Islam Part 3- The Devil Went Down to Florida

I find this story to be beyond outrageous. It is both shameful and sad, but is also an opportunity. I continually talk about the effects of Sacralism on the mind of its adherents. Many of you have no doubt heard about the Florida Family group putting pressure on Lowe’s and other companies becauseof their commercials running on a show called: All American Muslim.

The issue? The reality show portrays American Muslims as normal people, not Koran chanting extremists who want to kill. It’s subversive because we might think that Muslims are just…normal, lost people.

So our duty is to oppose this show and those who advertise on it…if we let this go on…it will destroy America and especially…yes, families in Florida.

There are extremists in every camp and I’m sorry to say Christianity is not exempt. The Muslim extremists look at nominal Muslims and call them ‘bad Muslims’…in their Sacralist mindset, they’re not quite apostates, they’re just not being faithful.

Many Christians employ these same categories when talking about the millions of professing Christians attending non-Evangelical Churches…they just need to be taught right. They’re Christians without…a Christian Worldview.

Of course I would be among those that just simply says…the vast majority of people who profess to be Christian are not. Christian is not a sociological or political term…it’s a theological or metaphysical term. While I can’t avoid sociology and history, I’m not fooled into thinking Christendom is equal to the Church or the Kingdom of Christ.

Like it not, sociologically and historically there are many white racists who are Christian. There are fascists who are Christian. This doesn’t mean we acknowledge them as “Christians” but…perhaps you see what I mean?

How would we react if Muslims got mad at the Walton’s television show because all Christians are really…Blackwater mercenaries carrying Tec-9 machine guns. Would that be fair? Portraying Christians as quiet rural families is inaccurate. Well isn’t that how someone in Iraq might see it? We would say…you don’t have a clue. Blackwater’s goons don’t represent Christianity.

What about if they thought all Christians were Crusaders? All Christians were like the guards at Abu Ghraib? What about…all Christians are like The Duggars? Would that be accurate? All American Christians are like Tim Tebow, right?

That would be absurd. But not to the Florida Family Association. It would make sense to them. After all, the billion or so Muslims, all but a handful of them are really just Bin Laden clones.

This way of thinking is so simplistic, so childish, it shouldn’t have to be refuted. But I have to say…this type of thinking seems to almost dominate American Evangelical circles. I can think of many people without trying too hard who would agree with the Florida Family Association’s puerile view of the universe. One wonders if their notions of God are on the same scale?

Apparently to the Florida Family Association…it’s our Christian duty to make fools of ourselves, flaunting our ignorance, and yes, threatening companies that don’t do what we want.

No doubt they protested the Cosby Show in the 1980’s…because all Blacks live in ghettos and do drugs right? Portraying Blacks as normal middle class people…that’s deceptive.

Any show that doesn’t portray Mexicans as migrant workers who sneak across the border at night…is dishonest right? That would be trying to distract us from the evil threats of immigration.

And Jews…any show that doesn’t portray them as rich bankers or Hasidic…must be up to something. Because we know that’s how they all are.

Am I missing something? Aren’t these absurdities on the same scale?

Actually if they bothered to watch real news, read something, talk to people, they’d find that most Muslims in the United States, in fact many Muslims around the world aren’t all that religious….not any more than the average American “Christian” who knows some Bible stories and goes to Church a couple of times a year. In fact I know many people who regularly attend Church and don’t know more than a few Bible stories.

Many Muslims have never read the Koran, many know very little about their religion. For most Muslims…they’re Muslim only in the sense that most Americans are Christians. It too is largely a Sacralism. Almost all pagan religions are…it’s a pagan impulse. Christianity is different…we understand the Kingdom we belong to is not of this world, and yet we still live here.

Most other religions seek to make and/or transform this world into the holy realm, the utopia.

