Criticism of the Pope is overreaction

That is the title of a great article written by Brian Moseley of the Shelbyville, TN Times-Gazette.

He describes so beautifully how the ‘peaceful’ religion of Islam has again shown its real face when anyone outside Islam dares to call attention to the historical facts of the religion. The following is from the article:

Yep, the Pope says that jihad violence is against God’s nature and now the usual suspects fear that in response, Muslims enraged by this insult will commit … jihad violence. As this column is being written, a report has just come in that Muslims have blown up a youth center run by an Orthodox church in Gaza, possibly in retaliation for the Pope’s remarks.

Well, if Islam is such a “peace loving” religion, why do its followers react with such outrage to any perceived criticism — real of otherwise? Scarcely a day goes by without some Muslim cleric or politician calling for the killing of unbelievers in the name of Jihad.

He ends his article with a great quote from Winston Churchill that would certainly outrage any respectable Muslim:

“Individual Moslems may show splendid qualities, but the influence of the religion paralyzes the social development of those who follow it. No stronger retrograde force exists in the world. Far from being moribund, Mohammedanism is a militant and proselytizing faith. It has already spread throughout Central Africa, raising fearless warriors at every step; and were it not that Christianity is sheltered in the strong arms of science, the science against which it had vainly struggled, the civilization of modern Europe might fall, as fell the civilization of ancient Rome.”

Read the entire article at http://www.t-g.com/story/1168594.html.

Sensitivity?

This is an excerpt of a Bloomburg article titled “Pope Benedict Draws More Criticism for Islam Remarks (Update1)“:

Benedict began his address by quoting from a 14th-century dialogue between the Byzantine emperor Manuel II Paleologus and an “educated Persian.” The two debate the merits of reason in Christianity and the Muslim concept of holy war. Manuel, who champions faith embedded in reason, is quoted as criticizing Islam with what Benedict called “a startling brusqueness.”

“Show me just what Muhammad brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached,” Benedict quoted the emperor as saying. There is no response from the interlocutor.

While Benedict goes on to discuss the Greek roots of reason in Christianity, which he contrasts with Islam’s view that God is “absolutely transcendent,” including above reason, he doesn’t address specifically the Byzantine emperor’s perception of Islam.

Near the end of the address, Benedict said that only by recognizing the “rationality of faith” do people “become capable of that genuine dialogue of cultures and religions so urgently needed today.” The lecture is on the Vatican Web site.

And now there is story after story of the rage going on within the Muslim nations over his speech. I am not Catholic but how could anyone think that the Pope would try to create more of a rift between Christianity and Islam? It is so huge already. Perhaps he underestimated their sensitivity, especially of anything that calls attention to their history.

Muslims have such hyper-sensitivity toward any mention of their beloved prophet that almost anything said by a non-Muslim can be taken as an insult. In quote after quote in the news today, prominent Muslim clerics are insulting the Pope’s intelligence by saying that he has a poor understanding of their history. I think he has a very good understanding of where they are coming from. Especially in the area of jihad. In fact, one cleric described the doctrine of jihad as important to Islam as the doctrine of the trinity is to the Christian. In the very next statement, he criticizes the Pope’s statements, when he was actually quoting from another source.

We need to realize that their cultural mindset is so opposite ours (in the west). Take a look at any news media today and you will see (again) pictures of outraged, screaming Muslims demanding a personal apology from the Pope. Its like the cartoon thing all over again.

Whats next, will they declare jihad against the Vatican City?

What is forgiveness?

Our Lord had a lot to say about forgiveness:

“For if you forgive people their wrongdoing, your heavenly Father will forgive you as well.But if you don’t forgive people, your Father will not forgive your wrongdoing. (Mat 6:14-15)

 

Then Peter came to Him and said, “Lord, how many times could my brother sin against me and I forgive him? As many as seven times?” “I tell you, not as many as seven,” Jesus said to him, “but 70 times seven. (Mat 18:21-22)

 

And whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him, so that your Father in heaven will also forgive you your wrongdoing.[But if you don't forgive, neither will your Father in heaven forgive your wrongdoing."] (Mar 11:25-26)

There are some others: Luk 6:31-37, Luk 17:1-4, 2Co 2:5-7, Col 3:12-14, 1Jo 1:8-10.

The only lesson we can possibly get from these verses is that we, as Christians, are to forgive those that wrong us, if we are to expect our Father to forgive us.

So what is forgiveness? A great definition is found on http://www.forgive.org/forgive.html:

Q: What is the true meaning of forgiveness? When I say, “I forgive,” what am I saying?

A: If you ever had your feelings hurt and you forgave the person for it, and, inside of you, you allowed them the chance to hurt your feelings again, then you really did forgive them.

You entered into real, true forgiveness because you allowed them the opportunity to come back to you again. That’s forgiveness. But if you remember who they were and what they said and what they did and the time they did it, and if you say you forgave them, you didn’t.

We don’t really forgive when we still have the feeling of the memory of the hurt.

Just like God forgets our sins against Him, we are to forget the wrongs committed against us. With no expectations; with nothing expected in return. I know that for most of us, this can be very difficult and may take a long time. But we must trust God and turn it over to Him.

How should the house church respond when a member continues to hold grudges and is not interested in forgiving?

 

The Habits of the Church

My friend, AZRON, has been doing a series on his blog on the habits of the church.  In his first post on this subject back on 8/23, he cites this quote:

“To call a church a community of virtues is to identify the habits of the church. The church is that body which out of habit tells the truth; which out of habit loves enemies, feeds the hungry, forgives sinners; which out of habit praises God for what we have received,…prays and worships.” (taken from Harry Huebner and David Schroeder, The Church as Parable, 1993,p. 179)

Ron’s subsequent posts have been very insightful and I strongly recommend reading them.   As I reflected on the above quote and some issues that we have been having in our church, it finally hit me.  I don’t know why it took so long.  We need to develop these habits to be the “community of virtues” that God wants us to be.  These things don’t just happen, they need to be worked on, nurtured, and sought after in prayer every day.  I have noticed that some folks in the house church movement have the impression that with community, all these other virtues will take place naturally.  I don’t think so.  People are still people, imperfect and sinful.  It takes work to develop good habits.  A community of believers will not be the holy church God wants unless we strive to make those habits part of our life and our testimony.

I resolve to look for ways to do this in my life and to help my brothers and sisters to do the same.

Offensive Prayer

We had our bi-weekly prayer night last night. Attendance was lower than it has been in the past but our purposes were as great as ever. John and I were joined by Chad from Tempe and David from Apache Junction.

As we do normally, we talked about how God is working in our lives and house churches. It seemed evident that the enemy is attacking our church and that we need to counter that attack with offensive prayer.
We followed this time with very fervent prayer. I think we all felt the presence of Christ interceding for us before the Throne of God. This prayer time was very offensive to our enemy.

We have to keep the offensive going. Please join us in praying for the house churches in the east valley.