I am a Christian Man (Response to "I am a Muslim Woman")

Self | November 21, 2001 | Jeff Head

[Jeff Head]

This letter/note is to all Muslims, and people everywhere caught up in discussion of and debate regarding the 9/11 attacks in America and what it means about those who perpetrated them or supported them. It is also in response to a Ms. Rini of Indonesia, who posted an article/testimonial about herslef entitled, I am a Muslim Woman.

I was raised to believe in and place my allegiance to God, Family and Country. In that order. My God and the One whom I worship and defer to in all things is the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who died for all mankind and who will return to this earth someday (I hope soon). He is a God of mercy, compassion and love who taught us to love those who despitefully use us and to turn the other cheek and forgive others ... He also taught that there are times when men, if they do not already own one, must sell their clothing to buy a sword to defend themselves and their free will with.

I was raised to respect, cherish and defend to the death the principle of free will. I have a firm conviction that free will, exercised within moral constraint, is the single most fundamental principle associated with mankind's ultimate happiness and progress. I believe the single most conducive place for the exercise of that principle in the world (despite its faults) is the United States of America, and I have traveled throughout the world in my engineering profession and come to observe and respect many differnet cultures and peoples.

I was taught (by good parents and through my faith) a tolerance for others, a desire to share my faith with anyone willing to listen, and the understanding that not wanting to listen is a perfectly understandable and acceptable right I should respect in others and hold dear myself.

I married in my early twenties and have (along with my dear wife) raised five children (actually the youngest is twelve and not quite "raised" yet). Each of these five, with minor variations, believes as I believe ... and that is good and is one of the things (in my opinion) that will always keep America strong. I am now 45 and just visited my first grandchild, a grandson born to my oldest daughter who is raising him the same way ... so the circle of life and freedom continues.

We abhor immorality, vice and sin. We abhor the threat of force and compulsion even more.

This is because people cannot truly repent and change for the better when coersed, they must freely choose. Hence, in the Christian faith, (wiith very few exceptions) forebearance, persuasion, teaching and the voice of warning are the tools we are taught to use as opposed to secular law, force and compulsion to win the hearts of mankind. This, when coupled with the basic tennants in American society regarding free will that I already discussed have made for the freest, most prosperous and most tolerant nation on earth.

It has also, regrettably, made for a lot of vice, pornograhpy, drug culture, etc. But we continue to work on that through the means I already mentioned, and through wise (and sometimes not so wise) use of laws when those immoral or sinful activities cross the line and begin to infringe (through force or compulsion) on the rights of others.

I hope this gives people a little flavor of what is underlying in "Christian" America, at least from my perspective living in "heartland" America ... particualrly when it comes to our feelings about the horror of 9/11.

This brings me toan important understanding, that is a critical part of my own testimonial that I related earlier ... a part often unappreciated and misjudged and doubted by those (foreign or domesctic) powers and entities who would use compulsion and violence to change the heritage I just spoke of. That is this ... We WILL fight to the death to defend these principles and visit terrible, just retribution on those who try and destroy them.

So, Ms. Rini, understand that there are millions of Americans who believe God is love too and that He loves us enought to allow us to be free and make our own individual moral choices (when not infringing on others) and to seek to influence others through persuasion and long suffering.

I know there are several hundred million Indonesians and that it is the largest Muslim nation. I also know that there are good and bad amongst all peoples, parties, sects, denominations and religions. I believe your testimony about your beliefs and I wish you God's blessings.

At the same time, and this is VERY critical and germaine to the discussion, there are many, many in the Islamic faith (as we see it) who either approve of what happened in America on 9/11, or are unwilling to condemn it. Please, Ms. Rini, write a codemnation of what happened on 9/11 to supplement your remarks. That would immeasurably help most people posting on this forum and all Americans alike.

We Americans, Christian and otherwise, are very disturbed by a general lack of avowed and open condmentation, with no excuse, by Islamic clerics, both abroad and here in our own country. That is the fuel (along with the burning pyre of the WTC and the Pentagon) that is fueling many of the feelings of rightous indignation you see here.

If you and others truly believe that God is love and that He is merciful yet Just, then go with God and distance yourself from these others who will not condemn such atrocities ... because these others WILL feel our terrible retribution. Not a retribution out of revenge, rather out of Justice and a true desire to never see it happen again.

So, again, Ms. Rinin, I am a Christian man. There are millions here like me ... I am nothing special. I believe what I have related to you is something your people and Muslims everywhere need to hear and understand. Please forward it.

Sincerely,

Jeff Head

[Jeff Head]

I have met many good, moral and fine Muslms in my travels.

But their religous leaders need to stand and decry these atrocities. I believe the good, moral people need to distance themselves from those who profess alegiance to a loving God who will not. Their actions, their silence on this issue, adn the out and out approval of some speaks loud in the ears of those of us who saw thousands of innocents murdered on 9/11.

It was just something I had to say after reading what I believe to be that young girl's (20 years old) honest testimonial.

Regards.

[oc-flyfish]

Good post Jeff. Christian bump.

[slimer]

My friend, Ronin, asked me to write this because he is very disturbed about the hatred of Islam that he is seeing on your board.

