This letter was written openly to Franklin Graham. Monday’s readers clicked on it more than any other links, so therefore it turns into Friday’s Feature article. Read it here:
On religious liberty: an open letter to Franklin Graham
As always, I’ll add a few of my own thoughts here:
1. This author claims London is passionate that . . .
people come together. Now, I have no way of verifying the veracity of the claim, but let’s assume it’s true. I wonder if we as Americans too quickly buy into the fear that those not like us don’t share the same values and automatically pose a threat.
Further, I wonder how many people doing the fear mongering really do have relationships with people from different backgrounds.
2. We should struggle with what we think religious liberty means.
When we hear the term, do we think about the freedom to practice only what we believe? Do we value the free expression of opposing religious views? We should. The illustration from the roots of the Baptist faith (I have not confirmed this author’s telling of the history of Baptist faith) describes a Christian’s passion for religious freedom. This should challenge anyone, especially professing Christians.
3. Banning Muslims only opens the door for Christians to be banned.
If you think Muslims should be banned from entering the U.S., all you’ve done is create a framework for people to get fed up with Bible-believing Christians and force us to move. Once we start treating groups as a category based on religion, the slide down the hill gets very slippery.
Think. Is Franklin Graham’s support of Donald Trump acceptable in your view? Why or why not?
Act. I’d suggest doing a wide variety of reading and evaluating what people running for president say. Also, we should check our hearts with our view of people who need Jesus. Do we see an influx of Muslims as a mission field first or a hindrance to national security? I’m not suggesting the answers should come easily, but we should put in some work to determine our stances above and beyond the latest soundbites.