Glenn Jackson's Article

Upon reading the ASSIST News Service story about Islam being taught in the California public schools I thought it would be worthwhile, in view of the imposed separation of Christian Church and state, to ask many of the mainline Christian denominations for a reaction to the story. The reactions could be summed up by “we have no reaction” until our General Conference, General Assembly, or appropriate governing body meets. Only the Orthodox Presbyterian Church had a definitive pronouncement of opposition, the rest did not imagine their governing bodies would respond to the issue.

On January 10, 2002 I wrote an essay entitled “The Foundation of Social Order”, which made the point that the failure of the Christian Church in America was pronounced, and contributed in large part to the current excesses of our political and business leaders in their lack of moral commitment to this nation’s citizens. In essence an assault on the foundations of our social order was being aided and abetted by the Christian Church through their lukewarm responses toward abuses. Granted the Christian Church, in its multitude of denominations, is concerned with the state of the individual’s relationship to God. Nevertheless the Church is called to be a house built upon the Rock of God’s truth and should therefore be a voice against societal wrongs even if their primary concern is the individual’s relationship with God.

The Church universal is failing. Failing it’s charge to be the voice of Good News for the world, and failing to stand strongly against injustice and moral wrong. Clearly many denominations have adopted the way of the world, instead of the command of Christ to be a light unto the world. Nothing shows this adoption of the world’s way more then the ascendance of moral relativism in the worldview of the majority of the Christian Churches' leadership.

Moral relativism is simply situational ethics whereby the circumstances surrounding any event create the moral understanding of that event. Current events highlighting moral relativism would be the arguments surrounding “Hate” crime legislation, and the current investigations into the massive corporate bankruptcies, i.e. Republicans and Enron – bad, Democrats and Global Crossings – only sad.

Nothing demonstrates the Churches fall into the apostasy of moral relativism better then an article submitted in answer to my question posed to the United Methodist Church regarding Islam being taught in California public schools.

The UMC submitted article (provided below) was by the Reverend Bruce Robbins, General Secretary of UMC General Commission on Christian Unity and Interreligious Concerns. The Rev. Robbins in his article was addressing the responses he had received to an earlier article he had written on Islam post-September 11^th. He laments reactions to that earlier article that he fears reflects a misunderstanding of Islam as a religion of hate and intolerance. He puts forward several suggestions to help mitigate the perceived misunderstandings of Islam.

One of the most interesting aspects of the Rev. Robbins latest article is his use of the principles of the Christian faith to defend Islam. Frankly, I would have found more comfort with the assertion that Islam is not a religion of hate and intolerance if Rev. Robbins had provided that defense from within the teachings of Islam itself.

Indeed Rev. Robbins fails completely to represent Christianity and its distinct differences with Islam. Instead he takes the approach of equivalence, which is to say he relies on the argument of moral relativism. He creates an argument of equivalence between the condoning of violence shown by many leaders of Islam and the Koran itself, with the use of violence by a few individuals, denounced by Christian leaders, in the anti-abortion groups.

Yet most egregious I believe is the argument, once again from Christian principles, to provide a means of explaining the excesses of Islam. The Rev. Robbins use of the scripture found at 2 Corinthians 5:18 is as wrong as it is proof of his relativistic worldview. The Reverend asserts that this verse from the Bible calls Christians to a “ministry of reconciliation”, a call for Christians to go “beyond toleration” and to a “search for explanation and understanding of the deepest needs of human persons”.

The implication of the Reverend’s interpretation of this scripture is that the individual Christian believer is to reconcile their beliefs with that of other “belief systems” in such a manner as to be open to the "truth" of that belief systems worldview.

First to the scriptural reference of 2 Corinthians which states that “Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ, and gave us the ministry of reconciliation”. Which means simply that Christians believe in the truth of Mankind’s sinful nature and that through Christ we are made new and reconciled to God. The teaching and proclaiming of that simple truth gives each Christian believer the ministry to help reconcile others to God as well. The Rev. Robbins has shown clearly the abject poverty of his beliefs and his worldview by falsely “adjusting” that simple absolute truth to a meaning of relative truth and “toleration” for evil.

Yet beyond the misinterpreted scriptural reference Rev. Robbins provides an all to common example of the thinking within the Christian Church, and to the proof of the Churches' fall into the relativistic wasteland of apostasy. The Christian Church in America is no longer a defender of the foundations of the American social order because they have no belief system from which such a defense would spring.

Christianity is a belief in the absolute truths of God’s creation and redemptive order. As such the Christian faith is a forward-looking faith with a belief in the redemption of the individual to God through Christ. Such a belief system elevates the individual and the human freedoms, which we in this country hold so dear. The abdication of the absolute truths of Christianity for the relativistic non-judgment propounded by the non-belief system of Rev. Robbins and his ilk leads the individual into the wasteland of self-delusion and separation from God. The Reverend Robbins, as well as the Christian Church in America, are failing in their calling and their service to the Christian faith.

