islam

Love Your Neighbor, the Atheist

Sean McDowell — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 17:33:30 -0700

When Jesus was asked the most important commandment in the law he answered to “love the Lord your God” and “love your neighbor.” In other words, the most important thing for Christians to do is to love (Mark 12). And yet this summer I have been reminded how far we have to go in learning to love our neighbors. Let me explain.

One of my favorite ways to teach students is through role-playing. I take on the part of an atheist, Muslim, Mormon, or a member of some other non-Christian worldview and challenge students to articulate and defend their beliefs accordingly. I have done this with groups of as few as twelve students or as many as 6,000.

One of the great values in role-playing is that it quickly reveals how little students actually understand their faith. Rarely have I encountered a student who was conversant about theology, science or philosophy. Most defend their views by quoting verses (even though my role-play persona typically does not believe in the Bible) or by pointing to some personal experience. As Barna studies reveal, few Christians understand or can articulate their faith.

And yet my role-play also reveals how students treat non-believers. This summer I role-played as an atheist at a summer camp. As soon as I put on my “atheist shirt,” to indicate I was role-playing, a youth pastor yelled out, “You are going to hell.” Everyone laughed. Another student read me Psalms 14:1, which says, “The fool says there is no God.” Others clapped and jeered as soon as they answered my questions or countered my challenges. Rather than loving me as a neighbor they told me I was going to hell, called me a fool, and cheered against me as if I was their cross-town rival.

The next day a girl came up to me and thanked me for fairly representing atheism. And the reason she cared was that she, herself, is an atheist. She said to me, “I have been doubting God for some time. I have a lot of questions. The reason I’m afraid to tell anyone is that I fear they will treat me exactly as they treated you last night.” I shared her story with the entire group the next day (with her permission) and you could have heard a pin drop. This was the first time many of them reflected on how they really treat people of other faiths.

I asked the students to consider what was in their hearts during the role-play. Were they really trying to understand my worldview, listen to me, love me as a human being, and draw me to Christ? Or were they trying to win the argument? Most admitted it was the latter.

How do you treat people of other faiths? Do you love them, as Jesus called us to do? I have heard pastors take cheap shots at atheists and listened to Christians tell derogatory jokes about gays. Why on earth would they come to church or consider the claims of Christ when we treat them like that? Paul made it clear that if we speak in tongues, or speak prophecies, but have not love, then we have nothing (1 Cor. 13:1-2).

The best way to overcome our biases about people of other faiths is to reach out and genuinely engage them in relationship. Don’t just hang out with other Christians. Sadly, people of other faiths are often surprised when Christians actually do this. But this is what Jesus did! Some of the most enriching relationships I have had over the past few years are with atheists and other non-Christians. When we actually build relationships with atheists, Muslims, agnostics, New Agers, or other non-Christians we will stop stereotyping them, and be in a much better position to love them. So, what non-Christian can you engage? How can you love your neighbor?

Why Christians are Angry with Islam

MarkM — Thu, 16 Sep 2010 11:42:49 -0700

Ticia and I live in the center of Columbia SC, what a Re-Max realtor might call a “developing area.” You know, “those buildings are boarded up now, but I hear there’s a Pop Eye’s Chicken coming!” Lots of homeless people standing quietly on our block all day; the Rescue Mission kicks them out at 7am. And, in keeping with the “Developing Locale!” theme, there are two competing Loan businesses on the first floor of our building, both offering quick cash with no credit check. “Just give us your car’s title papers, we’ll work out the details later.”

Ticia and I have a hard time with these loan places. They further poverty by offering a quick fix at great expense. Sure, you have cash in your pocket, but in reality, you just bought a very costly distraction.

I have to admit, the loan guys are smart. We all like to live this way, and they know it. There is something intrinsically human about focusing on the immediate and evident in order to ignore the deep and difficult. Do email and don’t think about the checkbook. Work longer hours and tune out the difficult marriage. It’s part of being human.

And I wonder, how does this apply to our theology? Robert Wright just wrote a New York Times Opinion piece on the Koran and the Bible. He focused on the human capacity to embrace one thing in order to ignore something else. On both sides! Emphasize “infidels” while ignoring peace, hate on “others” while neglecting love.

Wright asks, “Why do people tend to hear only one side of the story? A common explanation is that the digital age makes it easy to wall yourself off from inconvenient data, to spend your time in ideological “cocoons,” to hang out at blogs where you are part of a choir that gets preached to. Makes sense to me. But, however big a role the Internet plays, it’s just amplifying something human: a tendency to latch onto evidence consistent with your worldview and ignore or downplay contrary evidence.”

