Appeasing the Religion of Peace

Whatever you do, do not insult the religion of peace or you will suffer the consequences. If its radical defenders don’t try to kill you for the offense, the hand-wringing, Islamophobia watch people will track you down and chastise you back into your intolerant hating shell.

That’s what virtually happened in the recent Muhammad cartoon competition fiasco. The mainstream media got up in arms when two jihadists traveled a thousand miles to slaughter innocent citizens because of a cartoon competition. They forgot all about the brave cop who risked his life by confronting these would-be murderers and vented their self-righteous indignation against the competition’s organizers.

Now I know many will disagree with me in what I’m about to write next, and that’s fine. As Christians we are called to be meek and peaceful. Deliberately inciting or creating inflaming situations runs contrary to biblical teaching, even if there is a political or social point to be made (Matt 5:9; 1 Peter 2:22-23).

Even insulting Islam in jest hinders the gospel to possibly reach the Muslim. Therefore, Christians who aim to serve God and evangelize must forego their rights to so-called free expression in certain situations. In this case Christians aren’t free to say what they’d otherwise like to if they aim to please God.

Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves. Therefore be wise as serpents and harmless as doves. Mat 10:16

The ESV Bible Study Notes on the verse point out that:

“Jesus warns the disciples about the persecution that missionary disciples will endure. The serpent was the symbol of shrewdness and intellectual cunning, while the dove was emblematic of simple innocence.”

You are not being particularly shrewd or innocent if you mock someone else’s faith.

Yet while Christians are bound in their conduct to the One who bought and paid for them, secular governments have a duty of care to their citizens. Insofar as protecting their citizens from radical Islam, they are failing miserably.

The cartoon fiasco was a stunt designed to keep highlighting this failure and the hypocrisy of flattering Islam, while stifling free speech against it. However, I doubt that it won any converts. The alarm bells keep falling on deaf ideological ears. The organizers only affirmed what we already know – Western society is feeding the insatiable beast that is radical Islam.

To use an analogy: It’s a lot like allowing a family of wild beasts to roam the village streets at will, while the council authorities refuse to deal with them. The council insists on feeding and protecting them, so they hang around. If the beasts kill someone or cause damage, then fault must be placed elsewhere because beasts just don’t do these sorts of things. You are given the mantra that, “If you’re awfully nice to them they won’t hurt you.”

It’s not just stupid, it’s insane. And it’s not a new idea either. Daniel Greenfield notes some of Gandhi’s sage advice to the Jews and the British with respect to their conduct towards Hitler and the Nazis. To the Brits he opined:

“This manslaughter must be stopped. You are losing; if you persist, it will only result in greater bloodshed. Hitler is not a bad man. If you call it off today, he will follow suit… I want you to fight Nazis without arms or… with non-violent arms. I would like you to lay down the arms you have as being useless for saving you or humanity.”

To the Jews he advised:

“If only the Jews of Germany had the good sense to offer their throats willingly to the Nazi butchers’ knives.”

As it turned out many Jews were slaughtered without ever being given the opportunity to “offer their throats willingly.” I recall other peace pacifists making similarly bizarre remarks. Well, I guess WW2 worked out very well for the pacifist theory didn’t it?

We’ve been living in a society where hypocrisy knows no boundaries and it’s perfectly fine to publicly mock Christianity but not Islam (and a few other sacred cows). President Obama has sometimes even led the mocking and public shaming of Christianity even while defending the belief system which slaughters Christians.

Yes, we all know the apologists argue that Islam has been misrepresented. But I’d like to see something more than simple assertions from Mr. Obama and his fellow apologists. Where are the Islamic Systematic Theology studies tearing apart the radical interpretations?

The brakes in the Big Old Machine are slipping year by year and this planet’s destructive momentum is quickly speeding up. The restraint on evil is being lifted and the war against Christians is also ramping up.

Everywhere I look I see the gospel of Jesus Christ taking a back seat to the so-called Social Justice Gospel, the Diversity Gospel, the Environmental Gospel, and revived Liberation Theology. It isn’t about Jesus Christ anymore; it’s about supplying what the clamoring multitudes want.

As difficult as it may get, we must strive to remember we are pilgrims on this planet until our time here comes to an end, or until the Lord returns. There is increasingly little we can do to change our world as it appeases Islam and stifles the true gospel. Isn’t this what the Apostle Paul warned his audience (2 Tim 3:1-4)?

Too often I forget this and become frustrated. A frustrated Christian is an ineffective Christian. Jesus will return one day and set things aright.