Straining out camels, logs in the eyes

Rowland Croucher brings good sense to the issue of Muslims in America - and to Americans who berate them - in a short piece that's appeared on his John Mark Ministries website.

He asks the question; What Would Jesus Do Regarding Muslim Americans? You’d Be Surprised.  In this article no one gets off the hook: the logs in one lot of eyes are a darn sight bigger than the splinters in the others - and vice versa. 

A couple of paragraphs from the piece: 

Just as He took on devout figures in the Jewish tradition, He would ask tough questions about whether many devout Muslims, with their myriad and sometimes cumbersome rules and rituals, are straining out gnats while swallowing camels. He would challenge viewpoints and smash many precious idols and a priori assumptions. He would, in short, tick some people off.


But He would also be frank with those of His followers who ignore His command to love and bless and be patient with outsiders. He would point out that, if someone truly is their enemy, that merely triggers their special duty to bless enemies rather than persecute them. He would remind His believers that it’s only by their doing so that they mark themselves as being a part of His distinctive Kingdom.

Highly recommended...

Street Preacher

Everyone who's been a Christian for a while will know of 'street preachers' in their town, some good, some noisy, some downright embarrassing. There's a feeling amongst a number of Christians that this isn't the way to preach the Gospel.

Of course there's always another side to the story, and street preaching is missionary work in the same way as any other kind of missionary work.

Earlier in the month, on the Out of Ur site, they featured a brief interview with an Irish street preacher named Anthony Brabazon. Brabazon is an architect by trade (by which I presume it's meant that he works at that during the day and street preaches in his spare time). "...he considers the Dublin streets his church and the passing pedestrians his congregation."

Note that word, 'passing' - many Christians would think it was a waste of time to preach to people whom you might never see again. And when you look at the video, you might keep on thinking that. However, check out the interview which is wonderfully positive.

Street evangelists put their lives on the line, though most don't get beaten up or murdered - at least not in Western cities. On the other hand, Christians in other countries are still being martyred for their faith - in Nigeria and Malaysia most recently. We need to remember to pray for people in these countries, for the safety of our Christian brothers and sisters, and also for the Muslim people who are attacking them.

And just by way of a footnote, here's a comment made about a photo of a street preacher that appears on flickr.com: There's a dude in Swansea who does preaching. it's the best preaching i've ever seen. It's done in the style of a Swansea 'barrow boy'. Lots of " there you go darlin"s and "go on my son"s thrown in for good measure.

I guess he was a hooligan or some shit who's been 'saved' and hence has taken to the streets without anyone quite teaching him a new etiquette to approach his work. You're not sure if he's shouting at people in an attempt to provoke violence at first and it's only after a while that you realise he's is preaching the word of the big man upstairs.

Will Britain become Muslim?

On the 26th of December, an article appeared in the English Daily Telegraph, entitled, Indulgence of Islam is harming society. It was written by Damian Thompson.

It begins:
Islam is the fastest-growing religion in Britain: the number of Muslims has grown from 1.6 million to two million since 2000. Moreover, every major public institution has changed its policies to accommodate the demands of Islamic "community leaders". The Government, the Opposition, the police, schools, the Church of England, the BBC and now Channel 4 are all helping Muslims construct a parallel Islamic state.


The article is fair in its approach, but focuses on a number of issues that are causing a major divide within the British community: bookshops attacked for selling books on the child bride of Mohammed, Muslim girls kept from reaching their full educational potential, the 'Sharia law' being introduced into the British legal system, a National Association of Muslim Police which is consulted by the British police force, and most recently, the decision by Channel 4 to let President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad deliver an alternative 'Christmas' message.

Perhaps it's too late for Britain to turn things around. On the other hand, can it sustain a Christian heritage alongside an active and dogmatic Muslim one?

Church in Decline? Think again!

One key exception, is Samuel P Huntington's book, The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order, one of the most widely read analyses of current global trends, which does pay serious attention to changing religious patterns. Even Huntington, though, understates the rising force of Christianity. He believes that the relative Christian share of global population will fall steeply in the new century, and that this religion will be supplanted by Islam: "In the long run...Muhammad wins out."
But far from Islam being the world's largest religion by 2020 or so, as Huntington suggests, Christianity will still have a massive lead, and will maintain its position into the foreseeable future. By 2050, there should still be about three Christians for every two Muslims worldwide. Some 34% of the world's people will then be Christian, roughly what the figure was at the height of European world hegemony in 1900.
Huntington's analysis of the evidnece is misguided in one crucial respect. While he rightly notes the phenomenal rates of population growth in Muslim countries, he ignores the fact that similar or even higher rates are also found in already populous Christian countries, above all in Africa. Alongside the Muslim efflorescence he rightly foresees, there will also be a Christian population explosion, often in the same or adjacent countries. If we look at the nations with the fastest popoulation growth and the youngest populations, they are evenly distributed between Christian and Muslim dominated societies.

From The Next Christendom; the coming of Global Christianity, by Philip Jenkins. age 5. Jenkins has written several books along similar lines, showing that Christianity is in anything but decline, even in Europe, where supposedly it's at death's door.

NZ Diversity Forum 2008 Programme

This year's New Zealand Diversity Forum is on 25-26 August in Auckland. Check out the varied programmes offered by community and professional groups and government agencies here and register here for any of the separate events or the diversity awards and plenary programme. This is New Zealand's premier race relations forum.

For those aiming to reach out to the different ethnic groups in our country, this is a great opportunity to gain insights into the ways different ethnic people live and think, and what their expectations are.

Some of the useful workshops might be:

The Benefits of Diversity
Finding Common Ground: are we more similar than different?
The Religious Diversity Forum
Building Bridges: working with the Muslim community

To confront or not to confront?

Apologist/evangelist Jay Smith confronts Muslims with the same kind of fanatical fervour they use in getting their own message across.
In public, that is, at Hyde Park's famous Speaker's Corner. And sometimes he's been beaten for it.
Some critics of his approach feel he deserves what he gets, because he's so confrontational with Muslim speakers. However, Smith believes that a strong apologetic is required to break through to Muslim speakers, and even more so, to their listeners. Passionate presentation is one key to reaching Muslims, he says. Many will not be convinced, he believes, "unless we look like we believe what we're saying."

Western seminaries teach "friendship evangelism" as the primary way to share Christ with Muslims. Nothing should offend, they say. Never point out contradictions, inconsistencies, or historical inaccuracies in another person's religious beliefs. Everything aims to convert. Judge results by the number of conversions.

Smith, however, has decided to take an alternate approach:

• To defend historic, orthodox Christianity.
• To answer untruths that Islam proclaims about the Bible, Jesus, and Christians.
• To hold Islam itself accountable for the actions of its followers.

The full article, Unapologetic Apologist, can be found on the Christianity Today site. It makes for fascinating reading in terms of deciding which approach works best with Muslim people. Note that Smith also meets Muslims face to face over coffee, for long and deep discussions about faith.