I generally shy away from posting anything political or religious as I feel those type of posts usually grow a life of their own and run away into a dark place I dont like going, however I feel compelled to break away from that for a moment. Over the past few days I have had the opportunity to meet several new people from all around the globe. Here in Indonesia the primary religion is Muslim/Islam. As a result I have made a couple of good friends that are Muslim. Being a Christian myself, I found myself curious to learn more about the Islamic religion. Now I must say, we didnt talk about religion (in fact it never came up) and I dont know how religious my friends are, if it at all. But I was still curious. I did a simple search online (like the geek that I am) and ran across a facebook group that was created as a forum to debate the difference between Christianity and Islam. There were rules setup, no swearing, arguments need to backed by scripture (from either side), etc. I would expect there to be a bit of a digression into the mine is better than yours territory as it was a debate group, but with these type of rules, I expected there to be actual doctrinal debates, where I could see some of the differences between the religions and what each side believes. This is not what I found. I discovered, that the Christians, tended to know their scriptures and doctrines a bit better than the Muslims (mind you this only tells us about the members of this group, not the overall populous) However this was NOT a good thing. As I read through the posts, I found that the Christians, were VERY UNChrist like. When a topic came up, within a couple of posts the Christians had posted a couple of reasons why they were right and the Muslims were wrong, and then proceeded to bad mouth any and all aspects of Islam, and the posters. I repeatedly saw remarks about Muhammed and how he was basically the devil incarnate, they accused him of rape, murder, and several other nasty things, with ZERO sources to back these claims (I honestly dont know much about Muhammed, nor the validity of those claims) I also saw several comments directed towards the Muslims members of the group telling them how they were stupid, ignorant, and had the minds of children. I learned absolutely, nothing about the Islamic religion, and nothing about Christianity. What I did learn, is that if this were the only exposure Id had to Christianity, Id run for the hills. It made be sad, to be associated with people like that. My Muslim friends, are good, kind, and dare I say it Christ Like people. I know little about their religion. What I do know I dont necessarily agree with, but I know enough about them to realize that neither they nor others of their religion deserve to be treated this way. Christ taught us to love one another, to show tolerance and charity. So I write today about this experience to remind myself and anyone who pays any attention to my posts to redouble our own efforts to be kind and loving and patient. Let us be better neighbors, better friends, and better human beings. Let us all learn to get along with the rest of the world, be it Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu, or any other religion, culture, or race. Yesterday I was ashamed to be Christian, I hope never to feel like that again. Let us all not only pray, but also act so that we can always be proud of who we are and what we believe. Thank you to those that have made all the way through my little rant/sermon. Ive felt compelled lately to share some of my experiences, and lessons. I feel that if we each work for a better world, for peace and tolerance, and love, we just might be able to find it. I hope somewhere in my wordy posts that is coming through, and that you will join me building a better future.
Posted on: Sun, 01 Dec 2013 09:08:02 +0000
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