I thought about the whole anti-Islam thing that’s happening in the United States today, the Tea Party Protesters, the general discord and anger, and that many of the people at the front of the protests, carrying a white poster board sign stapled onto a stiff wood stick, are committed Christians. The rhetoric is often biblical and the passion is real. I wonder if they are being duped.

It is so easy to focus on something simple, something obvious, and make that obvious thing the point of our righteous Christian wrath. But as we focus on political and religious “enemies,” Jesus says “sell everything and give it to the poor.” “Can’t be rich and get into the kingdom of heaven.” Fat rich guys trying to squeeze through an eye-of-the-needle kind of stuff. But we avoid. We shrug, blink twice, scream “Islam is of the devil!!!!!” Repeating the extremist mistake ourselves.

Is Islam more of a threat to Americans than consumerism? Why are the potential deaths from a terrorist attack scarier than the current deaths caused by global warming? Are we focused in order to avoid?

Maybe we steer clear of real issues by focusing on what’s obvious and easy. It seems to me that if we took the scriptures seriously that deal with possessions and justice, we might have to change our lives. Sell something. Give up a piece of the “American Dream.” Change.

It's far easier to be angry at Muslims.

A Muslim-American College offers hope, but needs help

MarkM — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 18:07:12 -0700

With all the election-year nonsense being spouted about the Islamic Cultural Center in New York, I thought it interesting to see the emergence of another cultural influence on the other coast. This fall, Zaytuna College is opening its doors as a small, faith-based institution in the San Francisco Area. Faculty hope to assist students to integrate faith and learning, the curriculum includes intentional spiritual formation, and the College’s vision extends to the shaping of American society.

What, another Christian college? Don’t we already have plenty of those around? While it might sound like your typical Evangelical college, it’s not. It’s a Muslim College, with the Koran as a firm foundation. The stated mission of the college is to “educate and prepare morally committed professional, intellectual, and spiritual leaders, who are grounded in the Islamic scholarly tradition and conversant with the cultural currents and critical ideas shaping modern society.”

I find this so exciting. Here is a place where ideas in Islam can be vetted, discussed, and developed. Zaytuna College has beautiful potential for those who fear an extreme version of Islam, as the college pursues a vision to deepen American Islamic scholarship by developing approaches that are true to the Koran, but also appropriately engaged in postmodern America.

And as I thought about it, it struck me that Zaytuna College is firmly in the tradition of another important element of American Higher Education, the Christian College. I know, but I mean beyond the obvious differences in belief:

Integrating faith and learning: Faculty lead students in discovering and developing deep connections between their personal faith and the knowledge found in professional study. In contrast to secular colleges, these institutions embrace a world view that includes faith, instead of trying to remove it.

Spiritual formation: The belief that a college has a responsibility to not only develop academic programs, but also to create programs that serve the spiritual development of students, faculty and staff. Humans are complex beings and a college needs to address the total person.

A view to change society: Institutions of faith are explicit in their intention to graduate students who see beyond the typical “get a job, get married, live life.” The integration of faith and learning, as well as the intentional spiritual formation, are expected to produce students who see the greater needs in the society they are a part of, the areas of culture that can be impacted toward a faith orientation.

So who is going to help Zaytuna develop as a vitally important institution in American higher education? They have a lot of work to do. As a brand new college, they face the daunting challenges of accreditation, creating a solid financial foundation, and recruiting and hiring qualified faith-oriented faculty.

Might I suggest? Christian colleges know how to be distinctive as faith-based institutions in an American educational context. They understand how to address standards for accreditation, while working from a sectarian perspective. But here’s the rub: it’s going to take an Evangelical institution to do it. The more liberal Christian colleges in America have long given up the distinctives that Evangelical institutions share with Zaytuna. I wonder if there is an evangelical institution that can see beyond the obvious differences, take a step, and really engage the “Islamic Issue” in the United States.

If you want to see more about Zaytuna College, here’s their site: www.zaytunacollege.org

An Islamic Cultural Center?

MarkM — Sat, 14 Aug 2010 17:36:40 -0700

The Islamic Cultural Center! The ISLAMIC cultural center? The Islamic CULTURAL center? Depends on which news you watch and what papers you read. To some, it sounds like the second choice. Sarah Palin has weighed in. Jon Stewart made his views known. President Obama gave a speech, after Mayor Bloomberg finally came out of his civil rights closet to make a solid statement.

