essay<\/a> for the website RealClearReligion discussing the response of Western civilization in general and Christianity in particular to militant Islamic extremism. <\/p>\nWe should understand and clarify the issue to an even greater degree.<\/p>\n
I do not need to be disabused of the fact that President Obama is not among my readers. Or that, if he were, I should expect him to be converted either to Christianity or to my views on certain issues. I realize that questioning the president\u2019s devotion to the Christian faith is presumptuous. And I also mean to be provocative. <\/p>\n
My concern (Yes! it IS a concern, for his soul, and the nation\u2019s) grows as weeks and months pass; with each speech; and with his policies. Some policies are enunciated; some are quietly put into effect. Some people see anti-Christian sentiments. Some people see principles that are inimical to exercises of faith. Some people see pro-Islam actions. And I don\u2019t mean to employ the \u201cpassive\u201d mode: I often find myself among the \u201csome\u201d in those camps of observers.<\/p>\n
He invites these suspicions and observations.<\/p>\n
Christianity is under attack. There are scarcely other items in the news since forever, it seems, except for the perennial scandals in the federal government. It is under attack, not from, say, the Dalai Lama, who was a guest at this week\u2019s national Prayer Breakfast in Washington. No, even the dullest nitwit knows that Islamic Extremists lately have been bombing, hijacking, kidnapping, torturing, and killing. They have been reviving the ancient modes of beheading, stoning, burying alive, and immolation. They are proud of these things, using modern technology to brag to the world of ancient barbarities.<\/p>\n
It must be noted that, surely, some of their quarrels are with co-religionists who decline to subscribe to their levels \u2013 that is, depths \u2013 of savagery. But, except for targeting an ancient Zoroastrian sect called the Yezidis in their neighborhood, their hatred is reserved for Christians.<\/p>\n
Christians. Have we heard of Hindus or Buddhists or followers of Confucius or those who follow the Shinto practices, have these people been kidnapped and slaughtered? Even the recent Japanese victim of beheading was a convert to Christianity. Atheists are not targeted, and you would think the Prophet might despise them more than any others.<\/p>\n
Curious \u2013 with Israel so close to ISIS territory. Jews have not been targeted in these recent campaigns. Jews, with whom the Arabs and their religionists have contended since the infancies of Esau and Jacob. Look it up. Jews, whose establishment of Israel has so inflamed the Middle East for almost 70 years. Is it not curious that ISIS has withheld its holy fury from them?<\/p>\n
Most people think, properly, that one reason might be the absolute certainty of a massive, obliterating response by the magnificent defense capabilities of Israel.<\/p>\n
There is always a back story to every controversy and news event; and one day we might know why Israel chooses not to be preemptive; or why Obama insults Israel at every opportunity. Anyway, the fact remains that so far, ISIS has been as hostile to Jews as card-carrying members of the Anti-Defamation League.<\/p>\n
That leaves the question of the assault on Christians, which, of course, not a question but a fact, as I hope we agreed a few paragraphs ago. And when this fact is clear (as not all facts are) to virtually everybody \u2013 notably violent Islamic extremists themselves, as per ISIS press releases \u2013 the real question is why the president averts the truth. If that question is a little ember that glows in your mind, let it become, rather, a Burning Question. <\/p>\n
That the president, acting for us (in fact, committing all of us: this is the sometime unpalatable aspect of democracy) does not call Islamic terrorism Islamic terrorism, although Islamic terrorists do; and Islamic leaders like King Abdullah does. While Rome \u2013 so to speak \u2013 is burning, Obama fiddles with pronouncements about \u201chijackers of the religion of peace,\u201d as a jerkwater professor would do. Meanwhile Islamic terrorists are hijacking cars, trucks, planes, and land.<\/p>\n
Christians must stop thinking this man is oddly misguided or sadly mistaken. He is not stupid. At stake is not an election cycle but the lives of millions, the preservation of our culture, the future of our civilization.<\/p>\n
At the National Prayer Breakfast this week, noted above, President Obama had a chance to seize an appropriate platform to deliver unambiguous words about this nexus of religion and statecraft. And he did! Yes, there were words about biblical injunctions to love, and to serve. I never regret the citation of Bible verses, even if they are selective. The president acknowledged the presence of missionary Kenneth Bae, who had been imprisoned (\u201cheld,\u201d the president parsed) by North Korea for two years; no embarrassment that the mighty USA could not effect that release sooner. He noted that a Christian convert, Pastor Saeed Abedin (no: he did not note Abedin\u2019s conversion to Christianity) is still in Iranian jails, variously condemned to death and then pardoned and then back again; and that he met with the pastor\u2019s wife and children \u2013 cornered in Boise, Idaho, after years of attempts for an audience with Obama.<\/p>\n
