Let’s just keep turning down the heat.

We often hear that Islam is steeped in war, and that the Koran counsels ongoing warlike attitudes and continual war upon the infidels (non-Muslims). There is truth in these claims. In the seventh century, Islam was established in Arabia by military conquest. And, in this respect, it is much more like Judaism than Christianity.

Most of us have a highly sanitized, Sunday School view of Moses, but if we read thoughtfully we will see that, as well as being a prophet and the receiver of the law, he was a fearsome military leader. The Bible is quite clear (Exodus through Joshua) that Israel was established in Canaan by military conquest. So the warrior-prophet, Mohamed, is much more comparable to Moses than to Jesus, who never conducted or counseled violence of any kind.

Jews, however, have managed to foster those peaceful elements of their faith, and to limit the more warlike elements, to the point that most people today, with the possible exception of those who are presently at war with Israel, would recognize Judaism as a religion of peace. And most Moslems today are trying to do the same thing with Islam. They are fostering a spiritual understanding of jihad, and Christians should be encouraging them in this effort, rather than inciting fear every time the word appears. Words like "jihad", because of their history of bloodshed and violence, are admittedly problematic, but no more so than the word "crusade", which, though it never appears in the Bible, has posed a problem for Christians in much the same way.

Words are fascinating, but so problematic that sometimes I wish we could all just hum for a while. "Islam", for example, means "submission" and most Muslims interpret this as something they themselves must do before God, but some people suggest it should be understood as something they intend to inflict upon others. It, no doubt, has a terrible history, but it isn't inevitably defined by its history. I wonder what the verb "convert" meant for those who, during the Crusades, were forced to submit to Jesus at sword point. Surely Islam must be allowed to grow and evolve over the centuries in the same way Christianity and Judaism have.

Of course it's right and prudent to be concerned about militant anything, including Islam. But we must be very careful to not stir up fear in people. John tells us, "There is no fear in love…" 1 John 4:18, so it’s fear that makes love so difficult for us. And we all see what fear can do, whether promoted by Jews and Muslims in the Middle East, or Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland, or the fine, upstanding Christians in the Ku Klux Klan.

My little contribution to this pacifying effort is simply to encourage people to refuse to send emails around that may have the effect of stirring up fear. "…perfect love drives out fear…" 1 John 4:18 And I’m sure we can do this in spite of our fear, with God’s help of course. For, as our Muslim friends so often remind us, GOD IS GREAT.

The Shack

I make a modest attempt to keep up with popular spirituality, which means, among other things, reading New York Times best sellers once in a while. Of course a best seller is just a book that, for whatever reason, is selling like crazy, so I wasn’t particularly surprised to find that The Shack, by William P Young, is not a great book. But I’m still inclined to recommend it.

I don’t really like the style. It feels overwritten in places and, like too many Evangelical novels, tends toward drippy sentimentality. And it’s really mystifying to me that Young would begin the book with a Larry Norman quote that’s actually a very unpoetic reworking of a well known verse by Robert Frost. I feared for a moment that he was avoiding non-Christian references, but he later quoted Rousseau, Kahlil Gibran, and Albert Einstein. Go figure.

Apart from these style matters the only thing that seriously bothered me was The Missy Project outlined at the end of the book. This is a pretentious, self indulgent, marketing scheme in which readers who’ve “been touched by the wonder of this book” are asked to flog it as widely as possible, buying copies to give to family, friends and even total strangers. It seems to be working, however, so what do I know? One of the reviewers I read said he’s been buying them by the case. Hmmm, so that’s how you produce a best seller. Perhaps the Gideons could start placing it in hotel rooms alongside that other best seller. Come to think of it, maybe it’s naïve to imagine that good books can make it on their own.

All this being said, there are some things about The Shack I did enjoy. For example, the presentation of God in three persons was creative, and the Father appearing as a black woman was an interesting way to challenge the traditional, unbiblical stereotype. It was also fun to see Her cooking and cleaning and listening to heavy metal, secular music just for enjoyment and because She loves the artists. – Works for me. If we are to believe John 3:16 God loves Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin just as much as The Gaithers and Casting Crowns. – And She steadfastly insists that She’s “especially fond” of all of them.

