In our local newspaper some 'Christian' wrote in an article called "Love our neighbors; welcome a mosque".

This is in response to a particular city's debate about whether or not to allow a Muslim Mosque to be built in their city. Many Christians argued against it, thankfully, but this person wrote some of the following:

"As a Christian and a United Methodist I am greatly concerned about something which has been in the news for weeks and I feel I must speak out..." He then goes on to show that Constitutionally the Muslims have a right to build their mosque. Then he says, "But the fact remains that most Muslims are peaceful, law-abiding people who only want the right to worship in peace, the right guaranteed them in the Constitution. Christians, Muslims and Jews are all the children of Abraham and the children of God. Jesus taught us to love our neighbors. Shouldn't we love all our neighbors, and not just the Baptists or Methodists?"

I agree that constitutionally they have a right to build it, but my response (the italicized) is currently the following, please correct me in any way.




"Mr. _____ says, "Jesus taught us to love our neighbors." He also commanded us to love the Lord alone and have no other gods (Ex. 20:3), to keep His commandments (1 Jn. 5:3), to worship Him in spirit and in truth (Jn. 4:24). Jesus says, “I am THE way, THE truth, and THE life, no one comes to the Father except through Me.” To love your neighbor and forsake the truth of the Lord is blasphemous.
You can say you love your neighbor all you want, but to abandon a love of the truth you thereby forsake loving the only living and true God. “Shouldn’t we love all our neighbors…?” Yes, we should. But that means that we speak the truth to them in love. The point? As Christians loving our neighbor does not mean that we stand with open arms to any false religion. It does not mean that we all worship the same god and so we should accept pagan practices. No, Christians worship the triune God and they stand for the truth."






How can I make this better?

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Rev. Andrew J. Barnes
Husband of Dena
Father of Oliver
Master of Bruce
Pastor of Tchula Presbyterian Church

What can I say, I like blogs!

Begin by putting theological threads in a proper forum (i.e. theological or something, not general).

Moving...

As to the response, I think it's fine as is. It's not lacking in charity, IMHO.

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Josh Hicks, Chloë's Dad
Christ Covenant Reformed Presbyterian Church, RPCGA
Facebook - The Calvinist Vent
Board Rules - Signature Rules - Suggestion Box

It is God that multiplies our sorrows.... God, as a righteous Judge, does it, which ought to silence us under all our sorrows; as many as they are, we have deserved them all, and more: nay, God, as a tender Father, does it for our necessary correction, that we may be humbled for sin, and weaned from the world by all our sorrows; and the good we get by them, with the comfort we have under them, will abundantly balance our sorrows, how greatly soever they are multiplied. - Matthew Henry

You're impliedly stating the crux of the disagreement is how one defines "Loving your nieghbor". Expressly state it, and then define it Biblically. After that, conclude that the writer to whom you are responding is correct: we are supposed to love our nieghbor. However, loving our nieghbors is not what he described as he has obviously misunderstood. Rather, loving our nieghbors is speaking to them the truth of God's means of salvation for people, i.e. Christ and Christ alone; not letting them continue down a false path.

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Andrew DeShazo
Husband of Kathryn
Father of Phillip-Giles B. DeShazo
Deacon
Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church, Memphis, TN
"From out of the depth of unbroken Infinfity arose the Question, "Who am I?" And to that Question there is the answer, "I am God!" -Meher Baba, died 1969.

"I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." Christ, died 33 AD, ressurected three days later.

Suggestion:

"No, Christians worship the one true God who exists eternally as Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and they stand for the truth."

OR

"No, Christians worship the one true God who exists eternally as Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and they stand for the truth that only through Jesus Christ can we be made right before God. (John 14:6; Acts 4:12)."

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Wayne Sparkman, Th.M.
Director, PCA Historical Center, St. Louis, MO
Blogs: The Continuing Story and PCA History Blog

I amended your statement some. Use it as you wish.

It's a great response Pastor Barnes, thank you for standing in the gap.

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Bob Vigneault C.O.L, L.E., G.E, Dr.O.P., O.U.T.
The Heartbeat of Heaven (blog)
Deacon/Christ Presbyterian Church, Janesville, WI OPC www.christ-opc.org

Click to get: Board Rules -- Signature Requirements -- Suggestions?

It is a very good response.

You may also choose to point out that tolerating false religions is not love, but hatred of our neighbors.

Cheers,

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Adam B., Wine Country, California, PCA

"I fear not to hold with Junius, de Politia Mosis cap. 6, that he who was punishable by death under that Judicial law, is punishable by death still; and he who was not punished by death then, is not to be punished by death now."

Brother, I agree 100 percent that we need to stand against the spreading stain of Islam and that most ecumenically-minded folks are just wrong-headed; however, I wonder if the newspaper opinion page is the place to fight this battle? The not-taking-a-brother to court thought comes to mind here; same with not casting pearls before swine.

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JWithnell
Member Bethel OPC
Virginia
http://learningyesican.blogspot.com/

Mrs. Withnell,

I don't think this could possibly be even close to taking a brother to court? In fact, a public newspaper is an excellent place for the conversation. Now, had the Pastor not been charitable in his response, it could be questionable, but it was not lacking in charity at all. I also don't believe you can relate it to casting pearls before swine unless he knows the person to whom he's responding is simply trying to raise hackles.

