I've been noticing a trend lately in the news. I don't know if I'm the last one to notice or not, but it seems to me that conservative Christians are being equated more and more frequently with Islamic fundamentalists. Two sides of the same coin and both bad for the world. The former leader of Germany, Gerhard Schroeder, is the latest one to comment:
"We rightly criticize that in most Islamic states, the role of religion for society and the character of the rule of law are not clearly separated," Schroeder wrote. "But we fail to recognize that in the USA, the Christian fundamentalists and their interpretation of the Bible have similar tendencies."
I had a short discussion with someone just the other day about the war -- basically who did we think we were trying to impose freedom on them and change their religion. How would we feel if they came over here and tried to change our religion? First, I don't know that changing their religion is what we're trying to do, but I'll let that pass. The real crux of the issue, in my mind, is the implied notion that there's no difference -- no moral right or wrong. I'm not talking specifically about the war, why we went, what we're doing, etc. I'm simply asking if I'm really in the minority because I see a moral difference between a free society where people are not going to get arrested for making and selling t-shirts that use expletives to describe the current leader...and a society where people are executed if they convert to another religion. If there's no moral right and wrong, no absolute truth, then we may as well be at war to make the Iraqis prefer chocolate ice cream over vanilla.
I do believe that the Bible says there is one Way. However, that belief in no way, shape or form means that I subscribe to the notion of conversion by force. If I believed we should be in Iraq, or any other country, to force people to say the sinner's prayer at gunpoint -- well, quite frankly, I'd probably want to start bringing troops to Venice Beach. But that's not the essence of free will. And free will is the cornerstone of both our fallen, sinful society and our opportunity to accept Jesus' sacrifice on our behalf.