Freedom and Religion

It is doubtful whether certain forms of Islam will ever be able to co-exist side by side with our American way of life as we have known and practiced it for the last 200 years. The reason is simple. Islamic extremists do not understand the balance between religion and freedom. And unfortunately, these extremeists are increasingly influential within Islam, not only in the Middle East, but in the daily lives and worship of Islamic adherents everywhere. They are seeking to impose their way of Islam on every aspect of life in western Europe and the United States. Their understanding of Islam does not appreciate freedom; it demands allegiance. Moslems are demanding that businesses be guided by Sharia Islamic law. What's more, they and their Arab allies increasingly have the economic muscle to give these demands teeth. Where money doesn't do the trick, they appeal to sympathy and fear to get an intimidated citizenry on their side. The public applies pressure to business or government leaders, in the mistaken belief that conscience and fairness are on the side of the extremists; and before you know it, western culture, freedom, and civilization are compromised again. Some are asking if Christian evangelicals are not guilty of the same kind of religious arm-twisting. Christian fundamentalism is being equated with Islamic fundamentalism. Most of us realize that this is an absurd comparison. Christian fundamentalists do not strap weapons to themselves and run into crowds as human suicide bombs, or fly planes into buildings. In fact, Christian fundamentalism and Islamic fundamentalism do not even have the same view of God or eternity or truth! But the real difference between Christian and Islamic practice is a distinction that is more subtle and that the Christian evangelicals need to guard vigorously. Christians understand the proper place of religion in a free society. We realize that not everyone is going to agree with us. We wish everybody did. We would like to persuade everyone to accept the Bible as the Word of God; but we don't demand that acceptance. The conservative Christians I know and represent do seek to influence legislation along the lines of traditional western practice; but they do not seek to impose new, strict interpretations of Scripture that would alter the freedoms we have known since the founding of the nation. We do not wish legally to ban rock music, for example, or bring back strict Sunday "Blue laws." We no longer seriously promote national prohibition or demand the enforcement of dress codes on religious grounds. I have been very wary of certain evangelicals who seem to think that if we could just elect the right people, get the right political party in power, all our problems as a nation would be fixed. I believe that involvement by the church in politics, whether of the conservative or liberal stripe, is very dangerous for just this reason: It blurs the line between the practice of religion and the practice of freedom. It is all well and good for Christians to come together to work for certain laws or causes. But when the institutional church tries to display its political muscle, or when evangelical Christians become overly zealous in enforcing their own understanding of a particular religious principle, they border on misunderstanding the balance of religion and freedom. The Christian way of influencing society is by preaching, waiting upon the work of the Holy Spirit, praying for genuine revival, and transforming society as Christians come to understand what their faith means in practical terms. As one becomes more aware of the implications of Christianity, one will desire to put Christian principles into practice in daily life. We do not, however, seek to impose these principles on those who are not yet part of the family of faith. As Dr. D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones was fond of saying, "A person cannot live like a Christian until he is a Christian." The Islamic fascists are a threat to our way of life, not only because they have the capacity to launch terrorist attacks against us from almost anywhere in the world, but also because they seem to have the will and the ability to intimidate us in the practice of our Constitutional liberties and a total disregard for the freedom of the individual. They have not yet made the distinction between the state and the practice of religion that western civilization finally made with the rise of Christianity. This failure on the part of Islam must be fully understood and appreciated for the threat that it truly is. Christian zealots need not make the same mistake. We dare not allow the Islamic extremists to abuse the religious freedoms of the West in order to promote their own intolerant agenda; and Christians need not become so fixated on politics--whether liberal or conservative-- that they forget the real message of Christ. Salvation comes by grace through faith, not by Congressional legislation or forced conversions!