The Church, Politics, and A Christian Response to Islam

Last week I wrote a bit about how one part of our vision at Highland (the church I serve) is to be peacemakers in the Muslim world, by planting churches and partnering with existing ministries in the Muslim-majority parts of the world.

We’ve known from the beginning that in order to do that we were going to need to take some time to equip ourselves to learn more about Islam and what Muslims believed. So two weeks ago, we invited an Imam from Lubbock to come teach us about his faith.

Then this past Wednesday night, we had Dr. John Azumah, a Christian professor from Ghana, who specializes in Islamic studies to come and talk about what it might look like to work toward being peacemakers in the Muslim world, and so once again, I wanted to share this resource here for any churches/church leaders who are interested.

One of the most interesting things that Dr. Azumah said was that, while it was true that some people are using a radical version of Islam to radicalize young Muslims, his greatest concern was that radical Islam was radicalizing Christians.

Dr Azumah went on to tell a story about how a church that he knew in a Muslim country had been attacked by a handful of radical Muslims, and because they were understandably concerned for their safety they took up arms…and this church went to war.

And this Dr. Azumah, is his greatest concern for radical Islam, that it would change the way we Christians live out the Gospel. That we would fail to live out the call to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us. Which coincidentally, is a command from Jesus that is utterly unique and without comparison in any world religion.

And then Dr. Azumah said this:

“It used to be commonly said that Islam was Satan’s greatest masterpiece. I believe that is not true. I believe that Satan’s greatest masterpiece was the Crusades. Why? Is it because the Crusades were the worst atrocities that ever happened in history? I think Hitler was worse. Stalin was worse. Pol Pot was worse. What is so horrible about the Crusades is that it was done under the Symbol of the Cross that Satan succeeded in distorting the very heart of the Christian faith. Satan succeeded in taking the very heart of the Christian faith and turning it around to mean not just something different, but to mean the exact opposite of what it was supposed to mean.” (quoting Joseph Cumming)

Dr. Azumah said we must fight to not let our theology and our Christian lifestyle be defined by radical Islam. Because when it is you will find churches filled with fear and hatred and anger. At it’s worst, Dr. Azumah says, our reaction to this evil is itself evil.

To be clear, he isn’t naive about what this kind of evil looks like. He wants in moments like this for the state to step in and stand against evil, but those who follow Jesus must live (and die) differently.

I’m sharing this post today because I wanted you to see that last Wednesday night, right after the most hateful and divisive election in modern history, there was a church right in the middle of West Texas that was gathering together to do the opposite of what these past 18 months of attack ads and hateful rhetoric have done.

We sat in a room with someone who teaching us how to make peace with those who would be our enemy. In the middle of a season where some would call us to hate and war with not just radical Islam, but with all Muslims, there was a church in the very red-state of Texas that was actively engaged with learning how to do the very opposite.

May we all.