The Once and Future Conflict

It should come as no surprise that since humanity's fall into sin we have been in conflict. It is the nature of our existence. More often than not that conflict has coalesced around those of differing belief systems. For simplicity sake the conflicts are colloquially known as "religious wars".

From the conflicts between the Hyksos interlopers against the indigenous Egyptians to the great Exodus battle between Pharaoh and Moses to the epic struggles between followers of Baal and followers of Yaweh to the Christian Crusades against the Muslim Caliphates there is little of history free from religiously driven conflict. That goes for today's conflicts driven by followers of Islam bent on seeing their religious beliefs hold sway over greater and greater numbers of people.

Living in the relative cocoon of technology and comfort here in the U.S. we have been anesthetized to the faith driven nature of conflict. I hear leaders talk about lesser causes like poverty, hunger, and income inequality. All of which pale by comparison to the true driver of conflict, the desire to have one's religious system become dominant.

I'm a verbal processor which means I develop my thoughts by either talking them out or writing them out. It's my intention to write out the thoughts I've been developing regarding the growing trend in our country among some Christian leaders to embrace Muslims in a show of loving acceptance. Let me be clear up front that I truly believe Jesus' call to love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. However, I'm seeing a trend toward accepting those active in the Muslim faith and standing in solidarity with them as Christians. This is, in my opinion, the height of foolishness and ignorance. The Christian worldview is diametrically opposed to the Muslim worldview as easily discerned by reading the foundational texts of the two religions, the Bible and the Q'uran.

We are well into the early days of a coming conflict that will be awful and heartbreaking for many in this country. I am quite troubled by Christian pastors, authors and leaders rushing to support their Muslim counterparts in, what I can only imagine is, an expression of Godly love for them. I'm not sure Jesus' call to love your enemy means laying down and inviting your enemy to take control over your community, government and/or country. But we'll see where my verbal processing leads over the next few posts.