Maybe it’s not bliss after all…

From time to time, it seems, I need to get something off my chest. Occasionally I’ll see or hear something that strikes a chord within me, and I feel a need to rant a bit. Evidently now is one of those times.

In the last 72 hours, some folks have asked me to watch a video. At least one of these friends I’ve known for more than 20 years.  They’re my friends on Facebook – but that doesn’t mean that they aren’t friends “in real life” too…

This video they’ve forwarded is called “Three Things About Islam” – it’s put out by a European group calling themselves White R0ses. They get their name from a group of non-violent intellectual-types who protested the Nazi regime in the 40s. They were most known for a widespread leaflet campaign pointing out the evils of Nazi policy… It makes sense that they’d make a video now – I think you could say that videos are a natural descendant of leaflets.

The video was put up on YouTube, which is the site I was directed to watch. On this YouTube site alone, this video been viewed nearly 1.5 million times. Yes, that’s MILLION, qualifying it as a viral hit – and that’s just from this site. It’s also been forwarded, posted, and otherwise distributed all over, so there’s no way to know exactly how many times it’s been seen – but I think we can agree that it’s been a lot.

Of course, as anyone who has ever attended a high school prom knows, popularity doesn’t make truth.  Viral videos gave us water-skiing squirrels, and Justin Bieber.

As it turns out, we’d be just as wise to base our worldview on water-skiing squirrels or Justin Bieber as this video about Islam.

Let’s look at a few points – I am not going to talk about every little thing, and I’ll explain why in a bit.

The first major point these guys try to make is that Islam hasn’t been hijacked. They  say that Islam presents a unified, monolithic front – and that (unlike the Bible) the Qur’an is a single document written by a single man.

The first half of that point is completely wrong – and the second half is strongly misleading.

Like Christianity, Islam has had several extremely large splits, and a great number of smaller splits – there is nothing unified or monolithic about it. You’ve heard of Sunni, Shi’a, and Wahhabi – and that’s just some of the divisions… These groups have fundamental differences in their beliefs – differences that are far more elemental than the differences between, say, Lutherans and Presbyterians.

Claiming that one specific group of insane, criminal Muslims represents the entire faith of Islam is EXACTLY the same as saying that Terry Jones (of the Florida Wannabe-Qur’an-burning Joneses) represents all of Christianity. If you are one who believes the latter, you should probably stop reading this now – it won’t do you any good.

The video guys also talk a lot about Shariah… much of it wrong. For example, they talk about Shariah and the Qur’an almost interchangeably. But the fact is that the writings of Islam are spread out among the Qur’an, another book known as the Sayings of the Prophet, and books of interpretation called the fiqh. Like the Talmud, the fiqh aren’t considered divine – rather, they are interpretations and extrapolations from various Muslim scholars over hundreds of years.

Remember when we talked about the various divisions of Islam just a few seconds ago? Well, each of these groups has its own set of interpretations… Much of what is considered Shariah comes from these various fiqhs…

What does that all mean? It means, there is no single understanding of Shariah. In fact, some of it was intentionally designed to be culturally flexible so as to give Muslims a ‘path’ to follow in whatever time period they happen to inhabit. In the same way that most Christians don’t follow what passed as ‘Christian’ teaching in the 5th, 9th, 12th, or even 19th centuries, modern understandings and interpretations of Shariah have shifted with time.

Let’s talk for one sec about the claim made in this video about Shariah ‘courts’ in the UK and other places. They make it sound as though Shariah ‘law’ is making significant headway in the judicial systems of these governments. Here’s the deal – anytime two parties agree to binding arbitration from a third-party arbitrator, the results are binding. So when Muslims who have domestic issues seek to resolve them, some might choose to avoid the court system in favor of arbitration from another Muslim. If they all agree, the decision is binding. This is NOT a unique scenario – binding arbitration has been around for hundreds of years. Even international arbitration guidelines have been around since 1923 – that’s international…between separate countries, for those in the cheap seats! To say that Muslims agreeing to arbitration is tantamount to Shariah taking over our courts is like saying that ‘rock/paper/scissors’ is the codified legal means of conflict resolution since sports bar patrons use it to decide who’s buying the next round.