And I really don’t get what the fuss is about. As if there are not already two mosques located within four blocks of the trade center site, one of which predated the building of the World Trade Center. In fact, none other than Fox news recently reported that “New York City has more than 100 mosques . . . more than 800,000 of its 8.21 million residents are Muslims, said Philip Banks III, chief of the NYPD Community Affairs Bureau.” My friends, New York City has more Muslims than the entire populations of two Islamic nations: Bahrain and Qatar.

But it’s more than numbers. And here is the rub that I see. Just as Al-Qaeda Muslims lump all Americans into one world-destroying pile (conveniently labeled “infidels”), some American’s want to do the same thing to Muslims. We equate the God-fearing, peace loving Muslims of America with the militant nut cases duct-taping bombs under their button downs. By resorting to simple fear and ignorance, we end up denying Americans the same rights the terrorists tried to destroy. President Obama said it pretty well. In reference to the first responders on 9/11, he stated “We do not honor their lives by denying the very Constitutional rights they died protecting. We honor their lives by defending those rights — and the freedoms that the terrorists attacked.”

I suspect that the Americans who are opposing the rights of Muslims to worship are heading down the same path as Al-Qaeda. Fearful of what they don’t understand, they strike out blindly, perhaps hitting their target, but injuring others as well. In their flurry of activity, they dehumanize people by denying them God-given rights that distinguish the United States from Afghanistan. If they succeed, it’s pretty clear where they are leading us.

Oak Hill Hoops, Pluralism and Islam

Dave Sterrett — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 14:55:44 -0800

The Dilemma of Pluralism

Richard Dahlstrom — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 08:51:16 -0800

This morning's BBC report discloses that the French government has refused to grant citizenship to man because he is forcing his wife to wear the 'full veil'. Because she is not free to 'come and go with her face uncovered', this man's values place him a category of person to whom the French government denies citizenship. It is recommended by the French government that anyone showing signs of "radical religious practice" be refused citizenship.I'm interested in your thoughts on this subject so I'll just toss some questions out:

1. The phrase 'radical religious practice' seems ambiguous. Isn't 'eating the flesh and drinking the blood' (see John 6, or your weekly communion table) also radical? Or living in community? What are the risks that this ruling becomes precedent setting for all manner of religious persecution? On the other hand, isn't the state obligated to protect the powerless (Romans 13), and isn't this woman being rendered powerless? But what if she wants the full covering?

2. This man's patriarchy no doubt offends the sensibilities of most of us reading this. But would France also refuse to grant citizenship to a person who believed that a woman shouldn't work outside the home while raising children? The bigger question than the particular ruling is, in this case, how wide this ruling opens the door.

3. We live in a pluralist world, where different belief systems bump up against each other. France is trying to understand how to be pluralist without sacrificing it's own cultural distinctives, and this is where the rub comes. How can we be embracing of other cultures, while maintaining our own cultural identity? This issue is a raging river in Europe, even more so than the United States, but it's an issue everywhere, and an important one.

Pluralism and tolerance are terribly politically correct, but we all have our limits. You can't be a pedophile, you can't steal other people's stuff; on these we all agree. Keep talking about ethics though, and you soon come to multiple forks in the road. If we aren't careful, we're going to end up using these forks to stab each other.

What are your thoughts?

Islam and Christianity in the West

Carrie Nye — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 13:05:09 -0700

March 15, 2008, I was privileged to occupy a seat at the 25th anniversary banquet for Frontiers. Frontiers mission is to invite Muslim peoples to follow Jesus by loving them and respecting them. The banquet consisted of Frontiers missionaries, staff and donors.

During the banquet, Frontiers staff introduced a Muslim couple from Pakistan who they had brought along for the anniversary events. As the couple stepped up the microphone, the packed banquet hall silenced, all eyes glued on the couple who bore their traditional dress. The man spoke first. Speaking from the heart he spoke to the kindness he and his wife had received from the Frontiers missionaries in Pakistan. He also spoke about how he could never follow their Jesus. He spoke to the many contradiction’s he saw weaved in and out of the West and the Christians of the West. The room was sober and the guest speaker was honest and convicting.

After 10-15 minutes of observation of the West and its wicked ways, which had a stinger full of truth, the wife of the man approached the microphone. She spoke out against the promiscuity of Western women. She spoke as to how she could never embrace Christianity when the values of relationships and character were so flippant. As they closed their speech and thanked us Christians for listening to them, Muslims, the room was so silent I was afraid to swallow for fear those sitting across the room would hear.

