The only good Muslim...

One of my most recent Fuller Sem courses is an introduction to the people and culture of Islam.  Every other other Saturday, we gather for the whole day and make a seminary outing of it.  Of course, it's kind of preposterous to consider it a true introduction since there are only Christians in the room, however, I'm learning much I did not know about this truly remarkable history, faith and tradition. 

To begin the class, the professor put up a comic strip which showed a rugged mujuhadin holding (what else) a bomb.  Underneath was the caption, "The only good Muslim..."  Sadly, when the Westerner finishes that sentence, we fail to draw the merciful and grace filled conclusion that Jesus would lead us to think and feel.  And why?  Why have the few (the less than 1%) been allowed to shape public perception?  Because that's the way it works.  Don't you have to join the Republican party after becoming Christian? 

The instructor then put the second half of the cartoon up which showed a very attractive and diverse group of people above which read, "...The majority of them."  When I can I'll post the cartoon because I think it serves us in the West to stop and think about how we think about "our enemy" in the East. 

To sum it up, I have learned that our perception and policies are simply grotesquely "naive."  Of course, I'm not qualified enough to fairly critique the obscene responses of our administration and military complex.  It goes without saying that I'm no politician.  I don't have the time to sit around and write chain emails of emotionally manipulative (and completely fabricated) statistics, incontextual quotes, and the magnification of a severely minority opinion.  Well, I guess if I have time to blog...

But I am a bit more fluent as a beginner theologian.  I believe that our Scripture and doctrine makes it clear that there is only "us."  There is no "them."  It is the world that God so loved that he gave his only Son.   It is every nation that will bow before the throne of God.   Not a church, not a neighborhood, not a particular race nor dialect, but all people reconciled to one another and to God in a reconciled creation. 

I don't know where this posting is headed, but I do know that we have alot of backtracking to do.  We have a ton of room to be reconcilers, a ton of room to walk with humility, a ton of room to repent and own the actions of others as our own.  I know we have alot to learn in order to move forward.  I know that I have much more to write as I flesh out my perspective.