Let me preface today's blog by telling you that I am a proud Christian married happily to a Muslim man. I lived and worked for three and a half years side by side with Muslims in a Muslim community. They were open, accepting, and genuinely gracious to me about my religion. The image that American media paints of the Muslim world is not the reality that I have seen with my own eyes.
"The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man,[c] 25 nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. 26And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, 27 that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him." Acts 17:24-27
If as the Bible says, that all human beings come from one man, and that he created all nations, and that he gives to all mankind life and everything in our lives... then why do do so many Christians in America treat Muslims as if they were not created by the same God that made Christians? Why do Christians feel they have the right to discriminate, judge, put down, harass and ridicule a race of people created by God himself? What makes us so arrogant as a nation to think we are more loved, or better than anyone else that God put on this earth?
This week I've finally gotten back on facebook. I've tried to stay a way for the last two to three months, as every time I got online I would see posts and comments from my fellow Christians about Muslims and Islam. Honestly, it took every ounce of my willpower to just stay off the internet and not fight back. I hate that so many people make assumptions and judgments about millions of people they've never even met before. These human beings who want nothing more than to lead a good life, raise their children to be good people, to live a life dedicated to God (yes the same one that Christians worship, and if you think that is inaccurate maybe you should read Islam for Dummies). These are people that God created too. It hurts me to know that we are teaching the children of America to hate. We are openly and actively discriminating Muslim exchange students, and our own Muslims who live in America. Whatever happened to love thy neighbor? Do we get to conveniently pick and choose what passages of the bible to believe? Do we no longer believe that racism is against God's desires for us? (IF you don't believe that, here is a list of passages in the Bible that tell us God wants us to love each other, to accept each other, and to coexist together: http://www.openbible.info/topics/racism)
Look, I know I'm one person. I know that this blog may no longer even be read by anyone. But it hurts my heart to know that there are people I love who have no problem advocating for hatred against other people that I love, in the name of Christianity. The television show West Wing once used an analogy that the Terrorist Muslim groups are to Islam what the KKK is to Christianity. So why are we still acting like all Muslims are terrorists? Stop blaming it on Christianity and saying it is what the Bible says, because it isn't and presuming to know God's mind and heart is offensive. Presuming that God doesn't want us to love the Muslim brothers and sisters he put on the planet with us is offensive. Just stop it and learn to accept those people that God puts on this planet. No one asks to be born. We don't choose to be born. You can't honestly think that there are different Gods who create babies to burn in hell for being born into the wrong region of the world... really, are we that arrogant? Wake up and try living a life by example instead of trying to spend all your time telling everyone else how to live. If Facebook has become a way for Christians to justify their bullying then I want no part of it. We ask our children to not cyber bully, yet we have no problem using Facebook to publicly proclaim superiority. God shows no partiality. ( Romans 2:11 )
1 John 2:9 Whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness.
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