After a period of silence, the Pakistan Muslim man stood to the microphone again and took off his turban. He then introduced himself as an American Christian missionary serving the Pakistani Muslim peoples. His wife followed suit as she removed her burka. You could feel the weight of the room lift as he began to share with us how he and his wife have served with Frontiers for many years. He shared with us that what he and his wife had said when they were posing as Muslims was exactly what they deal with in Pakistan daily in the Muslim community.

Christianity Today recently released one of the better articles on Islam and Christianity I’ve read. The Clash of Stereotypes states

Surveys of the world's Muslims find that most Muslims support democracy and freedom.

I can attest that this is true based on friends of mine who are Muslim and based on conversations I’ve had with Muslims in the past. Not all Muslims are the Jihad type and the West would do best to stop stereotyping all Muslim as part of Al-Qaeda.

The article goes on to describe two types of liberalism.

To understand these seemingly contradictory currents, it's helpful to distinguish between two types of liberalism. One is the classical liberalism of the American founding. Call this Liberalism 1, which is reflected in such principles as the right to vote, to assemble freely, to trade with others and keep the fruits of one's labor, to practice one's religion, to tolerate different political and religious views, and so on.

Then there is the modern liberalism that developed in the West after World War II. Call this Liberalism 2, which is characterized by the right to blaspheme, pornography as a protected form of free expression, the exclusion of religious symbols from the public square, the right of teenagers to receive sex education and contraceptives, the right to abortion, prostitution as a worker's right, and so on.

I don’t know about you, but from where I’m sitting in the grand stand of America, I see us, Americans, generally moving more and more closer to liberalism 2. That is Islam’s biggest beef with Westerners.

I’ve read the Qu'ran and I’ve had real, honest, conversations with practicing Muslims who fall in the Liberalism 1 camp. Their issue is not with Christians in the Liberalism 1 camp. Their beef is with a nation who proclaims to be “one nation under God” (although as we know, things are quickly shifting away from this practice) and then behaves in the way of Liberalism 2.

The article also states that that

Muslims fear that "Islam is under attack" and that the West is leading that attack.

Do you want to share Jesus with a Muslim in the west? Live out your Christian beliefs.

I once heard a story of a Christian man who lived next door to a Muslim man. These men never talked. Their relationship was no more than a friendly wave and smile now and then. The Christian man went to work on time every day, his car pulling in and out of the driveway at the same time as his Muslim neighbor. The Christian man also went to church every Sunday with his family. The Muslim man observed this behavior weekly. The Christian man also held a weekly Bible Study in his home, which the Muslim man also noticed. The attendees also waved hello to him, they were respectful to him by keeping their volume down and leaving at a decent hour. After roughly a year of this, the Muslim man made his way over to finally talk to the Christian man. He thanked the Christian man for the friendly waves, the smiles, and began to share with him how he appreciated that he was a hard worker, obviously cared for his family and was dedicated to the God he served. The Muslim man then asked the Christian man about his God and about his values. That night the Muslim man became a Christian neighbor. (True story).

The article wraps up by giving 3 examples of loving Muslims with Christ’s transforming and liberating love. It says this,

First, we can better understand how radical Islam has widened its following. By portraying the West as atheistic and morally decadent, Islamic radicals can effectively recruit followers by appealing to a shared Muslim antipathy for permissive values. Moreover, the survey data show that nothing antagonizes Muslims, and presumably makes them vulnerable to radical recruitment, more than Western attacks on Islam as a religion of violence.

Second, the West would do well to show Muslims its more traditional face. Currently Muslims see America mostly through the lens of popular culture. But the values of Hollywood are not typical of the way most U.S. citizens live. If Muslims could see more Americans who go to church, raise intact families, and espouse traditional moral values, they would be less vulnerable to the propaganda of radical Islam.

Finally, mainstream Christians are well situated not only to understand Muslim sensibilities, but also to work with the followers of Islam in combating the excesses of Liberalism 2. After all, Muslims' concerns about some of the excesses of American culture are widely shared among Christians.

Today, in the Middle East, groves of Muslims are coming to Christ. These new believers need our prayer and support. Frontiers is a good place to start. Unfortunately, the number of Muslim converts is on the rise in the West. Great Britain recently passed a law that Muslim citizens will now be tried in a court of Shariah law.

