of 9/11 opened my eyes up to the larger world and the problems that I had been so insulated and sheltered from for so long.

So while yes, my security was ripped away that day never to really return, my naive world-view was also ripped away - and that was not such a bad thing. I realized nothing in this world is secure or immune from the ravages of human-wrought evil. Trusting in governments, military, and political leaders was a misplaced trust. True security would come only from one place - God and God alone. Whether I lived or died, I knew that being secure in my faith was the only form of security that actually had any teeth. I could live in a world ruled by fear - or I could live in a world ruled by hope. I could be part of a people who reacted out of fear - or part of a people who wanted to move forward in hope. The latter eventually won out (though that was not without its struggles)

Does that mean I don't still have moments of fear? That I don't still worry that we could have another terrorist attack at any time? Of course not. It's merely a question of whether or not I let it rule my daily life and my actions.

Randy and 3000 other people didn't die that day just so I could have an epiphany regarding my life, the world and my faith. But as I have come to realize - God still utilized the opportunity to show me something else, to reveal a different path that he wanted not just for me, but a path he desires the world to take. "Love your enemy" was indeed a hard pill to swallow in the aftermath of such a terrible day, I can't argue with that. But hatred, anger and retribution don't seem to have gotten us very far as a people or a nation eleven years later. I don't even feel a strong hatred and anger toward Al Qaeda and groups like them anymore. When Bin Laden was killed, I didn't rejoice like I might have at one point. I only felt a certain futility and sadness for all people who are held captive by hatred, oppression and revenge.

Many today are saying "Never Forget" over social media - and indeed, it is a day not to be forgotten. The question is: as a day we will never forget as a people and a nation, how do we honor and remember those who were lost as we move forward into the future? More war? More violence? More emails that warn us about the dangers of Islam?

I admittedly don't have a lot of hope that any of our current political leaders or candidates hold the answer to help heal the wounds of our nation and world - they seem more interested in dividing us over issues of economy, religion, and social definitions. Perhaps that's because ultimately, that's a job for Christ - but as Christians, we have a role in helping bring about that healing. The "now and not yet" of God's Kingdom. Yet, we Christians seem divided over how that future shall come about. Allow the mayhem and bloodshed to continue as part of some "divine plan" or unite together as a healing presence in our world today?

As Christians, we have a vision that is strong in our faith and our consciousness. A vision where all nations stream to the mountain of God to be healed, a vision where the leaves of the tree of life are utilized not to destroy the nations of the world, but for the healing of the nations of the world. Where the old ways of war, death and suffering are wiped away and remembered no more.

I don't have the answers for how exactly we get there in a post 9/11 world - of how to properly deal with our economic issues, our foreign policies or how to even handle and respond to the surge in terrorist cells around the world.

But I do have a hope - and a promise - that we will one day get there. It may seem bleak right now with all the problems we face as a nation and a world - but it is what I continue to cling to and what I continue to work and strive for each and every day. No, I will never forget what happened on 9/11 - but I hope for a future where the fear of that day does not rule our world. I hope for a day when Christians can be united in a voice for justice and peace rather than known for hatred, hypocrisy, judgmentalism and division. Where "Love your enemy" and "Love your neighbor" is the overriding view of who and what Christians are about.

I know for me, that while remembering 9/11 still carries with it pain, grief, and sorrow - it also carries a hope that we are merely in the dark before the dawn. That God's "plan" is for eventual healing and good.