“The Islamic world is a hostile place for Christians: In Saudi Arabia, for instance, Christianity is illegal, and conversion from Islam is punishable by death. In Pakistan, the death penalty is prescribed for anyone who "blasphemes" Islam - something that occurs automatically during Christian evangelism. In Egypt and elsewhere, Christian girls have acid thrown in their face by Islamic extremists if they refuse to convert to Islam, or are raped, or worse. At best, in the more enlightened Islamic societies, Christians (as well as Jews) are second-class citizens, have a special tax imposed upon them, and do not share the rights of Muslims.” (http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=26501)

I have been surprised at some responses to a recent UMNS story in which I said that Islam, a great living faith tradition of this world, is growing faster than any other with more than a billion adherents. Some objected to my comments by pointing to Islam's holy book, the Koran, as a book of "hate and evil." These reactions reflect widespread

misunderstanding that can have terrible consequences upon the needed relationships between Christians and Muslims in the United States. Such points of view may underlie instances of violence carried out in recent days against Muslims, Middle Easterners, Arabs and so many others. Even a friend from India told me how he feared for his wife and children.

Imagine if someone decided to portray Christianity as a religion of hate and violence. Do you think he or she would have trouble using the Bible to prove that it was so? If the quotations were exact from the Bible, many who don't know Christianity would believe it.

Were I to try to characterize Christianity in that hateful way, I might start with the words of Jesus, "I have not come to bring peace but a sword" (Matt 10:34). Then I might turn to one of the countless Old Testament passages that speaks graphically of violence against the enemies of God. Of course, those "enemies" would be the persons opposed to us and our God.

Any one of us who knows the Bible could portray an awful picture and leave out the overwhelming message of love and reconciliation that is at the heart of the Gospel. That portrayal would bear false witness to the life and faith of Christians who seek to proclaim a new way of life to all humanity. Our communities across the United States have changed dramatically in recent years. At one time, we assumed that nearly everyone was Christian, especially in rural communities. Our tolerance was uneven. Synagogues were sometimes attacked by misguided and hateful people.

Today, Christians are still predominant, but there are Jews, Hindus, Muslims and Buddhists in nearly every community. As staff executive of the United Methodist Commission on Christian Unity and Interreligious Concerns, I recognize that we need to provide assistance and clearer guidelines for our relationships with other faith communities, especially in times of trial like the present.

1. Do not bear false witness against your neighbor. Today, the test case is the Muslim. In response to the bloody attack against civilians in the United States, one prominent Muslim leader said the following: "Our hearts bleed for the attacks that have targeted the World Trade Center [WTC], as well as other institutions in the United States." He also said that Islam, a religion of tolerance, holds the human soul in high esteem, and considers the attack against innocent human beings a grave sin. He believes the Koran makes this teaching clear.

2. Do not judge another tradition by its worst practitioners and yours by its best. When many of us think of Islam, we think of fundamentalists in Afghanistan or some other part of the world. When we think of Christianity, we hold up our saints. Without dishonoring Christianity, we can recognize that our own religion has been used to further hate and violence. Many things done in the name of Christianity were neither faithful nor Christian. Islam is no more about attacking the World Trade Center than Christianity is about bombing abortion clinics. Can we remember that the horrendous acts done in New York by people calling themselves "Muslim" do not reflect that tradition and are condemned by it?

3. Remember that Jesus' teaching calls us to a "ministry of reconciliation" (2 Corinthians 5:18). The call to us goes beyond an "eye for an eye." It even goes beyond toleration and asks us to search for explanation and understanding of the deepest needs of human persons. We can never ignore injustice, and we should always call people to account for their evil actions. But we can seek to understand the forces that may have caused them to hate so much and to kill. A ministry of reconciliation involves hearing and responding in love to the other, even the other who is an enemy.

4. Establish contact with Muslims and Arab Americans in your community. United Methodist congregations could help heal the wounds we all feel by reaching out and talking with those persons being targeted by the anger resulting from the terrorist attacks. Could your church send a group to a mosque to learn more about Islam and to hear the concerns and hopes of people who practice there? So many Christians do not realize the bonds between Christianity, Judaism and Islam. We all worship the one and the same God of the Abrahamic tradition yet with different perspectives and understandings.

Through Bible study, preaching and discipleship, United Methodists can join others seeking to live into the new world, changed dramatically by the treacherous acts of Sept. 11, 2001. May we learn enough about one another from different faith communities that we will proclaim the best of one another, even when we don't understand. And may our prayers for compassion and understanding be answered.

Glenn R. Jackson is Chairman of the American Reformation Project, former State Chairman for Buchanan Reform and former state Chairman of the Georgia Freedom Party. Glenn also served on the Executive Committee of the Reform Party USA. Glenn holds an MA in Philosophy from Georgia State University in Atlanta.