Muslims and Christians agree when it comes to many values. How can we establish loving and respectful relationships with our Muslim neighbors in the West? Do you think America is attacking terrorism or Islam? Are we in a “holy war” or in a liberation war? Is there a difference between the two? I’d love to hear your thoughts.

The End of Christian America?: A Way Forward

Craig Detweiler — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 09:26:13 -0700

Time magazine famously announced that “God is Dead” on April 8, 1966. While their cover story captured the zeitgeist percolating through university classrooms and philosophical debates, Time failed to anticipate how grassroots the religious impulse remains. Mainline denominations caught in the theological currents of the sixties (Presbyterians, Methodists, Episcopalians), did experience significant decline. But the evangelicals who stuck to their core convictions during a time of great upheaval saw profound growth over the following forty years. God joined Mark Twain in suggesting that “The tales of my death are greatly exaggerated.”

Now, during another Holy Week and Passover observation, a national newsweekly has announced “The Decline and Fall of Christian America.” Jon Meacham’s argument in Newsweek doesn’t put God or Christianity on trial. He wrote an additional piece to clarify his intentions (beyond a brilliantly timed strategy to drive sales and light up the blogosphere during Holy Week). Instead, Meacham points to the rising tide of individuals claiming no religious affiliation in the 2009 American Religious Identification Survey. Those who consider themselves outside of faith have doubled since the 1990 survey, from roughly 8% to 15% (with another 5% refusing to even answer the question). Dispute that rising tide, America remains comprised of a remarkable number of Christians. But those Christians must figure out how to navigate a world in which their morality may no longer be a majority.

This will not come as news to many Americans. Barry Taylor and I anticipated a post-Christian America in our 2003 book, A Matrix of Meanings. We acknowledged that Christianity is booming in parts of Africa, Asia, and Latin America. But in the western world, we have entered a ‘post-Christendom’ era. We cannot assume that our values, beliefs, and tenets are shared. And we cannot impose them without a serious and ugly fight. Meacham’s article in Newsweek acknowledges both the power attained by the Christian right and their commensurate failure to win hearts and minds (along with elections).

We’ve been living with the realities of a post-Christian America for some time. We see it in the various manifestations of the culture war. It seeps out in our talk shows, our water cooler conversations, at our dinner tables. Meacham’s article suggests that Christians abandon their failed ‘war’ and prepare to live with the new pluralistic reality where spiritualities reign rather than religions. My Purple State project is rooted in the tension between sacred and secular, believers and skeptics. So allow me to make three modest observations about how to respond to “The End of Christian America.”

1. No need to panic. “The Death of God” announced in the sixties has long been a reality in corridors of power. Our professors and classrooms have assumed that we’re living in a post-Christian America. The arguments proffered as facts largely swept all faiths from the table. So those running the government, the media, and the academy were equally surprised by the rise of the religious right and the growth of radical Islam. They didn’t know how to report on religion because they didn’t know anything about it. When I arrived at USC film school in the early nineties, most of my colleagues had never met an evangelical Christian. They were born and bred outside of religious institutions, assuming that faith was a quaint vestige of the past. Their only point of reference came from televangelists. And it was not a pretty picture.

Yet, many Christians have gotten quite serious about scholarship, about politics, and about the arts. They’ve gotten training at Ivy League schools and interned at the most powerful companies in the world. Sociologist Michael Lindsay traces the rise of evangelical Faith in the Halls of Power. He finds many people of faith navigating culture-making industries with great facility and aplomb. Their struggle is to differentiate their gracious and creative Christianity from the virulent and angry expressions often held up as normative. Many younger Christians are poised to lead a nimble and embodied twenty first century faith. But they are still struggling to wrestle the microphone from those who are clinging to Christendom. It is easy to understand why those who built large campuses and massive mailing lists would long to hold onto them. Unfortunately, they are struggling to hold onto a shrinking piece of twentieth century pie.

2. Time to reflect. We have only just begun to recognize the damage we’ve done to the faith. We must start by acknowledging how unloving we’ve been to those we’ve disagreed with. The perceptions compiled by David Kinnaman in the best-selling book unChristian are withering. We are seen as judgmental, anti-intellectual, anti-homosexual and too political. It is tough to sustain a faith based upon what or whom we’re against. When we attempt to discredit the new atheists, we often fail to realize that we are wrestling with the fruits of our labor. We have provided ample fuel for their objections to the faith.