The discussion of suffering and God’s purposes is also very worthwhile, as are the discussions of heaven, the church, God’s relationship with non-believers, and the importance and nature of forgiveness. These are matters we need to reflect on more thoughtfully than we often do, and this book gets the wheels turning. And I particularly appreciated the Father’s insistence that She never, for a moment, turned Her back on Jesus when he was dying on the cross; a view I've been promoting for many years. – And doesn’t this gender thing mess with your mind?

Of course, I have some theological disagreements with this book, as I do with almost everything, but who cares? it’s well worth reading. It won’t change the world, but if it manages to change our minds about a few things that’s more than enough to ask.

So many contemporary Christian books are dogmatic and narrow, answering questions no one’s asking. This one is open and inquisitive, questioning answers too many have accepted for too long. And it’s also kinda fun.

Let’s Encourage Conversation

As I say, if you google around a bit you will find that Holocaust teaching is compulsory in the UK, but you will also find that the concern expressed is not utterly without foundation. Click on the following Daily Mail article, Teachers Drop Holocaust, for example. It’s clear that some people are concerned that the Holocaust is being soft-peddled in some schools, but that’s a far cry from suggesting that it’s a general policy of the schools of the UK, or that Muslims have had anything directly to do with it. Another article in the TIMES entitled, Holocaust Group Slams British Schools, leaves much the same impression.

These articles indicate that it’s difficult to teach controversial subjects in the public schools; something Christians know from our own experience here in North America. For us, of course, the big issues have been different -- evolution, sexuality, and a few works of literature like The Catcher in the Rye (the "F" word) and Huckleberry Finn (the "N" word) -- but the general situations are probably much the same. Though every now and then a particular issue blows up in the media, I expect if we did a study we would find lots of teachers just quietly soft peddle these topics, or avoid them all together, because they are "afraid" of what might happen if they wade in. It's not so much a concern for their personal safety, though in some extreme situations it may be, but they worry about what might happen in the classroom if, for example, an all out war were to erupt between the godless evolutionists and the godless creationists. I've been in these battles, on both sides of some of them, and I've seen what can happen. I understand the reluctance of teachers when they hit these hot topics

As the demographics of our society change, the hot topics will change, but the principles remain the same. Just as Christians resent it when departments of education mandate that our children be taught things in school that go against what we are teaching them at home and in church, so we can expect that Muslims and others will resent it when the same is done to them. And the solution, of course, is the same for them as it has been for us; public, reasoned, civil dialogue.

We need to have the humility to understand that, no matter what the topic, some people are going to disagree. Perhaps some of these disagreeable folk are evil, ignorant, confused or just plain stupid, but most of them are just like us, reasonable people with reasonable concerns. But the only way to know one from the other is by talking to them and, thanks to our own battles, Christians have the expertise to be very helpful in this situation.

I want to reiterate that I believe the Holocaust happened pretty much the way we've been told, and that I also believe it should be a prominent part of the public education curriculum. But the Holocaust, for many reasons, has always been a controversial topic for some populations among us. Learning to deal with controversial topics is part of education in a civil society, and it is, therefore, an important part of the work of public education to manage, not suppress, dissent.

Why Should We Remember the Holocaust?

A few weeks ago I received an email claiming that “This week, the UK removed The Holocaust from its school curriculum because it 'offended' the Muslim population which claims it never occurred”. It contained pictures of Holocaust death camps and warned that “This is a frightening portent of the fear that is gripping the world and how easily each country is giving in to it”. And, as a memorial to those who died, who must not be forgotten, it requested that I forward the email to as many as possible.

Now, I believe the Holocaust took place pretty much as we’ve been told. I am sympathetic to the cause of remembering it, and I believe we need to learn the great lessons the Holocaust has to teach us. But I am not sympathetic to the cause of this email which has been circulating for many years at the expense of the Muslim community. The claim that the teaching of the Holocaust is banned in the UK, because of the Muslims or for any other reason, is factually untrue. If you google around a bit you will find that Holocaust teaching is compulsory in UK schools.

This email is actually a cynical attempt to stir up fear and resentment toward Muslims. And, if we remember the Holocaust, we should also remember that this is the sort of misinformation Hitler used to foster fear and hatred of the Jews. It is precisely this kind of bigotry and manipulation of public sentiment that the memory of the Holocaust should cause us to resist. So, if you receive this email, or any like it, Please don't forward to anyone without checking it out. People are still getting hurt.