A little while a go I was put onto Tom Lyberg who, in my humble opinion, does some great podcasts. None the less in his last podcast #25 - Christianity, Islam, and Postmodern Faith he seems somewhat resigned that he will not find moderate Muslims and scared of what this means for postmodern religious tolerance. If not everyone deep down is reasonable then surely we've got to start doing a bit of criticizing.
Well for what it's worth I thought I'd my 2 cents into the mix.
In my distant past I played soccer (as a Christian) with an all Muslim (except for me and a friend) Turkish soccer team. They were nice people some strong others not so strong in their faith, none of whom had a problem with me being a Christian and all who enjoyed their time in Australia.
Just last weekend I spoke a man from Iraq who fled his home country as a refugee to come to Australia and when it's safe keen to return. He was a history teacher who loved reading and a bit of an academic. He read English well but spoke it poorly. He earns a living in Australia pushing shopping trolleys around. Anyway, he is Muslim but doesn't like to tell people as they think fundamentalist terrorist (which is kind of like me who doesn't like to tell people I'm Christian because of the preconceptions people may have about me). He tells me that Islam is like Christianity - lots of different expressions of it or denominations only more so. Just when you thought Christianity was bad. He was great to chat to really friendly, accepting of who I was and what I believed.
But so what, that's just one person. Well yes and no. Whilst one group of people calling themselves Muslim blew up and embassy over the cartoons. The Islamic party in Malaysia held a peaceful rally of about 5000 and gave the Danish ambassador a letter. Also, whilst in many countries people may have received death in an interview on Counterpoint Tim Blair pointed out that he had posted the cartoons, got over 250,000 hits and not received any threats. In fact he suggests that by the Australian media not printing the cartoons that the assumption that Australian Muslims would only react violently is further perpetuated.
So, here's my first point. People of one faith have different beliefs, they often have lots of stories or texts in common but as these are open to interpretation and so people have different beliefs. Now even if two people have the same beliefs they may have completely different actions. For example two Christians may not believe in abortion, one might blow up abortion clinics and send death threats to doctors the other might do nothing.
So first and foremost we need to be critical about someone’s actions. It is certainly be the case that their beliefs informed their actions but we need to be mindful that it may be possible that another person may have those beliefs with out acting the way this person did. That doesn’t mean that we should not be critical of those beliefs but it is important not to assume that the two are necessarily connected. Similarly when we are critical of someone's beliefs we need to understand that their beliefs are informed by their faith but we need to be mindful that it may be possible that another person may share that faith but not have those same beliefs. Someone’s beliefs are influenced by there culture, so in the affluent materialistic west it is not uncommon to find a Christian with a prosperity gospel theology. Similarly in the oppressive war torn middle east it would not be uncommon to find some who incorporates acts of violence into their faith.
So are all Christians just as nice as me? No, there are plenty of examples of Christian terrorist type people to refute that. Are all Muslims terrorists or have an agenda to bring down the west? No, I know this because I have met some who aren’t.
From here we get into a dangerous and dodgy game of “well what percentage of X faith are Y or believe Z and what percent don’t and what percent”. I think it is rude to say that all people of one faith act in one voice about a certain issue. What we need to do is critique the actions of people foremost and the beliefs of people secondly, not the faith. Not because it is not politically correct or some such crap but because it is to vague to ethereal and only gets peoples backs up when we attack their faith. When we critique action and belief that’s when we can talk about how our own faith informs that and that will be the most powerful testament of what we believe.
Well for what it's worth I thought I'd my 2 cents into the mix.
In my distant past I played soccer (as a Christian) with an all Muslim (except for me and a friend) Turkish soccer team. They were nice people some strong others not so strong in their faith, none of whom had a problem with me being a Christian and all who enjoyed their time in Australia.
Just last weekend I spoke a man from Iraq who fled his home country as a refugee to come to Australia and when it's safe keen to return. He was a history teacher who loved reading and a bit of an academic. He read English well but spoke it poorly. He earns a living in Australia pushing shopping trolleys around. Anyway, he is Muslim but doesn't like to tell people as they think fundamentalist terrorist (which is kind of like me who doesn't like to tell people I'm Christian because of the preconceptions people may have about me). He tells me that Islam is like Christianity - lots of different expressions of it or denominations only more so. Just when you thought Christianity was bad. He was great to chat to really friendly, accepting of who I was and what I believed.
But so what, that's just one person. Well yes and no. Whilst one group of people calling themselves Muslim blew up and embassy over the cartoons. The Islamic party in Malaysia held a peaceful rally of about 5000 and gave the Danish ambassador a letter. Also, whilst in many countries people may have received death in an interview on Counterpoint Tim Blair pointed out that he had posted the cartoons, got over 250,000 hits and not received any threats. In fact he suggests that by the Australian media not printing the cartoons that the assumption that Australian Muslims would only react violently is further perpetuated.
So, here's my first point. People of one faith have different beliefs, they often have lots of stories or texts in common but as these are open to interpretation and so people have different beliefs. Now even if two people have the same beliefs they may have completely different actions. For example two Christians may not believe in abortion, one might blow up abortion clinics and send death threats to doctors the other might do nothing.
So first and foremost we need to be critical about someone’s actions. It is certainly be the case that their beliefs informed their actions but we need to be mindful that it may be possible that another person may have those beliefs with out acting the way this person did. That doesn’t mean that we should not be critical of those beliefs but it is important not to assume that the two are necessarily connected. Similarly when we are critical of someone's beliefs we need to understand that their beliefs are informed by their faith but we need to be mindful that it may be possible that another person may share that faith but not have those same beliefs. Someone’s beliefs are influenced by there culture, so in the affluent materialistic west it is not uncommon to find a Christian with a prosperity gospel theology. Similarly in the oppressive war torn middle east it would not be uncommon to find some who incorporates acts of violence into their faith.
So are all Christians just as nice as me? No, there are plenty of examples of Christian terrorist type people to refute that. Are all Muslims terrorists or have an agenda to bring down the west? No, I know this because I have met some who aren’t.
From here we get into a dangerous and dodgy game of “well what percentage of X faith are Y or believe Z and what percent don’t and what percent”. I think it is rude to say that all people of one faith act in one voice about a certain issue. What we need to do is critique the actions of people foremost and the beliefs of people secondly, not the faith. Not because it is not politically correct or some such crap but because it is to vague to ethereal and only gets peoples backs up when we attack their faith. When we critique action and belief that’s when we can talk about how our own faith informs that and that will be the most powerful testament of what we believe.
1 comment:
Oh, and I almost forgot Mohmed appeard (fully drawn and speaking) in episode 3 of season 5 of South Park and riots there were not.
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