My challenge in the Purple State of Mind project was to tangle with someone who knows our tricks. John Marks came to faith via Young Life. He taught small group bible studies for InterVarsity. He knows how Christians think. But do we understand why some might abandon their faith? Do we grasp that valid reasons for skepticism are often sparked by our hypocrisy? Logical or biblical refutations of our own shortcomings won’t hold much water. We must live out our convictions in such tangible ways that no argument is necessary. The song remains the same: they will know we are Christians by our love.

3. Learn to co-exist. As we struggle to accept those without a specific faith, we are also challenged by our proximity to other faiths. Religious traditions that once seemed exotic or far away are increasingly coming to American shores. From Hollywood’s fascination with Buddhism to the growing presence of local mosques, faiths that fall outside our biblical tradition are gaining a significant foothold. Some may be tempted to renew a holy war. But we have seen how the warfare generated by crusades can undercut noble intentions. “Co-exist” is becoming more than a bumpersticker or a bandana to wrap around Bono’s head. It is a fundamental necessity in Post-Christian America.

On the Purple State tour, I was surprised by the solidarity expressed by a Muslim med student in Texas. Since 9/11, he has struggled to carry his once esteemed name, Muhammad, with pride. He shared the discomfort I expressed in Purple State of Mind with those who (mis)represent my faith in the public square. I have also been humbled by the strength and solidarity I’ve witnessed inside a Sunni mosque. So many men, standing side by side, praying together in unity on a daily basis! It causes me to question my own commitments, to redouble my own spiritual rigor. When I interviewed a young Muslim about his faith, he called Islam, “the solution.” When I see others living out their faith with compelling convictions, I am forced to reconsider the depth of my commitment. Dedicated Hindus, Jews, and Buddhists put me to the test. They cause me to reflect, to listen carefully, and pray more.

Co-exist doesn’t mean setting aside our beliefs, but finding enough common ground to allow us all to worship in peace. On this Good Friday, we must recognize that Jesus was killed by religious violence. He threatened the established political and religious order. His radical life and teaching caused those in power to panic, to practice injustice to preserve their position. Following the way of the cross involves laying down our arms.

4. Embrace the opportunity for renewal. We must also recognize that the post-postmodern world will create massive tensions within each religion. The violence that still arises from Sunnis versus Shiites rivals any Catholic and Protestant conflicts. Yet all four expressions of faith will face new ethical conundrums thanks to advances in science and technology. Their sacred texts and traditions will have to be reinterpreted by dedicated contemporary scholars.

For example, how will Islam deal with the rise of educated or even liberated Muslim women? With they be satisfied being excluded from prayer service? Imagine what an affront Jesus’ care for the woman at the well might have brought in his time. Jesus’ inclusive preaching and practices continue to challenge social conventions. Yet, Jesus’ comparative silence (and Paul’s three references to homosexuality) has left Christians in an awkward and ugly firestorm. We will see frissons and fractures in far more than the Anglican Church. But as Becky Garrison suggested in Religious Dispatches, it is far too early to determine the outcome. However the established Christian denominations split, will we still learn to co-exist? Surely, homosexuals within the Islamic community have some bloody struggles ahead. What will happen when religious laws bump up against civil rights?

The battle lines in the culture wars will continue to shift. Can a post-Christian America take a lead in how to balance religious freedoms with human rights? We may need to learn from the fragile social contracts between the Abrahamic faiths that have been written in ancient cities like Cordoba, Spain. The city bears evidence of great struggles of Roman temples converted to Christian churches and Jewish synagogues that were turned into Muslim mosques. Plenty of blood was spilled in the names of God. Yet, one thousand years ago, Cordoba experienced an era of profound cooperation and prosperity. Advances in medicine, astronomy and farming followed.

As we struggle to recover our economic footing, perhaps a new found embrace of the other, a renewal of the American Dream amongst enterprising immigrants (who may or may not share our religious practices) may lift our collective well-being. President Obama seems prepared to renew our national bonds. He told an audience in Turkey, “We do not consider ourselves a Christian nation or a Jewish nation or a Muslim nation. We consider ourselves a nation of citizens who are bound by ideals and a set of values.”

I am continually humbled by the faith and resolve I’ve witnessed amongst African, Asian, and Latin American Christians. They’ve called me to prayer, taught me new songs, and invited me into corners of my own community I never knew. They’ve restored and renewed my faith in both the American experiment and the colorful kingdom of God. They allow me to surrender my claims to Christendom, to move forward without fear, to remember that the death of the Christian America we’ve known allows for a surprising resurrection.