Wednesday, December 06, 2006
Complacent Christians are a bigger threat than the Quran
I got e-mail a few days ago decrying the fact that congressman-elect Keith Ellison of Minnesota, a convert to Islam from Catholicism, wants to be sworn in on the Quran instead of the Bible. I also just stumbled across this link about the controversy that has arisen over the congressman-elect's desire. Some of the comments I've read are from people saying that any public official who wants to be sworn in on anything other than a Bible is un-American and unfit to serve.
So I guess that we should deny the congressman-elect the right to follow his conscience while so many of the rest of us who call ourselves Christians give Jesus little more than lip-service? Which is worse--to have a devout Muslim ardently practicing the faith he believes is true, or to have the majority of Christians in a country where 85 percent of the citizens claim to be Christian spit in Jesus' face by their disregard for His call to follow Him? Do we forget that if we're not following Christ, then we're not Christians, no matter what we call ourselves?
I realize there are a lot of emotions running high because of the threat of al-Qaida's brand of Islam that's ravaging many parts of the world. It's like a cancer that just keeps getting worse. But if we as Christians believe that Jesus is the only way to get to God (John 14:6; 1 Timothy 2:5) and that the only way we can find salvation and true peace and meaning in life is through Him, why aren't we setting this example ourselves? If radical Islam--or in the case of too many so-called Christians, radical apathy--is a cancer that we believe only Jesus can cure, then why aren't we taking our own medicine? If a cancer patient has access to life-saving drugs but doesn't take them, the cancer will probably kill them. Likewise, if those of us who claim to follow Christ instead live like the world, then this cancer will kill us--and kill everyone we could have helped if our lives could convince them that Jesus is the One who can heal them instead of hypocrites among us giving people the impression from our own lives that we're just pushing snake oil.
I wish Keith Ellison much success in Congress. But far more importantly, I hope that he sees in the lives of Christians he meets that the love of Jesus is real and inexplicable and irresistible. And that he searches with his whole heart to find out what makes Jesus different and why He is the only one who can bring us to God. Let's all pray that he will see that truth is found only in Jesus and that our lives won't convince him otherwise.
So I guess that we should deny the congressman-elect the right to follow his conscience while so many of the rest of us who call ourselves Christians give Jesus little more than lip-service? Which is worse--to have a devout Muslim ardently practicing the faith he believes is true, or to have the majority of Christians in a country where 85 percent of the citizens claim to be Christian spit in Jesus' face by their disregard for His call to follow Him? Do we forget that if we're not following Christ, then we're not Christians, no matter what we call ourselves?
I realize there are a lot of emotions running high because of the threat of al-Qaida's brand of Islam that's ravaging many parts of the world. It's like a cancer that just keeps getting worse. But if we as Christians believe that Jesus is the only way to get to God (John 14:6; 1 Timothy 2:5) and that the only way we can find salvation and true peace and meaning in life is through Him, why aren't we setting this example ourselves? If radical Islam--or in the case of too many so-called Christians, radical apathy--is a cancer that we believe only Jesus can cure, then why aren't we taking our own medicine? If a cancer patient has access to life-saving drugs but doesn't take them, the cancer will probably kill them. Likewise, if those of us who claim to follow Christ instead live like the world, then this cancer will kill us--and kill everyone we could have helped if our lives could convince them that Jesus is the One who can heal them instead of hypocrites among us giving people the impression from our own lives that we're just pushing snake oil.
I wish Keith Ellison much success in Congress. But far more importantly, I hope that he sees in the lives of Christians he meets that the love of Jesus is real and inexplicable and irresistible. And that he searches with his whole heart to find out what makes Jesus different and why He is the only one who can bring us to God. Let's all pray that he will see that truth is found only in Jesus and that our lives won't convince him otherwise.