Actually if anyone pays attention to these things, there was a big fuss several years ago over a programme called “Little Mosque on the Prairie”. I remember the Christian Right was having a fit, because it was subversive. I watched it out of curiosity. I listened to some interviews with the Muslim creator of the show and wanted to see what it was all about. Actually if I were a Muslim I would have found it quite insulting and rather demeaning. The Islam of the characters was…frankly a joke. And yet, those involved with the show said it was pretty accurate. That was about the level of Islam found in many communities. They were kind of poking fun at themselves and not realizing they should be embarrassed. It’s sort of like Lutherans who like Garrison Keillor’s Prairie Home Companion. If that reflects Lutheranism…they should be embarrassed. In that case at least it’s clear he’s mocking them.

Many immigrants come to this country and are shocked by our culture. It’s powerful, it’s often pretty offensive, disgusting and glamourous all at once. Many are left floundering and retreat (for a time) to the comfort and security of their ethnic identity…which due to Sacralism is almost inevitably tied to some form of religious identity.

It hardly means that they’re actively thinking though, propagating, and applying the imperatives of their religious system. They are no more theological than the average American pseudo-Christian. Their thoughts and struggles are cultural. They usually lose the battle in one generation…two at the most.

You see this all the time. Frustrated grandparents sitting with grandchildren. We saw it one day at an Indian restaurant…the very Indian looking grandchild didn’t want to eat the food…to the astonishment of the obviously 1^st generation immigrant grandfather.

The white American mother (who had married the Indian son) rebuked the grandfather telling him Timmy didn’t have to eat it if he doesn’t like it. I could see the look on the grandfather’s face and I wondered if at moments like that he thought…what have I done? I came here to gain…but look what we’ve lost? I wanted to make a better life for my family. We have money but I have grandson who looks and acts like a girl and prefers McDonalds to Tikka Masala.

I would encourage people to read books by immigrants, even if they’re fictionalized. Read Khaled Hosseini…it’s simple but quite interesting. You learn about Afghan culture and how the average person thinks. With a little bit of caution I can say…read Jhumpa Lahiri and learn about the struggles of first and second generation immigrants. Those are just a couple of recent and quite popular examples that come to mind. Are you afraid you might find that in the end people in other parts of the world…are just lost people, just like the hosts of people we pass and deal with every day? Is a lost American somehow better than a lost Pakistani? I’m sighing…I know the Sacralist answer…a resounding yes.

The Florida Family Association would also learn that millions of Muslims in Palestine and Iran sit around and watch American movies, the kids have Justin Beiber and Hannah Montana posters on their walls…they’re not extremists in the least. They may recoil a bit when confronted with the sluttish debased realities of American teen culture…but they’re not inclined to Salafi thought. They’re hardly looking to the Koran for their world and life view.

Just because nominal Muslims are not flag waving Americans does not mean they’re extremist either. Americans are generally speaking clueless about their government’s activities and how they’re perceived around the rest of the world. We’re not the good guys, the heroes, the altruistic rescue squad. We’re largely perceived as hypocritical bullies, fat, loud, unbelievably arrogant, and often quite stupid. Oh and we’re also perceived as Christian…what a sterling testimony we are for Christ! Of course we can thank Sacralism for this identification as well.

One wonders if the racists (for that’s what they are) at the Florida Family Association have ever talked to a Muslim?

Isn’t this sad that because of people like this I (as a Christian) feel like I have to write an apologia for Muslims? Not Islam, don’t confuse the two…but Muslims…as people… as human beings.

One day I was at the dentist with my kids and I noticed the new dentist had an Iranian last name. I asked him where he was from in Iran. We had a great discussion about Iran, its geography and history and he shared some interesting stories about his family. I brought up Samuel Huntington’s book on the Clash of Civilizations and he knew it well…and was quite upset by it.

That’s the mindset of these folks at the Florida Family Association. It’s Clash of the Sacralisms…the other is the enemy. If not now, then tomorrow.

Now let’s see…I made a friend that day, as I did with Shiites from Basra who have a Middle Eastern market in a nearby city, as I did with the Sikh truck driver I met in Kmart…as I do with almost every immigrant I run in to. This is equally true when it comes to the Lesbians who live down the road from me.

