Weekly Articles

There is a dedicated agenda at work today in Western society (especially within the US, Canada, and the UK) to soften the image of Islam, while portraying Christianity as the source of much of the world’s problems.  This is not simple demagoguery, but a clear-headed assessment of how the two religions are represented in both the major news media and in public policy.  Islam, a religion with 1,300 years of brutally intolerant expansion and core principles of violent oppression of non-believers, is ridiculously called the “religion of peace”.  Christianity, on the other hand, is demonized as the ignorant, flat-world believing, crusading world-delusion that is responsible for everything from global warming to the spread of AIDS; from the teen pregnancy rates to shameful state of public education – yes, each of these has been blamed on Christians!

The Examiner (www.examiner.com) reported a controversy arising from textbooks approved for use in middle and high schools that softened Islamic teachings, defining Jihad as the struggle to resist temptation/overcome evil (exactly the interpretation that all of the suicide bombers no doubt had in mind) and leaving out any calls to kill apostates (converts from Islam – ordered to be executed in the Qur’an).  The only reasonable explanation for this is that a concerted effort is being made to convince the modern, technologically (and socially) sophisticated populations of the western world that Islam is a reasonable, peaceful, and beneficial religion that is to be embraced in the name of open-mindedness and diversity.  So a big part of this effort is a softening of Islam’s image for the western world.

On the other hand, Christians are to be demonized and trivialized at every turn.  Does that sound paranoid?  Look at how history is revised and the story is corrupted, without regard for the truth (or even fairness).  What were the crusades about?  Why, it was the Christians trying to force poor, peaceful Muslims to convert.  Now, I am not justifying or glorifying the crusades, and I have no doubt that more than enough villainy inhabited the European ranks; but the truth is that the crusades were a response from Europe to the numerous (and violent) invasions of Islam into Christian lands.  The Muslims forced conversion at the sword.  What about the colonization of the New World by Europeans?  It is often portrayed as ignorant Christians swindling poor, peaceful natives out of their land and then killing them with biological warfare.  Now, of course the native peoples were decimated by smallpox, but I don’t think its fair to blame even the Spaniards for something that they knew nothing about (and the Spaniards have enough to be blamed for).  But to say that it was all conquest is nonsense – the English, Dutch, and French colonies all established very close alliances with various tribes (who were often at war with each other, by the way).  But the colonists, when they were brutal, were not brutal because they were Christians, but rather in spite of it!

I think that it is important to realize that the messages and the teachings of Christ and Muhammad are very different.  The world fears Christians when they do not follow the teachings of Christ; the world fears Muslims when they do follow the teachings of Muhammad!  There have been abuses and murders and all sorts of evil done in the name of Christ:  but that is absolutely contrary to Christ’s teachings!  It is not right to find Christians who are killing, stealing, and raping, and then to say, “see, Christianity is wrong because it promotes these things.”  It is not right to say that, because the Bible never condones those things to be done by the Christian!  What about the Muslim?  The Qur’an commands killing unbelievers, advocates taking their things, and allows the raping of women as judicial punishment!  I think that it is easy to see why the message of Islam has to be softened for consumption by American audiences!  If most Americans ever really understood what Islam is about, they would vehemently oppose it.

What about the message of Christ?  Does it need to be softened?  No, because unlike Muhammad’s teachings, Christ’s words ring true throughout the ages.  It is more than fair to judge Christians by how well they follow Christ – in fact, that is the only way to really determine someone’s identity as a Christian!  Is the message fit for consumption by us in the Twenty-first century?  Yes, in fact it is even more true to us now than ever before!  But just as the Israelites tired of the manna God gave them in the desert, so too do some of God’s people today tire of the bread of life that is Jesus.  We just need to make sure that we are always consuming that bread!

-Charles Peterson

As I sit here writing this article, there is a “severe thunderstorm” in progress – the latest in a string of storms that have buffeted the mid-Atlantic region (especially Calvert County) and that have even produced tornados and massive rainfall.  I have come from my kitchen, where I was looking up through the windows into the darkened night sky enjoying a tremendous light show as lightening literally flashed the clouds into brilliance.  While this particular storm is fairly small, it still displays the awesome power at work on this planet – power that displays the creator’s hand.

