When Christianity Forgets Christ – Hypocritical Critiques of Islam

Except for the media frenzied hoopla of Rev. Terry Jones in Florida who was initially going to burn copies of the Islamic Qur’an, as well as the ongoing heated debate of the proposed mosque to be built near Ground Zero, we passed the 9th anniversary of 9/11 with no major disruptions. I believe the threats by Rev. Jones are reflective of a larger dysfunction within evangelical, American Christianity at large, that of forgetting and neglecting (even disobeying?) what it means to be Christian. If Rev. Jones considers Muslims or any component of Islam to be “the enemy,” he needed to remember what Jesus clearly taught about loving enemies rather than siding against them.

What distinguishes much of evangelical Christianity today from Islam beyond theological differences is the approach that Christians and Muslims take toward each respective religion. Just compare how devoted practicing Muslims are to prayer (they pray five times a day) to most evangelical Christians who don’t even say grace before meals anymore, let alone show up for prayer meetings at church. Practicing Muslims are “religious” when it comes to reading and memorizing portions of their Qur’an, whereas survey after survey reveals just how ignorant professing Christians are of the Holy Bible. Many Christians don’t remember the last time they opened a Bible let alone adhered to its principles on a daily and consistent basis, particularly New Testament conduct for believers. And Muslims are very committed to their mosques where a devout Muslim will be every Friday at noon for their special day of prayer. No imam has to even remind a Muslim to come to the mosque, Muslims willingly go to their mosque because of their absolute and sincere devotion to Allah. Yet even when reminded by their pastor, many evangelical Christians are erratic at best when it comes to Sunday worship at church, let alone understand and practice the Biblical mandate to be supportive, devoted, and committed to a local fellowship of believers. The sad state of nominal Christianity is well documented in Eddie Gibbs’ book “In Name Only – Tackling the Problem of Nominal Christianity” and “unChristian” by Kinnamon and Lyons, just to mention two books that deal with this.

If “Christians” are not devout when it comes to prayer (not to mention the many other spiritual disciplines), and not devoted to regularly reading the Bible and exemplifying Christian virtue and character as found in the New Testament, and not committed to a church (if they even attend at all) but bounce from church to church (why is it that we never hear of mosque splits?), is it really such a grand mystery why the United States is no longer a Christian nation? Because it’s only when Christians are being Christians by doing what Christians are supposed to be doing can we be a Christian nation. And yet apathetic Christians lament the fact that we are now a post Christian nation while mosques are being built all across the United States. There’s a word for nominal and lukewarm Christians who want to criticize devout and committed Muslims – hypocrite, and I’m pretty sure Jesus had something to say about that as well.