ClearHeadSpace

A Real and Deep Relationship, Unless You’re…

Unless your Muslim.

The Dove World Outreach Center’s website says, “God loves you and he longs for a real and deep relationship with you.” That’s nice. And I believe it’s true. But I don’t think that Dove World Outreach Center does.

In all fairness, I didn’t contact them before I posted this. Perhaps I should have, but I honestly don’t think they would have the time to answer my questions since I’m sure they are being bombarded by the major news outlets. They are making headlines on drudgereport.com after all. That’s no easy feat. Above the fold space is limited and he’s had 8.7 billion visits in the last year.

Why doesn’t Dove World Outreach Center believe that God wants a real and deep relationship with you? Because they put a caveat on who God would want a deep relationship with. The thing is, God loved his Created first. FIRST. In order to be a Christian, you must believe that Jesus is God. Don’t get side tracked and read into what I just wrote. I’m not talking about the afterlife. I’m not talking about who has a doctrinal system nailed down and thus has God figured out correctly. No, I’m not talking about who has it right. I’m talking about what it means to be labeled  Christian. And as a Christian, it’s implied as we dig a little deeper that we’ve been given some mandates. Not the least of which comes from Jesus himself. He says, “Follow Me.” He didn’t say, “Protest on my behalf.” Or, “Blessed are those that offend, for they shall inherit the earth.” Or, “Shock the world for My sake.”

Love. When you love someone you want to understand them. Did you know that the way Christians hold dear Jesus Christ is the same way that orthodox Muslims hold dear the Qur’an? Christians, how would you respond to anyone burning Christ in effigy? When was the last time that you so dearly revered the Bible that you reverently washed your hands and feet before even touching it. We don’t hold the Bible in veneration the same way as Muslims view the Qur’an. It’s difficult to understand, but the closest we can get is that they see their holy book the same way we see the Father’s Son. Desecrating the Qur’an is simply unthinkable.

But, someone says, “look at the violence they’re threatening to respond with!” Fine, let’s look. But first, let’s follow Christ. Something was said about a spec, eyes and a plank. The plank is in my eye. It must be dealt with first. (Remember: “Follow Me.”) Why in the world would we even consider doing something considered so offensive? How is that loving our neighbor? How is that loving them as we love ourselves? Isn’t that the commandment that’s “like unto the greatest?” Love the Lord your God.

This story makes me very sad. I’m sad that I share the same label as the Dove World Outreach Center.  But I’m not going to give it up. I believe what I believe, and that makes me a Christian by definition. This just gives us a lot more work to do.

We Christians have our mandate.

You think you know the President, but do you know me?

The recent Pew Poll on President Obama’s perceived religious leanings has been all over the news. For better or worse, but I couldn’t help finding myself challenged by the findings. Politics, and the issues we entrust to our politicians are often far more complex than most of us can really comprehend. Not that we can’t understand them, but we’re often only presented with a portion of the facts. If it doesn’t fit in a sound-bite, then we probably haven’t heard it. And what’s worse, we probably won’t take the time to actually find out the whole story.

I’m not going to reveal anything new about the President, but I realized that his religion has opened the window to a bigger issue than what would ever be addressed by the media. After pondering this for a little more than a week, I realized that I what I was really doing was challenging myself.

Here’s what I mean. You know that I’m a husband. It’s the first thing I say about myself after my job. You may not know that my title as “husband, father, son, brother” matters more to me than my job, but you should. You know I’m a pastor. You may know that I went to school to be a musician. You may know that I spend much of my time working on computers, developing and managing websites, creating multimedia experiences, editing video, mastering audio and more. Hopefully you know that I like to think deeply about everything, trying to see both sides of the issue. In all of that, in my bio – I have a few versions that emphasize different aspects of my career depending on the situation - nowhere do I mention that I’m a Christian.

President Obama’s situation frustrated me. Not because he may or may not be Christian and not because he may or may not be Muslim, but because I’m the former, and not sure that I’ve done any better in living a life that makes that obvious. I believe that if you’re a Christian, or if you’re a Muslim, it’s implicit in the belief system that your faith should be obvious to others. One of the Five Pillars of the Muslim Faith is the Zakāt. It’s an important facet of the faith. It’s the personal responsibility of every Muslim and an obligatory act of worship. Every act of worship should have a final point, a purpose. The purpose of the Zakāt is to ease hardship of those in need, to seek to eliminate inequality by giving to others (Qur’an 9:60). Christians, does that sound familiar? We are called to make our faith visible by the very same actions. We have the opportunity to minister to others by the very same actions.

My point is this: If my faith matters to me, then my life should reflect it. There should be no doubt. Both Christianity and Islam offer some very tangible ways to reflect their beliefs. While different, they should be obvious.

Personally, I don’t care about the President’s religious beliefs as it relates to governance. I do care that he has faith in something other than himself, and believes in it enough to live like it matters. I think that’s why the populace is confused. Where is it obvious in his life that he’s either? The “attending church” argument presented by the media doesn’t hold water for me, because it’s as much how you live as it is what building you walk into on a sacred day of worship. So, here’s the crux of the matter: It doesn’t matter what anyone else believes, only that I believe it enough to live my life in such a way that it leaves you no doubt about it. Christians are often accused of talking a good talk, but not living up to it. I don’t believe that’s true, most of the time. Unfortunately, for me, it’s true far more often than it should be.

One final note, if you’re Muslim, please forgive me if I misused, or misunderstood, the Qur’an. One of my goals is to live my life well enough that you would like to know more about my journey, please understand that I’m doing my best to better understand your path – but even that process is a journey all its own.