I am constantly amazed at the relative ease with which atheists and other non-Christians at the same time promote mankind to having godlike power and relegate him to insignificance.  They say that man is causing widespread climatic changes on the earth, affecting everything from global mean temperatures to the breeding patterns of owls.  And man is doing this while also being an insignificant blip on an evolutionary path that is absolutely ironclad provable (except for the incredible lack of evidence and the need to take the entire theory on blind faith).  Amazingly, my car burning 15-18 gallons of gasoline a week is wrecking the planet, but the sun “burning” 4 billion kilograms of mass per second is said to not be an influence in any temperature changes on the earth (let’s not even get into the increase in the luminosity of the sun).  It cannot be the sun, because man cannot be blamed for that.

Man is given the powers of godhood in determining what is right and what is wrong.  There cannot be absolutes, because that would be imposing right and wrong on someone else.  Of course, all of this is meaningless because in the end, man is an aberration in the universe, a cancer on the planet that kills off more deserving species and chops down trees.  So man is again all-powerful and insignificant.  Amazingly insane.

I started talking about the storm that I was witnessing.  In today’s society we see storms brewing all around us.  We see homosexuals portrayed as the pinnacle of decency.  We see abortion proponents hailed as champions of freedom.  We see child molesters and serial killers defended as victims.  All of this while Islam, most notable for bloodthirsty killers, is depicted as the religion of peace.  And the church of our Lord is paralyzed by a combination of ignorance and apathy:  ignorance because God’s people refuse to take it upon themselves to read his word; apathy because God’s people are so enthralled by their worldly lives that they do not realize that there is a problem with accepting homosexuality, abortion, corrupted justice, and other religions.

There are storms all around us.  But that is nothing new, as the disciples of Jesus have been in the storm before.

That day when evening came, he said to his disciples, “Let us go over to the other side.”  Leaving the crowd behind, they took him along, just as he was, in the boat.  There were also other boats with him.  A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped.  Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion.  The disciples woke him and said to him, “Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?”  He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, “Quiet! Be still!”  Then the wind died down and it was completely calm.  He said to his disciples, “Why are you so afraid?  Do you still have no faith?”  They were terrified and asked each other, “Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!”  (Mark 4:35-41 NIV)

We have to remember that the same Jesus who calmed the storm on the sea of Galilee can also calm the storms in our lives.  The question is not whether or not Jesus can calm the storms in our lives, or even if he will.  The question that is placed before each of us is the same that was placed before the disciples on that boat:  do you trust Jesus to keep you safe in the storm?

-Charles Peterson

In 1386 the Archbishop of Milan, Antonio da Saluzzo, began work on a cathedral to replace older structures.  Over the next five hundred years, the cathedral would go through long periods of “unfinished usability” punctuated by brief periods of energetic construction.  Not only did the project outlast the original builders, it would outlast several kingdoms and nations.  Between 1386 and 1965, the project was ongoing through the Italian Renaissance, the Hundred Years War in neighboring France, the great pandemic outbreaks of the Black Death, the rise of the printed word, the discovery of the New World, the Protestant Reformation, the rise of America, numerous great European wars, two world wars, and the rise of the Cold War.  When the project began, Europe had not yet found the Americas – when it ended, man was only a few years from setting foot on the moon!

There is a mood within the church today of impatience mixed with apprehension.  The view of many seems to be “why are we not growing like we used to?”  Yet, the growth that most refer to was in the 1950’s and 1960’s, and that view is based solely on anecdotal evidence.  There are some who say that churches today do not grow because they lack relevance to people’s lives and that services have to change in some way to get that growth.  Others say that churches do not grow because they have drifted away from the truth and have adopted too much the ways of today.  All of this because both of these views have at their core a belief that the church is a new movement.It is not.  The church is a body that has been in existence for approximately 2000 years.  If you do not believe that, then you call God and Jesus liars, and you claim the Bible is false!

“You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus.  He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High.  The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end.”  (Luke 1:31-33 NIV)

The church has been in existence this whole time.  Now, I am not claiming that all who proclaim Jesus Christ belong to the church; I am merely saying that I believe God has kept the church alive and well throughout the centuries.  Sometimes he has granted growth; sometimes he has let the fields lie fallow.  There have been times that he has cause a great deal of work to be done to his temple here on earth (the church), and there have been times that he has caused the construction project to lie dormant.

My dear brothers and sisters, we must never forget that God is in control – not us, and certainly not the world around us.  If we grow, it is because God has blessed our faith and our work, allowing us new opportunities and a larger family.  If God withholds the growth, it is because God has blessed our faith and our work, allowing us to build our character and strength.  Either way, we must remember that God is faithful and true and will always bless us – but either way, we must keep working.

There were many who worked on the cathedral in Milan; they died and the building that they worked on will eventually crumble into nothingness.  But there have been many more who have faithfully worked on the church; they will rise again, and this building will never fall.

-Charles Peterson