{"id":33407,"date":"2017-07-12T09:41:24","date_gmt":"2017-07-12T13:41:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/?p=33407"},"modified":"2017-07-12T09:43:00","modified_gmt":"2017-07-12T13:43:00","slug":"answers-in-genesis-islam-leaves-muslims-hopeless","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2017\/07\/answers-in-genesis-islam-leaves-muslims-hopeless.html","title":{"rendered":"Answers in Genesis: Islam Leaves Muslims “Hopeless”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

I grew up in an evangelical home. From an early age, I was taught to evangelize. I didn\u2019t have many people to practice on, because I was\u00a0socialized only\u00a0with \u201clikeminded\u201d families in our church and homeschool community.\u00a0When it came time for college, I chose a secular university in part because I wanted the chance to evangelize my peers. This evangelism did not go as planned.<\/p>\n

After\u00a0entering college, I found\u00a0that what I had been taught about the unsaved\u2014that they are miserable and lost in darkness\u2014was not true. The students around me were passionate, grounded, happy. Oh certainly, there were the ordinary coming-of-age pains and struggles\u2014and those going through specific struggles in their lives were sometimes saved through various college ministries\u2014but I found no evidence of\u00a0this overarching\u00a0inner hopelessness I had been taught characterized the unsaved.<\/p>\n

All of this came to mind when I saw the following on the Answers in Genesis website, an advertisement for an article on evangelizing Muslims<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\"Screen<\/p>\n

The\u00a0article is titled \u201cIslam\u2019s View of Sin and Salvation\u201d and the promotional reads \u201cChristians should love, not fear, Muslims. If you look under the surface, you\u2019ll see just how hopeless their religion leaves them.\u201d The juxtaposition of encouraging Christians to love Muslims with a\u00a0blanket declaration of Muslim hopelessness is jarring,\u00a0particularly to those not familiar with the evangelical approach to evangelism outlined above.<\/p>\n

This approach to evangelism dabbles so fully in falsehood that it loses touch with reality. Certainly, there are individuals in any religion who are unfulfilled and struggle with feelings of hopelessness\u2014and that includes Christianity\u2014but many individuals of every faith find the\u00a0beliefs and practices of their religion\u00a0comforting and fulfilling. Sending someone out to evangelize by telling them that Muslims\u2014or those of any other faith group\u2014are de facto \u201chopeless\u201d is irresponsible to the extreme.<\/p>\n

I am no longer an evangelical, nor do I consider myself a Christian. I left\u00a0for many reasons, but one contributing factor was that the unsaved\u00a0were not as I had been taught they were<\/em>. They were not hopeless. They were not miserable. I had been taught that everyone had a Jesus-shaped \u201chole\u201d in their hearts, but this did not appear to be the case. I found that jarring. I felt misled. Some fundamental underpinning of my faith was undone.<\/p>\n

What happens when an evangelical raised on Answers in Genesis articles like the one promoted above meets a happy, fulfilled, hopeful Muslim? In addition to being\u00a0ineffective at evangelizing their new acquaintance, they may find themselves questioning previously trusted religious leaders. If they were so wrong about this,<\/em> after all, what else might they be wrong about? Evangelical young people raised on false ideas about those of other faiths aren\u2019t simply\u00a0destined to be ineffective evangelizers\u2014their own faith is also left with\u00a0an Achilles heel.<\/p>\n

Of course, most evangelicals will never attempt to evangelize a Muslim. Articles like those in Answers in Genesis may leave them unprepared to do so, but this is less important. What is more<\/em> important is that these articles leave them with stereotypes about Muslims, or Hindus, or the unsaved in general. One of the problems in our world today is that we spend more time making assumptions about those in\u00a0the world around us than we do seeking to learn more about those in the world around us. We rely on stereotypes\u2014and articles like this one feed those stereotypes.<\/p>\n

Telling your readers to \u201clove\u201d Muslims in one breath and\u00a0teaching them to view Islam as a religion of fundamental hopelessness in the next is not just unhelpful. It is also dangerous\u2014especially when\u00a0combined\u00a0with foreign policy decisions.<\/p>\n

I have a <\/b>Patreon<\/b><\/a>! Please support my writing!<\/b><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The article is titled “Islam’s View of Sin and Salvation” and the promotional reads “Christians should love, not fear, Muslims. If you look under the surface, you’ll see just how hopeless their religion leaves them.” The juxtaposition of encouraging Christians to love Muslims with a blanket declaration of Muslim hopelessness is jarring, particularly to those not familiar with the evangelical approach to evangelism outlined above. <\/p>\n

Click through to read more!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":845,"featured_media":33408,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[147,666,445],"class_list":["post-33407","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-evangelicalism-fundamentalism","tag-answers-in-genesis","tag-evangelism","tag-islam"],"yoast_head":"\nAnswers in Genesis: Islam Leaves Muslims "Hopeless"<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Telling your readers to love Muslims in one breath and teaching them to view Islam as a religion of fundamental hopelessness in the next is dangerous.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2017\/07\/answers-in-genesis-islam-leaves-muslims-hopeless.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Answers in Genesis: Islam Leaves Muslims "Hopeless"\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Telling your readers to love Muslims in one breath and teaching them to view Islam as a religion of fundamental hopelessness in the next is dangerous.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2017\/07\/answers-in-genesis-islam-leaves-muslims-hopeless.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Love, Joy, Feminism\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-07-12T13:41:24+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2017-07-12T13:43:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/166\/2017\/07\/Screen-Shot-2017-07-12-at-7.45.44-AM.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"424\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"348\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Libby Anne\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Libby Anne\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2017\/07\/answers-in-genesis-islam-leaves-muslims-hopeless.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2017\/07\/answers-in-genesis-islam-leaves-muslims-hopeless.html\",\"name\":\"Answers in Genesis: Islam Leaves Muslims \\\"Hopeless\\\"\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2017-07-12T13:41:24+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-07-12T13:43:00+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/#\/schema\/person\/fae465c1bbb5cbdf26c9e73bfd1b73d2\"},\"description\":\"Telling your readers to love Muslims in one breath and teaching them to view Islam as a religion of fundamental hopelessness in the next is dangerous.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2017\/07\/answers-in-genesis-islam-leaves-muslims-hopeless.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2017\/07\/answers-in-genesis-islam-leaves-muslims-hopeless.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2017\/07\/answers-in-genesis-islam-leaves-muslims-hopeless.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Answers in Genesis: Islam Leaves Muslims “Hopeless”\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/\",\"name\":\"Love, Joy, Feminism\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/#\/schema\/person\/fae465c1bbb5cbdf26c9e73bfd1b73d2\",\"name\":\"Libby Anne\",\"description\":\"Libby Anne grew up in a large evangelical homeschool family highly involved in the Christian Right. 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