I do not hate Islam or Muslims.
I hate the act of terrorism and that people use God and religion and distort spiritual writings and beliefs for their own selfish evil desires.
I hate the fact that people turn a blind eye and do nothing to prevent their own people from committing mass murder of innocent civilians.
I hate it when people of similar faith do not speak out against extremism within their own community.
I hate it when my country men and country women have to go into foriegn lands and risk their lives to clean up other countries messes.
I hate the fact that the most generous nation on the planet gives so much to the world and gets nothing but criticism in return.
I hate that other nations and people worry about us hating them, while ignoring the hatred many of their own people have for us.
I hate that we have to constantly defend ourselves from the hatred of radical extremists, who are hell bent on trying to destroy our way of life, while having no better way of living to offer.
I hate ignorance in all it's forms and at the same time find ignorance within myself.
I love good and decent people of all races and faiths, no matter where they live.
I love God and my country.
I am an American.

[Jeff Head]

Thanks bro.

BTW, it looks like the books will not get here now until Friday (I was expecting them today) so they'll start shipping on Saturday.

Hope you enjoy.

[Syncro]

Good article you have written here Jeff.

Please, Ms. Rini, write a codemnation of what happened on 9/11 to supplement your remarks.

Yes, please. (If I stop shaving how long will my beard be when she responds...?)

[<1/1,000,000th%]

Nicely done.

[Jeff Head]

Amen ... beautifully and succinctly put!

[Reagan's_Mom]

Amen to the whole post. Fantastic.

[tonycavanagh]

Good post, granddad at 45, I am a father of a 3 year old at 40.

Too much time spent running around in uniform plus it took me years to find the right women, trap her and brain wash her into thinking I was the best thing since sliced bread. New those hypnotist books would come in handy.

Cheers Tony

[Sabertooth]

I saw Miss Rini's letter, posted by Ronin last night.

She seems like a nice young woman, who isn't that aware (nor does she seem to want to be, as she so stated) of the big world around her and just what her faith teaches and stands for. She was just as silent about 9/11 as I expected her to be.

It is not the terrorists who've lead me to conclude that Islam is wicked and needs to be erased, it is the everyday Moslems like Miss Rini, who demonstrate time and again that not only do they not get it, they'll condone the atrocities of the bin Ladens and Zawahiris with their silence and insincerities.

Not every Nazi was a murderer. But Nazism was evil.

Not every Communist was a murderer. But Communism was evil.

Not every Moslem is a murderer, but Islam is born from the same infernal womb of lies and rebellion that spawned Nazism and Communism, and will share their fates.

[Noumenon]

Roger that, sir. And congrats to you and your family. Your journey to see your new grandchild is truly emblematic of what we are all fighting for. Let the liars and haters on the left and death-worshipping religious fanatics of every stripe show themselves for who and what they are. Their day is coming.

[Victoria Delsoul]

Thanks Saber, good post.

So, Ms. Rini, understand that there are millions of Americans who believe God is love too and that He loves us enough to allow us to be free and make our own individual moral choices (when not infringing on others) and to seek to influence others through persuasion and long suffering.

Good article, Jeff. Well said!

[Jeff Head]

Thnaks bro. Your service to your country and to liberty and justice will pay back in spades as you raise that young one with your dear wife.

The more time that passes (almost 24 years of marriage now) the more I thank God with each passing day for sending my wife along and then these five wodnerful spirits. All of them have taught me far more than I could impart ... and through it all, I see the Master's Hand molding us all ... very humbling and very inspiring despite the bumps along the way.

Take care ... BTW, the first group of printed books is finally coming in and shipping out to anxious buyers this weekend. I hope that continues to pick up.

[Asclepius]

... atrocities ... because these others WILL feel our terrible retribution. Not a retribution out of revenge ...

Hey, man. Speak for yourself, man.

Forget justice, man. Our Moslem brothers and sisters were right to criticize us for our use of the term "justice"; to do justice implies that we are somehow in a position to mete it out, a privileged position where it is left to us and us alone to adjudicate between rival claims of right and wrong, and we aren't. Nor do we really want to be in that position.

Revenge, on the other hand, requires no position of privilege nor any justification beyond the act that provokes it. Which is why it is verboten in peer-to-peer relations within civilized polities: it contains within itself no conceptual limit (unending cycles of revenge etc.). But since those who would destroy us beneath the star and crescent of Islam do not share our democratic scruples or our trust in the normative institutions that mediate our conflicts, what other option do we have?

[wai-ming]

Great article Jeff, as always. Keep churning them out.

Bump to Religion list.

[gentleman farmer]

An exceptional web site dealing with this issue Muslim/Christian is www.answering-islam.org. Check it out!

[Skooz]

There were several weeks in September for Moslems to show the world that their religion has a loving, civilized heart. But their silence and equivocations in the wake of 9/11 have shown that the true heart of Islam is a hard, unearthly stone in Mecca.

I must agree. I fully expected wide ranging condemnation of the attack from Muslims in the USA and overseas. That condemnation has yet to occur.

[califordubya]

AMEN!

[wwjdn]

Christan bump