BETWEEN CHRISTIANITY AND ISLAM

There is a difference, Mr. President, between Christian extremism and Muslim extremism.

One is a dark era in the history books, the other is a threat to modernity as we know it.

At the National Prayer Breakfast yesterday, after bowing to the Dalai Lama, President Obama – apologist in chief for Islam – talked about protecting the reputation of the Muslim world. Then he minimized the evil of militant Islam by bringing up the Spanish Inquisition and even Jim Crow, citing them as counterbalancing examples of Christian terrorism.

In his mind, there is some sort of moral equivalence, as if he wants to tell the American people that folks who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones.

I don’t know the president’s personal religious views, if he has any. So I can’t speak to his belief.

And the facts are that Christianity – the world’s largest religion – is the best thing ever to happen to humankind. Beyond what Christians consider to be its soul-saving truths, Christianity is the moral and philosophical wellspring of modern democracies and individual liberty.

Without Christian teaching about the worth of individuals, the concept of unalienable personal rights would never have emerged. Without the Christian teaching of “Love thy neighbor,” and “Do unto others as you would have others do unto you,” prosperous market economies – based on integrity and honesty – could not have come into existence.

The modern world, directly or indirectly, is shaped by Christianity, and that explains why this is the freest and most prosperous era yet in the history of humankind.

The fact the president refuses to acknowledge that doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t.

It seems clear that the courage and values of the Hashemite king – Abdullah II of Jordan – are admirable and praiseworthy. Claiming literal descent from Mohammed, the king nonetheless seems tolerant of others and isn’t intent on beheading infidels.

In fact, he may be one of the Middle East’s most important defenses against militant Islam and its brand of faith.

But the sad fact remains that for tens of millions of Muslims around the world, the crusade of hate being waged by the Islamic State and Al Qaida is a just and holy war commanded by their God and countenanced by his holy book.

They war not just against Christians and Jews, but against Muslims of a different or more peaceful bent. There is a war going on within Islam, but it is just the opening bout. The main event will be whoever comes out of that fight going against the rest of us.

Islam is rising. It has colonized much of Europe, producing separatist populations within established Christian countries. In some areas it rises through demographic means, and the increased profile of its practice. In others it rises through the suicide vest and the AK47.

The dream of a caliphate runs through the Muslim world. The disagreement is over how it is to be established.

In that conflict, Islam will enjoy the advantage because, generally speaking, Muslims believe in their religion and Christians don’t. While Islam is on the rise, Christianity is clearly on the wane. The number of Muslim nations is increasing, the number of truly Christian nations is shrinking.

Europe, the modern capital of Christianity, is almost religionless. The United States, still the most-churched nation on earth, has run headlong away from its Christian roots.

The most passionately Christian peoples on earth are now in Africa and Latin America, though in Africa they increasingly face genocidal Muslims and in Latin America Marxist humanism grows ever more powerful.

As Islam moved into Moorish Spain, and knocked the last legs out from under the Roman and Byzantine empires, there was pushback by Christian nations and peoples. Ultimately, that pushback drove Islam back into the deserts of the Middle East.

Militant and expansionist Islam envisions a “Zionism” of its own, a belief that God has given them the world and all they need do is claim it.

But in this conflict of cultures and religions, Christian tolerance is proving a fatal flaw in the face of Muslim intolerance. Muslims in Christian nations claim rights which Christians would never have in Muslim countries.

It’s not just that we refuse to fight, it’s that we refuse to even acknowledge that there is a fight going on. So while we dither, a world war is raging.

And it seems that our president does everything he can to keep us unaware of that fact.

While ISIS holds an American woman hostage – facing the fate all ISIS hostages have thus far met – the White House is lecturing reporters that the Islamic State is not a terrorist organization. Oddly, the administration has imposed a blackout on the woman being held hostage and most Americans don’t even know she’s being held – it makes you wonder if that is supposed to protect her, or the administration.

In America, criticizing the enemy, or even suggesting that there is an enemy, is politically incorrect and denounced as racism or bigotry.

And the president, after bowing to the Dalai Lama, sought to remind yesterday’s National Prayer Breakfast of the evils of Christianity.

Christianity isn’t the problem, Christianity is the solution. It isn’t our hindrance, it is our only hope.

The quotation cited above should have included appropriate citation, as follows:

"Withdraw from Christendom the Bible, the Church with its sacraments and ministry, and Christian morality and hopes, and aspirations for time and eternity; repeal all the laws that are founded in the Christian Scriptures; remove the Christian humanities in the form of hospitals and asylums, and reformatories and institutions of mercy utterly unknown to unchristian countries; destroy the literature, the culture, the institutions of learning, the art, the refinement, the place of woman in her home and in society, which owe their origin and power to Christianity; blot out all faith in Divine Providence, love, and righteousness; turn back every believer in Christ to his former state; remove all thought or hope of the forgiveness of sins by a just but gracious God; erase the name of Christ from every register it sanctifies—in a word annihilate all the legitimate and logical effects of Christianity in Christendom—just accomplish in fact what multitudes of gifted and learned minds are wishing and trying to accomplish by their science, philosophy, and criticism, and what multitudes of the common people desire and seek, and not only would all progress toward and unto perfection cease, but not one of the shining lights of infidelity would shine much longer. Yes, the bitterest enemies of this holy and blessed religion, owe their ability to be enemies to its sacred revelations - to the inspiration and sublimity of that faith which reflects its glories on their hostile natures. They live in the strength of that which they would destroy. They are raised to their seats of opportunity and power by the grace of Him they would crucify afresh; and is it to be thought that they are stronger than that which gives them strength? Can it be supposed that a religion which civilizes and subdues, and elevates and blesses will succumb to the enmities it may arouse and quicken in its onward march? Are we to tremble for the ark of God when God is its upholder, and protector, and preserver?” - Dr. Benjamin W. Arnett, "Centennial Thanksgiving Sermon," November, 1876, Urbana, Ohio

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