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<\/a><\/p>\nWhile it may come as a surprise to many,\u00a0 the mass murderer\u00a0 Anders Breivick claims to have been inspired by Islamophobic\u00a0 fundamentalist Christians in America.\u00a0\u00a0 And indeed, his 1500 page rant of a manifesto does indeed show considerable influence from jingoistic Americans who have wrongly equated terrorism with the faithful practice of Islam in general. \u00a0This is like equating Christianity with the violent actions of\u00a0 Anders Breivick himself.\u00a0 What\u2019s wrong with this picture?\u00a0 Are both Islam and Christianity religions that inherently incite violence because of the violence referred to and depicted in their Holy Books?\u00a0\u00a0 What should we think about these sorts of things?\u00a0 And is \u2018Western multi-culturalism\u2019 really the enemy of \u2018true Christianity\u2019 that people like Anders Breivick think it is?<\/p>\n
Now that we have had a chance to catch our collective breaths, pray for the bereaved families in Norway, and process some of the ranting of Breivick and those who inspired him, it is also time to take a good hard look at the sort of questions this kind of mass murdering raises, especially when it is done in the name of God or religion, whatever religion that might be.\u00a0\u00a0 The truth of the matter is that fearful, hate-filled, unbalanced people have often used religion, and their particularly twisted interpretations of their own religion to justify genocides of all sorts\u2014 whether against <\/em>Jews, Christians, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists or secular humanists. \u00a0\u00a0And the very same logic is used to justify killings supposedly undertaken on behalf of<\/em> the cherished religion. \u00a0\u00a0What all such actions really have in common is a failure to live by the core teachings<\/em> of their own religion, and instead privileging certain questionable interpretations of peripheral teachings which allow individuals to justify their own racist and violent tendencies\u00a0 which they had quite apart from their own religion\u2019s teachings.<\/p>\n For example,\u00a0 the most essential and reiterated theological and ethical teachings of all three monotheistic religions\u2014 Judaism, Christianity, and Islam have to do with love\u2014 loving God and loving one\u2019s neighbor as self.\u00a0\u00a0 They do not have to do with cultural imperialism or opposition to cultural change, or opposition to multi-culturalism in general.\u00a0\u00a0 Indeed, if there ever was a religion that involved an inherent call to multi-culturalism in the sense of respect and love for all kinds of people of all different cultural backgrounds it is Christianity.<\/p>\n As Gal. 3.28 says in Christ there is no Jew or Greek.\u00a0 That also means there is no American or Iraqi.\u00a0\u00a0 Christianity is a religion, which unlike some, does not baptize a particular ethnic group, or set of cultural practices and calls them Biblical.\u00a0 On the contrary, Christianity can be and has been incarnated in all sorts of different kinds of cultures\u2014 both democratic and feudalistic,\u00a0 in both monarchial and republican cultures.\u00a0 Furthermore, particular forms of dress, habits of eating, artistic or musical expressions are not sine qua nons of true Christianity. \u00a0\u00a0Christianity was born as an Middle Eastern Jewish form of religion something clearly manifested in the Bible both in its descriptive and prescriptive passages, and should not be equated \u00a0with Western or American cultural preferences whether political, economic, or more broadly cultural.<\/p>\n Yes, Christianity influenced Western culture in many ways, but it certainly should not be equated with that culture.\u00a0 Take for instance the issue of democracy.\u00a0 You will look in vain for an endorsement of democracy in the Bible.\u00a0 If the Bible endorses any form of human government, it is hierarchial and monarchial in character.\u00a0 On the other hand,\u00a0 Christianity is no friend of absolute relativism, the notion that all religions are equally true, valid, and valuable, or universalism, the notion that all religions are one, or alternately all religions are equally valid means of salvation and all person will inevitably be saved, come what may, believe what they will.<\/p>\n One of the places where the notion that \u201cdevotion to Islam inherently involves violence against the West, or Christianity, or both\u201d goes most wrong is a failure to actually understand the theology of Islam.