A quick aside – one of the chief worries that’s being exploited here is the fear that Muslims want to enforce their religious beliefs on us…even if we aren’t Muslim. Does anyone else see the irony here? The ones who are the most afraid of this are fundamentalist American Christians – the very ones who insist that everyone in America follow their rules. For example, they insist that they get to decide who can marry whom – based on their religious convictions – even if the ones who want to marry aren’t Christian. Hard to find a better example of pot&kettle disease.

Ok, enough with the specifics… the points I want to make don’t even have anything to do with the specifics.

First, I believe that Christians should make every effort to speak truth. Technology has definitely increased the level of temptation in this regard. With Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, not to mention the new stuff that’s coming down the road, it’s unbelievably easy to forward stuff to lots and lots of people with the simple click of a mouse. Receiving a video like this, watching it, and sending it out to your friends – all of that takes no time at all… other than the actual watching of the video, the rest is simply a matter of seconds.

Given that, I think we need to be extra careful and make sure stuff is true, noble, right, pure, lovely, and admirable (to paraphrase Philippians) before we send it out.

I’m not just worried about the fact that it’s basically spreading gossip… I’m worried about the fact that we reflect Christianity when we act.

This brings me to the other point… there are a LOT of Christians who are intellectually lazy to the point of being actually harmful to the spread of the Gospel. People don’t want to study for themselves. They believe what they hear or read from “pundits” on talk radio or cable news or email forwards or blogs or whatever. They don’t want to research it for themselves, partially because they trust these information sources. Why trust the interpretations of folks with obvious agendas? That’s part of the very definition of intellectual dishonesty.

If you’re getting information from a website or a so-called “grass roots organization” that has a name like LoyalPatriotsForJeeeeezuz.com or ReclaimAmericaForGodFearingWhiteFolk or something equally inane, consider the possibility that they have a slant to what they’re telling/selling you.

When you hear or read something – CHECK IT OUT FOR YOURSELF!

Here’s a huge hint… the Qur’an is FREE! You can read it for free online, or on your iPhone, or on your iPad, or on your Kindle… for FREE!

If you’re the type of person who gets upset when someone takes a single verse of the Bible and quotes it out of context in order to make a point that you don’t believe… why would you think it’s any better to do the same with the Qur’an? It’s NOT.

Remember when Paul went to Athens in Acts 17? He went to the Areopagus, near the city’s public market, and checked out the various shrines and images and altars to various deities. And then he started speaking to them – preaching the message of Jesus. Remember how he went about it? He pointed out a shrine to the unknown God, and he went from there. One of the most amazing aspects of this sermon was that he quoted ONE OF THEIR OWN WRITERS.

Paul quoted a work called Phaenomena which dealt with the divine aspects of Zeus. This work was written by a Stoic poet/philosopher named Aratus, who had died some 350-ish years before.

Why is this important? It’s kinda the central point of my whole rant.

It’s important because PAUL KNEW THIS GUY’S WRITING. Paul was tasked to bring the message of Jesus to the Gentiles… and he knew that, in order to do that, in order to be effective at all in this endeavor, he would need to know something about their beliefs and ideas and philosophies and religions. Paul’s sermon starts with their beliefs and moves forward from there.

When Philip met up with that Ethiopian, he started with Isaiah – the very book the Ethiopian was reading – and moved forward from there.

When Jesus spoke with Nicodemus, he started with the question Nicodemus asked him, and moved forward from there.

How can we be effective in speaking with someone if we can’t start with the lowest common denominator? We can’t.

So, what am I saying? Should every Christian read the Qur’an? I don’t think so. But if we are going to participate in a debate about Islam, integrity kinda forces us to know something about it. If we are going to participate in a debate about evolution vs creationism, integrity kinda forces us to read something about evolution that wasn’t written in the 1970s by faux-scientists with a preference for persuasion over accuracy. If we’re going to participate in a debate about politics or public policy or economics, integrity kinda forces us to read up a bit… and actually learn the definitions of the words that get thrown about without thought, like socialism or capitalism.

And finally, remember my point about not just accepting the words of folks with agendas? Well – I have an agenda. In I Timothy, Paul mentions that elders should have good reputations with outsiders. I don’t think that goal is for elders alone – I believe all Christians should strive for it.

Since I have an agenda, I don’t want anyone to just accept my words here. If you’re reading this, I want you to study, learn, read for yourself. As Mulder used to say, the truth is out there… so go find it.

Sorry for the long rant – but as Janet says, the MikeyPedia button got pushed. For those who made it to the end of this – I’m proud of you! Now go do some reading!

Peace!