Solsticewitch13's BOS: Tend My Flock

Monday, January 3, 2011

Tend My Flock

January 3, 2011

If you ask a Christian leader why he does not speak out on Islam, you get some
version of: My duty is to tend to my flock, to help them become better Christians.
My job is not to oppose Islam.

What if a Christian leader actually took the advice to tend to his flock? Start
with the image of tending the flock. This is a Christian image of Christ tending
to the flock, the church, a warm pastoral image of lambs and no violence. Jesus
is the Good Shepherd.

There is a common abbreviation, WWJD, what would Jesus do? This should be a
living question in a Christian's mind. An even more important question is: What
did Jesus do? It turns out that we have detailed accounting of Jesus debating
and criticizing religious leaders. Even a causal observation of the gospel accountings
shows two things. Jesus knew more about the subject under debate than anyone
in the room. He also stood up in public and private and confronted error, even
against leadership.

What would it mean if a Christian leader tried to follow Christ's example of
knowing the subject? It would mean that the leader would know the Koran and
the Sunna of Mohammed. He would be able to comment on the great themes of the
Koran and know it as a story. He would know the Sira, the life of Mohammed,
and have detailed knowledge of the Hadith. He would know the history of the
Christian dhimmi. He would know what happened to the Seven Churches of Asia
mentioned in Revelation. He would know how Egypt, Turkey, North Africa, Iraq,
Syria, Lebanon all went from being Christian to Islamic. This is not difficult
work for a scholar. It can be done in six months with present books. Just reading
Mark Durie and Bat Ye'or's The
Third Choice, would give them a running start. He would know more than 90%
of all Christian leaders.

Once you get your knowledge, you need one more quality, courage. A leader would
stand in public and discuss the truth of the facts of Islam. According to political
correctness and multiculturalism, that would not be nice, since someone might
disapprove or become upset. Nice people do not confront others. That is not
nice. The modern Christian prefers the Gospel of Nice to the Gospel of Christ.
As a result of the Gospel of Nice, the Christian leader does not need courage.

Does tending the flock include being able to give fact-based advice to the Christian
woman who comes to him and asks if it all right to marry a Muslim? Tending the
flock would mean knowing the doctrine of wife-beating found in the Sharia, Koran
and Hadith. The nice thing to do is saying, "Sure marry the Muslim. We
worship the same god." That is nice, but it is a lie. That nice lie is
the one that many shepherds have given their flock.

Tending the flock would mean being able to teach a Christian who is flirting
with Islam the truth about Islamic doctrine. But if the leader is ignorant,
how can they refute Islamic arguments for the Christian to convert?

What if the flock extended beyond the limits of the boundaries of the church
building? Tending the flock would include the suffering of Christians in Africa
and the Middle East. A good Shepherd would tell of the murder, rape and abuse
perpetrated by Islam to Christians on a daily basis.

Would the idea of a larger flock mean inviting persecuted Christians to speak
to the congregation? Should the persecuted be recognized and prayed for at church?
The current nice policy is to never mention the martyrs or the oppression of
the Christians in Muslim countries.

The Black Church is hemorrhaging young males to Islam. If tending the flock
meant seeing the flock large enough to include the black church, then a true
Shepherd would be able to give guidance to the black leaders and educate them
about the cruel Islamic doctrine of slavery still in existence. Tending the
flock would include the story
of Mohammed as a retail and wholesale slave trader, a man who owned white
slaves, Arab slaves, black slaves, and sex slaves. The wise Shepherd would tell
the story of how Islam enslaved a million white Christians and murdered 120
million Africans in the process of running the Islamic slave trade on the Mediterranean
coast, the east and west coast of Africa. Of course, talking about Islam and
slavery is not nice. And besides, it would marginalize all that white guilt
about slavery in America. The Christian leader can bemoan that history and wallow
in guilt, since that is considered nice. But to talk about the 1400 year old
Islamic slave trade active in Africa today would require both knowledge and
courage, and that is not nice.

A Christian leader would be able to see that the Great Commission of preaching
the gospel would include converting Muslims to Christianity, increasing their
flock. Preaching the Gospel to Muslims may be in the Gospel of Christ, but it
is excluded from the Gospel of Nice. As a result, Christian leaders avoid the
Great Commission when it comes to Islam in the West.

We will never defeat Political Islam as long as our Christian leaders see their
job as being nice. Some of Islam's biggest supporters are our ignorant religious
leaders. Although this article has focused on Christian leaders, let be a public
record that Christian leaders are ahead of Jewish leadership. If Christian leadership
is tragic, then Jewish leadership is pathetic.

A piece of advice to Christian leaders: be a real shepherd, don't just be nurturing
and caring, but be a defender of the flock as well. Stop being nice. Be like
the Good Shepherd, be wise, and be courageous.