Treating them decently provides opportunities to speak…hopefully about Christ. And knowing something about the world outside my little narrow Appalachia backwater…opens doors. Didn’t I read something about being all things to all people?

I guess I would be further ahead if I antagonized them and told them they were a bunch of murderous terrorists that beat women, attack innocents, and confuse killing with serving God.

Oh…like American ‘servicemen’ returning from Iraq! Of course I would extend more charity to them, but in many cases they’re already Christians…they say, ‘we see’ and so, there’s really nowhere to go is there? Many of them are already Super-Christians. I didn’t do any tours in Iraq or Afghanistan so what I do I know right?

And Lowe’s and any other company that doesn’t do what I want…yeah, we should threaten them. I’m sure they’ll be real eager to hire people who are Christians. Sure they won’t think…hmmm, trouble here, or ‘walking lawsuit’ will they? They’ll be real eager to have Christians floating around their store looking for people to antagonize and take to court.

Pardon my sardonic jabs, but the Florida Family Association is yet another facet of American Christianity bringing shame to Christ’s Kingdom.

These people are making it so that I cringe to identify myself as a Christian. I feel like having to apologize when I say that I am. What a shame they are to our Lord!

It may seem counterproductive, but I’m getting to the point where I want to use these types of people…as a witnessing tool.

If you say you’re a Bible believing Christian today…most likely you’re immediately labeled as a fanatic, Right-wing fascist, or really ignorant about a lot of real basic social, political, and economic realities.

In other words you’ve already been pigeonholed. I’ve always been leery of telling others I reject 99.5% of what’s out there going by the name Christian. Because then you’re immediately labeled as a cultist-type. I usually assuage this by saying that more or less I’m pretty much in line with the Mayflower Pilgrims.

They are so iconic, so revered and respected…it generally gives me a few more moments to try and make a point or two. It distracts them from immediately thinking I’m a Jehovah’s Witness, a Mormon or something.

But at this point, if the person I’m talking to already thinks I’m some sort of nutter crazy person… then I might as well say…yes, I know I’m in a tiny minority, but all these other folks are wrong. The Bible itself warns about them. It warns us about people like Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, Billy Graham and George Bush. We’re warned about groups like the Florida Family Association.

I can tell you from personal experience…saying you’re a Bible believer, being known as a fairly conservative-type person, and then making a statement like that, gets attention. You’ll have a very interested audience. I know some of these people think my family is a homeschooling Right-wing, Patrick Henry College style, George Bush loving, Muslim hating, Sarah Palin adoring, whip ‘em and kick ‘em, bearded men and skirt-wearing women, politically active, litigation minded, gun toting, flag waving bunch of fascists that think Pat Robertson is a brilliant social commentator.

Let me assure you…when they find out they had us completely wrong…you almost have a captive audience. They’re practically begging you to explain what you’re about.

So while I detest the Florida Family Association for their racist idolatry and their twisted and distorted concept of Christian calling, of Salt and Light…on the other hand, I’m thankful for them. This episode and many like it give me opportunity to speak. I’ve been ashamed in the past. I’m still ashamed in one sense, but in another…I’m emboldened by people like this.

They are the true enemy…I hope you can see that. All the forces of Islam and Secularism can’t really do anything to harm the Church. Can these things harm society? Maybe.

The Church?…no way. They have no power over the Church.

UNLESS…the Church has confused Society with the Kingdom…then suddenly all these enemy ‘-isms’ are empowered and can do much harm.

But the Florida Family Association…there’s a wolf in sheep’s clothing right before our eyes, perverting the Kingdom, Christian calling and vocation, the definition of Salt and Light, and blatantly teaching other Christians to violate a host of Biblical injunctions regarding how we are to live…as much as possible at peace, with humility and love.

Sacralism breeds war, hate and pride, brings death and serves hell.