\u00a0 If one thing is clear about Islamic belief in the one God of the Bible, it is that God is great, God is sovereign, and the Koran would add, God is in absolute control of all that happens in the world.\u00a0 Whether you call it fatalism, determinism, or simply God\u2019s sovereignty, Muslims believe that God has determined all things in advance.\u00a0 When they are consistent, they are more Calvinistic than the Calvinists.<\/p>\n And with such a system of belief,\u00a0 there is no reason or rationale to engage in terrorism at all.\u00a0 If you truly believe God is great and God is good, and all that happens is in God\u2019s hands, then this includes taking care of one\u2019s enemies, and the issues of injustice. \u00a0\u00a0One has no need to take matters or weapons into one\u2019s own hands, if all is Allah\u2019s will and it cannot be otherwise.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Furthermore,\u00a0 many scholars of Islam will tell you that the whole concept of jihad in the Koran has to do with the struggle or battle against sin in any and every life, and against Satan. It does not have to do with killing other human beings.<\/p>\n Thus while many Americans, who know little or nothing about Islam and have never read the Koran, \u00a0are often derisive when they hear Muslim teachers claiming their religion is a religion of peace and love,\u00a0 this in part reflects sheer ignorance of the core teachings of that religion.\u00a0 One might just as well claim that the call in Ephesians 6 to fight the good fight against Evil and the powers of darkness is an invitation to violence against other human beings. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Terrorism in the name of religion is the practice of myopic, \u00a0bigoted people who have been misled or bamboozled about the essential teachings of their own religion, or have privileged questionable interpretations of some of their sacred texts.<\/p>\n Think for a moment about the all too common remark made by militaristic Christians in the West that the \u2018OT justifies violence and war under certain circumstances\u2019.\u00a0\u00a0 What they fail to tell you is that the only<\/em> circumstances and political systems in which one could reasonably argue that that is true is if we are dealing with a direct rule by God, called a theocracy (see the Book of Joshua),\u00a0 or with a monarchy (see David and the Philistines).\u00a0 In no case, could such passages be simply transferred and applied to the situation in modern democracies as a justification for violence against our fellow human beings.\u00a0\u00a0 Such logic is all the more questionable in an age where our military weapons are much more lethal than those of the Biblical era and more likely to make impossible the fulfillment of the commandment to love our enemies\u00a0 and overcome evil with good.<\/p>\n Terrorism and mass murdering should be seen for what it is\u2014 not the practice of some religion, but rather the absolute violation of the core teachings of all the major world religions, including Christianity and Islam.\u00a0\u00a0 Terrorism doesn\u2019t deserve to be called a religious act. \u00a0It is an act that involves the antithesis of all that is true and good and loving. \u00a0It involves the antithesis of the very character of God which is holy love and all that is highest and best, especially the highest and best aspects of the world\u2019s monotheistic religions.<\/p>\n It is time for Jews, and Christians and Muslims to agree together to call terrorism and mass murdering\u00a0 what is\u2014 an act of cowardice by hate filled bigots who sometimes wrongly think their religion justifies their actions, or even inspires it. \u00a0\u00a0They are wrong<\/em>\u2014 their religion is opposed to their actions.\u00a0 Acts of terror are not one way tickets to Paradise or heaven no matter who says so, they are one way tickets to Hell. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0On the door of my office is a picture of nuns with guns. \u00a0The subtext says,\u00a0 \u201cThese are not the virgins Osama expected when he was entering the afterlife\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The afterlife will prove a surprise to many zealous bigots.\u00a0 Enough said.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" While it may come as a surprise to many,\u00a0 the mass murderer\u00a0 Anders Breivick claims to have been inspired by Islamophobic\u00a0 fundamentalist Christians in America.\u00a0\u00a0 And indeed, his 1500 page rant of a manifesto does indeed show considerable influence from jingoistic Americans who have wrongly equated terrorism with the faithful practice of Islam in general. 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