Can you speak a little more to this?

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Daniel
PCA
Memphis, TN

As long as you can substitute words like Muslim and Mosque with Jew and Synagogue I think it's good. If you can't I think it's bad. And the same with motive. If you are more passionate about keeping a Mosque out of town than a Synagogue, I'd meditate a bit on my motives.

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Tim Vaughan
Member, Redeemer Presbyterian, OPC,
Santa Maria
California

I don't see how a group being allowed to build a mosque is the equivalent of openly accepting any false religion. There are many things people have the freedom to do that I do not accept. I can reason with someone about worshipping the true God alone, but I cannot force him to do so.

I don't think preventing a mosque from being built will turn him to Christianity, any more than a muslim preventing a church from being built would turn me to Islam.

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Jared
Unofficially Baptist
Olive Branch, MS

I would also add a line about who the true "children of Abraham" really are, only those who believe in Christ (Gal 3, Romans 4, etc.).

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Patrick
MDiv, RTS Jackson
Pastor, Grace Presbyterian Church (OPC), Lisbon, NY

"He does well, that discourses of Christ; but he does infinitely better, that by experimental knowledge, feeds and lives on Christ." Thomas Brooks.
"Let us not please ourselves that we have deep understandings, but let us shew our understandings by our practice." Richard Sibbes

It's not the mosque building that he's rejecting, it's the suggestion by the author that Islam is a valid religion and that you're not being a "good" Christian unless you accept that premise and welcome the mosque. The author of the original article has confused "loving your nieghbor" with "allowing your neighbor to do what he wants to be happy". Loving someone, and doing what it takes to make them happy, are often two different things. I love my baby, but when they're here, I will often have to do things that will not only not make them happy, but make them unhappy. Why? Because I love them.

You're attributing something to the author that isn't so evident.

Of course they are. Please show me where they author said otherwise.

I'm withdrawing from the conversation because I am given to become angry with Daniel and become uncharitable.

Andrew,

Your conclusion is
Mine is that when the author points to "love your neighbor" he wants to avoid making a stink and moan every time people are publicly practicing their religion.

So yes,we have different conclusions.

No doubt it is a charitable response.

.. just trying to raise the thought of "keeping it in the family," although I fully recognize that the mainline churches push the edge of what is still family ...

Andrew,

It is not standing with open arms to allow someone to purchase property and to use it in a lawful manner. Also, just as there is no "I know God says... but" there should be no "I know it's Constitutional, but...". You either have rights or you don't. If they have already purchased the property, and you are depriving them of a lawful use, in my opinion that's the same as stealing. I can't agree with this unless there is a statute or law requiring prior approval - which, if based on zoning laws is constitutional - but if it's based on the religious use of the property, is not.

Now, before the arrows start to fly - I wouldn't want a mosque in my neighborhood anymore than you all would. My concern is that when you hand the govt a weapon, isn't there the chance that they are going to use it against you? My former church had a 6 year legal battle before they could build. I have seen it happen.

Edit: I see this is in the "Theology" forum. It would have been at home in the "Government and Politics" forum as well.

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Rich Brown
Deacon/Webmaster
Aisquith PCA
Parkville, MD

This.

I would just like to state that if the zoning laws do not favor you than the Mosque has a right to be able to build.

In light of our pluralistic society (which does not prohibit the freedom of even false religions to gather peacefully) I would point out in the article that while we have laws to allow free assembly in order to worship, that churches all across the muslim world get burned or closed every week.

This should give us pause on why the Muslim world desires tolerance for itself in the West but does not reciprocate this tolerance once in the majority.

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Pergamum


"If a commission by an earthly king is considered a honor, how can a commission by a Heavenly King be considered a sacrifice?"
-- David Livingstone

You have a day's work here just to sift through all the suggestions/amendments!
No way will I quibble about what you're actually saying, but if you'll forgive me, can I suggest a grammatical improvement?

Either:Or:Point 2, I'm also not sure about "forsake loving", just as an expression. I would have said you forsake a person, not an action. Why not repeat the verb "abandon"? It strengthens the point if anything.

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JennyG
Church of Scotland (Presbyterian)
Fife, Scotland

Good point Tim, Orthodox Judaism is even more hostile to the Lord Jesus than Muslims are. Orthodox Jews blasphemously refer to the Lord Jesus as Yeshu Ha-Notzri, Yeshu being an acronymn for ""Yimmach Shemo Vezikro""---(may his name be blotted out)(ref to book ""Escape from Jesus""). Muslims at least have a superficial respect for Jesus. In the Shemoneh Esrei prayer in the Siddur, Orthodox Jews call on God to wipe out the Christians(Minim).
In Israel Orthodox Jews harass Jewish Christians continually. Gentile Christians are tolerated out of fear of the West and for Tourist Dollars. On the other hand Jewish Churches have been burned. And you can see on youtube, videos of some of these confrontations in Israel.

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Jacob Peters
Layman
URC
Toronto
Canada

Plus ca change....historically it's always been exactly the same with Rome

Profound.

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David
PCA
Bartlett, TN

Who am I, O Lord God, and what is my house,
that you have brought me thus far?
2 Samuel 7:18