True Muslims are not terrorists. Just thought I would throw that out there to begin this post. There are extremists in every faith who stray far from the fundamentals of their beliefs. I’m sure you can think of a few in your own “religion/faith”.
Last week I was in Washington DC at Georgetown University. Christian & Muslim leaders from all over the world joined one another for the “Common Word” conference. This is a pursuit of focusing on the similarities between Islam & Christianity instead of the differences. It is an attempt to remove ignorance that both parties are guilty of, which leads to unnecessary violence & hatred. Everyone there has a desire to bring peace to, and change in the world.
In case you guys don’t know: Islam is currently one of the fastest growing faiths in the world. It would behoove us to educate ourselves about this religion, and begin engaging Muslims with the Gospel & person of Jesus Christ…
Just for the record: Everyone at “Common Word” was very open with one another about what they believe, and how they desire everyone else to subscribe to their particular faith. However, there were ZERO debates. There is a time and a place for “reasoning” with those of other faiths-this was not one of them. The “reasoning” takes place outside of the conference schedule in the context of relationships that have been formed…
I have heard of many mainstream evangelical pastors who speak out against things such as “Common Word”. From my experience this past week, there was absolutely nothing dangerous or unhealthy that took place. None of us compromised any of our beliefs, nor were we ever expected to. There were, however, many relationships forged that will lead to global change.
I know some of you are probably thinking something that was heavy on my mind during the few days we were there: “Global change & peace is great, but it’s not the same thing as people coming to know Christ as Savior. We shouldn’t allow ourselves to get distracted by social justice causes that become more of a pursuit than seeing unbelievers come to faith in Christ.” This was one thing that made me a bit nervous. My prayer is that as Christians & Muslims engage in peace initiatives with one another that the power of the resurrected Christ would be So evident through the lives of His followers that Muslims would come to faith in Him. This is already happening by the way.
In order for this to happen we must engage with Muslims & those of other faiths. Believe it or not, most Muslims WILL NOT come to our churches, or Christian gatherings. We may have to go engage them on their turf…I think I remember Jesus doing quite a bit of that. (The key here is that our church services and gatherings should not be our means of evangelism-especially to those who are very different from us culturally & spiritually)
I will delve deeper into these issues later this week. For now I just wanted to share some pics from the trip, and introduce you to an entirely different world that exists out there, which most of us know little about. I know very little, but am committed to pursuing knowledge & relationships with the 1.2 billion Muslims in our world today…
Georgetown University
John Esposito & other religious/governmental leaders from all over the world.
Language Translation Device: Arabic to English for me =)
Joined a new Muslim friend at the Capitol Building for their Friday Muslim prayer time. I gratefully accepted the invite so long as they were ok with me praying to Jesus =)
Visited the White House before my flight home…
I’m excited to post more about my new passion and pursuit of engaging those of other cultures/beliefs. I know this makes many uncomfortable & nervous, as it did me in the beginning. However, I’m learning quite a bit about having confidence in truth, and allowing that confidence to empower me through my desire to be comfortable. Christ wants to know every Muslim deeply-I hope to be a part of that process.
I was just going to blog something very similar in regards towards Rastafari’s. Interested to see what you learned, feel
yeah…. there seems to be a rather fine line in the whole matter of “partnering” with other faiths for common objectives like global peace, or fighting hunger, and stuff like that. I still don’t know where that line is exactly, probably never will. But what I do know is that more and more people calling themselves “Christians” today have completely crossed over that line, where ’social justice’ becomes the only acceptable goal, and preaching the gospel (of Salvation through faith in Christ) is essentially scorned in some under-handed way. I do hear you though, we have to be willing to learn and be educated about what other people actually believe, if we’re going to be able to sit down and talk to them, and build real relationships with them. But yeah, I have to admit, I get nervous around any sort of “interfaith” shindig, cuz I’ve just seen so many of them that essentially force Christians to jetison the Gospel in the name of “peace”…
Ya, it really is a fine line. We MUST be Spirit led and cautious if we enter into these types of pursuits. It seems to be a catch 22 – you gotta do it to reach a people effectively, but you must be so careful the goal stays focused on Gospel transformation…
Truth: “True Muslims aren’t terrorists”.
Our typical prtrait of a terrorist group is young, able bodied men, running in the dessert with guns over nets, under obsticles, fighting for the cause of a man they don’t know. Some of these men are of Muslim faith-and are considered terrorists because we don’t like who their killing, or the fact that they are killing anyone for that matter
Question: How do Christians doing the same thing escape being called terrorists?
Amen Mae. Muslims and Christians have engaged in war against one another in the name of “God”…the problem is that BOTH faiths fundamentally believe AGAINST violence. I would submit that the so-called Christians AND Muslims who engage in war against one another have a VERY perverted view of the Gospel of the Kingdom…I don’t think either party is an accurate view of followers of Muhammad OR Jesus. We must start speaking out against this stuff lest our children be raised with the same ignorance.
Agreed, but in doing that we have to stop excusing our fathers for going there. We have to stop excusing our brothers for killing someone “for the sake of our country”. We have to stop excusing our mothers for making orphans out of other mothers children.
Our country’s love affair with war as of late has tainted our understanding of “defend your household” to “lock all your doors and tell the men of each household to scower the neighborhood for anyone who may look like they may break in, and kill them.”
One of the biggest problems we are going to have earning Jesus the love He deserves [not to mention all that He literally was dying to give] from anyone in the Middle East is breaking down the wall of shame we have allowed “Christians” in this nation to build, brick by pitiful brick.
We have allowed a country that proclaims itself prodominately Christian to become overtly violent, leaving those looking in to say “Why would I want to follow suit with a people who serve a Father who teaches such violence and hate?” [As if we haven't heard enough of that from the inside!]
Funny thing is, Muslims have let the same tragedy happen to Muhammed.
So in keeping up with overcoming this war, and past wars, pastors and desciples alike are going to have to stop saying “well God Bless him/her for being there” and start presenting the Gospel.
Christianity is radical, passionate, exciting, but not violent. It’ll be interesting to see how people manage to overcome this with the right heart attitude.
Forgive me for rambling
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