To Build or not to Build
In previous posts I have mentioned an interest in reaching out to Muslims. It has been a desire of mine for a while to build bridges between Christians and Muslims so that we can live in harmony together. Some desires in life change as we experience more things.
The large majority of those I work with at my new job are from East Africa. A great majority of these people are Muslim and I have enjoyed talking with them. They assume that I am a Muslim until they get the courage to come ask me about my religious affiliation. I have learned that Muslims are just as hypocritical as Christians are accused of being.
They sit around smoking while talking about how pork and alchohol make the body unclean. They say they are Muslim but most do not do their prayers and admit to not doing them (a few guys do their prayers in the locker room or elsewhere in the warehouse). Most of the women who wear scarves on their head are consistent from head to toe, but a few are (dressed) Muslim from the neck up only. It is also not a rare occurence to hear a scarved women swearing.
I guess I could give in and become a Muslim and not change anything about my life.
The rest of those I work with are Orthodox Christians from Ethiopia and they seem more devout than the Muslims. I enjoy talking to them about Christianiy more than I enjoy my discussions with Muslims.
In my discussions with other Christians I realize more about myself. I have toyed with the idea of instead of running from the American church to a Muslim country that maybe I should devote my life to reforming the American church and bringing it back in line with the Gospel of Christ.
Instead of building bridges with Muslims (something I think that is still important) maybe we (I) should focus more on mending fences or better yet tearing down fences, walls, and all other barriers between different groups of Christians so that we can truly be one as Christ desired.
The large majority of those I work with at my new job are from East Africa. A great majority of these people are Muslim and I have enjoyed talking with them. They assume that I am a Muslim until they get the courage to come ask me about my religious affiliation. I have learned that Muslims are just as hypocritical as Christians are accused of being.
They sit around smoking while talking about how pork and alchohol make the body unclean. They say they are Muslim but most do not do their prayers and admit to not doing them (a few guys do their prayers in the locker room or elsewhere in the warehouse). Most of the women who wear scarves on their head are consistent from head to toe, but a few are (dressed) Muslim from the neck up only. It is also not a rare occurence to hear a scarved women swearing.
I guess I could give in and become a Muslim and not change anything about my life.
The rest of those I work with are Orthodox Christians from Ethiopia and they seem more devout than the Muslims. I enjoy talking to them about Christianiy more than I enjoy my discussions with Muslims.
In my discussions with other Christians I realize more about myself. I have toyed with the idea of instead of running from the American church to a Muslim country that maybe I should devote my life to reforming the American church and bringing it back in line with the Gospel of Christ.
Instead of building bridges with Muslims (something I think that is still important) maybe we (I) should focus more on mending fences or better yet tearing down fences, walls, and all other barriers between different groups of Christians so that we can truly be one as Christ desired.
posted by Justin at 10/01/2005 07:06:00 AM
2 Comments:
How come one can't include the other? Why wouldn't mending the chruch lead to better bridges with people of the Muslim faith. If the chruch were a more perfect instrument of God wouldn't His spirit help form bonds through love that would be more solid than anything done outside of that context.
well, Michelle, you have a point, but are you saying you want Justin to do all of those things? I think he's saying he's trying to decide between what he's going to devote his personal time and energy to, not what the most important thing for the Church is.
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