09.17.2012 01:32 PM

God and hate

An evangelical Christian who must be read:

I tried to watch it, but I couldn’t make it halfway to the 13-minute mark. Everything about it was tawdry, pathetic, even pornographic. All but the most fundamentalist believers from my evangelical Christian tribe who watch that video will be appalled and ashamed to be associated with it.

It is hate speech. It is no different from the anti-Semitic garbage that has been all too common in Western Christian history. It is sub-Christian – beneath the dignity of anyone with a functioning moral compass.

Islamophobic evangelical Christians – and the neo-conservative Catholics and even some Jewish folks who are their unlikely political bedfellows of late – must choose.

Will they press on in their current path, letting Islamophobia spread even further amongst them? Or will they stop, rethink and seek to a more charitable approach to our Muslim neighbors? Will they realize that evangelical religious identity is under assault, not by Shariah law, not by the liberal media, not by secular humanism from the outside, but by forces within the evangelical community that infect that religious identity with hostility?

If I could get one message through to my evangelical friends, it would be this: The greatest threat to evangelicalism is evangelicals who tolerate hate and who promote hate camouflaged as piety.

No one can serve two masters. You can’t serve God and greed, nor can you serve God and fear, nor God and hate.

8 Comments

  1. Michael Behiels says:

    Exceptional comment. There need to be a great many more comments like this one. The message bears repeating endlessly.

    Yes, all New Right Evangelical Christian conservatives must take heed of this message.

    Extremists within their midst will destroy their movement and its religious beliefs.

    This has happened all too often in the past with various religious faiths and it is happening once again.

    The same comment applies to extremist Muslims who have hijacked the Koran and the Islamic faith and turned both into incendiary instruments of hate and death.

    Moderates of all kinds must work very hard to take back their beliefs and values from the extremists within their midst who are exploiting them for personal power and often for cash.

  2. Michael says:

    i read the article and felt real good about it.

    then i read the comments section. good feelings gone.

  3. Dan says:

    Why do the most mean-spirited, us-vs-them, hell-for-our-enemies Christians have the loudest voices? They’re giving Christians a bad name. Most of us carry our faith in our hearts, and show that we’re Christians by being good to others. They’re the ones who think it’s still a contest to see who can convert the most people under some kind of banner.

  4. Jon Evan says:

    “The way of Christ is a gentle strength that transcends the vicious cycles of offense-outrage-revenge.”
    I agree completely! For the words of Jesus speak to all of us who use violent words: “for all who draw the sword will die by the sword.” Words like swords wound and destroy and those who wield them will pay the price!

  5. Riaz Khan says:

    You could say that for the last few days, I have been numb. My own struggles regarding what I should be and who I should or should not worship were over long time ago. I was lucky as I had a father who taught me love and respect for every human being and why your relationship with your God or no relation at all is your private matter. By the way, I am a Pakistani-Canadian married to a white- Catholic girl. However, images of people being killed and burned makes me feel that somehow we have not made a true transformation from caves. All I have been doing is praying- slowly and in my heart for wisdom and compassion for all souls on this planet.

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