![]() Coates was giving that he seemed more comfortable with the world than the relatively conservative positions with which the Baptist denomination is usually associated. This is described as a "mega Church" with thousands of members. Returning to the previously mentioned conference, I was excited to have the opportunity to attend a lecture given by Dr. That's the Christian thing to do, after all. So, even if some dimensions of the movement are troubling, I support it insofar as it helps bring respect and courtesy to communications with those of different ethnic or social backgrounds. (The fact that many of its supporters exclude conservatives from all the other differences they are quick to praise is unfortunate.)Īs I commented in another blog post recently concerning " Lost in Translation," I think I recognize now more than in the past that racism sometimes takes a more subtle and insidious grasp than we may realize. While there may be elements of the diversity movement which strike me as unhealthy and cliche-ridden, the bottom line is that it draws attention to what many of us Christians either are doing already or should have been be doing all along: engaging our fellow man with respect and courtesy. Someday I'll tell the whole account, but suffice to say that I have had a realization that sometimes it's important to lend support to a movement when it helps brings about the greater good. While diversity is not a term with which I am always at ease-primarily on account of its most vociferous supporters' proclivity for using it as a weapon with which to pound conservatives-my feelings on the topic have somewhat softened of late. I had an interesting experience recently to attend a diversity conference in Salem. If one person's obscure and unsupported blasphemy against Muhammad can incite such unbridled anger and unjust response, can the faith really be in the one true God at all, and why does a "nobody" with a video camera hold such a power over a people-except that that people want that power to be so held? This is a common sense view within the Western Tradition, and a similar logic would perhaps be put to sound use by the radicalized followers of the Islamic tradition. That is, for example, if a Christian virgin were raped, that does not bring sin upon the victim of rape. In Saint Augustine's City of God, he discusses how the evil persecution of the Christian faithful does not bring sin and impurity to its victims. If anyone in any place has the power to enrage many to such a grievous point of sin, where is the strength of faith and reason? Where's the reason, intellectual curiosity, or respect for life? Where's the desire to build and create as opposed to destroy and kill? Where's the desire to heal as opposed to harm and injure? I have respect and admiration for those of the Islamic faith who follow a pathway of of peace and justice, but.those who pursue a radical agenda certainly do a grave disservice and dishonor to their Islamic faith. If any single person has the potential power to so easily enrage a people or culture as to incite murder(s), what essence of real truth can truly exist within the faith? Even more important, however, if Muhammad is so easily and seriously blasphemed, to a level where its radicalized followers are compelled rise to violence to attack anyone or anything to which they are pointed, how weak a faith this would seem to be! Besides the legitimate concern that the masses are so easily whipped into a religious frenzy by their manipulative leaders, there seems a fundamental disconnect or contradiction here with regards to Muhammad. I think it offers a fundamental insight into an erroneous way of thinking. I'd like to simply share an observation or two today concerning the wildfire of protests smoking across the Middle East.
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