I’ve seen quite a few bloggers place “Christian” in quotation marks when referring to the “Christian Militia” group Hutaree which has been making headlines recently. There is a Hutaree web site here.
I do hope that people will be consistent in how they refer to groups such as Christian militias and Islamic terrorists. We can either acknowledge that these are groups that understand themselves, rightly or wrongly, to be Christian or Muslim, and refer to them as such. Or we can recognize the tension between the aims and actions of these groups and the mainstream of these religious traditions and Scriptures, and place “Christian” and “Islamic” in quotation marks. But I see little justification for not doing one or the other consistently in both cases.
There is violence in both the Qur’an and the Bible. Both texts have had individuals and groups find inspiration and/or justification in them for engaging in conflict or promoting and working towards peace.
In light of all this, I encourage all readers to use their scare quotes in a fair and equitable manner!
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