At church the other week we had a talk from two representatives of 'Open Doors' an organisation which supports persecuted Christians around the world. There's no denying that there is horrific persecution of Christians, often in Islamic countries and these two really walk the walk in doing something about it. However I was aghast when one of them said 'There is no love in Islam, Christianity is the only religion with love in it.' I was so annoyed I audibly exclaimed 'rubbish!'
I spoke to him afterwards and took issue with his statement. At first he was adamant and trotted out alot of ignorant cliches and stereotypes about Muslims but after a few minutes he agreed to 'refine' his statement to a theological point about the nature of the relationship between the individual and the deity. I ended up agreeing with him on this and congratulating him on his work.
There's little point speaking up for Christian religious liberty by slagging off other religions. Christianity has its own shameful history of persecution and its surely counterproductive not to acknowledge this.
I did a bit of internet research on 'Open Doors' and found that it's actually quite narrow in its theology. There are other organisations such as 'Release International' and 'Christian Solidarity Worldwide' who do the same work but without such a narrow theological outlook and they promote the concept of religious liberty for all.
Anyway the two speakers had an effect. They made me think about what I can do to support persecuted Christians, but it will probably be by joining another organisation. I'm going to see if the church will support me applying to be a church representative for CSW (Christian Solidarity Worldwide)
See for yourself at these sites/links
www.releaseinternational.org/
www.csw.org.uk/
www.od.org/
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The problem is that Christians are associated with western, especially American, but also colonial European governments. The louder we disown the imperial folly and brutality of our own western governments the easier it will become for Christians in communist and Islamic countries to be accepted.
Arlo, when a British primary teacher is in jail in the Sudan and threatened with 40 lashes for allowing her pupils to name their teddy bear Mohammed isn't it time to admit that Islam is basically intolerant. Do you really believe that Christians in the west could do anything to make Christians tolerated in Muslim countries?
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