After those niceties, the president summoned his rhetorical arsenal. He lectured those assembled (who convened in the Name of Christ) about the sins of Christianity. He called himself a \u201cperson of faith,\u201d not a Christian. He warned believers not to mount \u201chigh horses,\u201d and then tarred Christianity with thousand-year-old specters of the Crusades; and ancient atrocities perpetrated by the Inquisition; and the Christian sanction of \u201cslavery and Jim Crow\u201d laws in America.<\/p>\n
No one spoke up there \u2013 can we do so now? \u2013 to note that the Crusades were a reaction to offenses; and that both sides sometimes acted cruelly as well as nobly. And that the Inquisition, even witch burnings, did take place\u2026 but also were localized, brief, and well in the past, without ameliorating our stipulation that they were horrific.<\/p>\n
We are dealing with very current threats, not passages from textbooks of ancient history. When Obama says “persons of faith,” presumably even about himself, one gets the feeling that he is a bureaucrat talking about a sociological classification, and not a confession.<\/p>\n
The major take-away that should animate our reaction and resolution is that the dark moments of our collective past\u2026 all right, let\u2019s take the predictable topic, slavery. It existed throughout humankind\u2019s history; and still does. But in the United States it was instituted by Christians, but not as a Christian imperative. It was instituted out of greed, yes; and cruelty, and severe insensitivity. BUT NOT BECAUSE SLAVE-MASTERS THOUGHT TO PLEASE CHRIST. Some of justified themselves by quoting ancient Bible history. But that cart was well after the horse: a futile rationale.<\/p>\n
That is the opposite of the Islamothugs: they claim to be following and therefore serving the Prophet.<\/p>\n
But a worse offense, because sin we will always have with us, and we need leaders who can organize our defense: Obama cited ancient crimes committed by Christians WHEN HE COULD HAVE PRAISED CHRISTIANS FOR ENDING THEM and numerous examples of Christian persecution, and Christian service, charity, bravery, sacrifice, persecution, and martyrdom TODAY.<\/p>\n
This deliberate distortion of history, and conscious perversion of proper priorities is a menace, a national crisis. In his entire speech, Obama mentioned the name of Christ twice, each time damning the sins of the past committed \u201cin the name of Christ.\u201d Never once even the name of Jesus. Several times, though, the word \u201chumility\u201d \u2013 an attribute that was in short supply, when Christians at a Christian event were being lectured about how bad Christians are.<\/p>\n
May God help us.<\/p>\n
+ + +<\/p>\n
Click: Carl Orff: Fortuna Imperatrix Mundi \u2013 Carmina Burana<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"2-9-15 Today I will continue the theme of a couple recent essays, and the credit, or blame, goes to the president of the United States. In recent essays we have visited the clash of Islam and Christianity and Western civilization. It is a history that goes back farther than 9-11. By my mail I know […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[11,66,31],"tags":[1679,926,371,1700,1703,1704,1706,1702,1699,1701,1705],"class_list":["post-2936","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christianity","category-perseverance","category-service","tag-barack-obama","tag-carl-orff","tag-christian-persecution","tag-harve-presnell","tag-humility","tag-islamic-terror","tag-j-m-w-turner","tag-national-prayer-breakfast","tag-robert-shaw","tag-rutgers-university-choir","tag-violent-islamic-extremism"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1bRYz-Lm","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mondayministry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2936","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mondayministry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mondayministry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mondayministry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mondayministry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2936"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/www.mondayministry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2936\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2953,"href":"https:\/\/www.mondayministry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2936\/revisions\/2953"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mondayministry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2936"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mondayministry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2936"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mondayministry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2936"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}