The Narrow-Mindedness of Anti-Muslim Christians

Last updated on: October 14, 2015 at 7:55 am by Dan Wilkinson

The Narrow-Mindedness of Anti-Muslim Christians 2015-10-14T07:55:45-06:00 Dan Wilkinson

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A couple of days ago we shared on our Facebook page this quote from Rev. John C. Dorhauer, the General Minister and President of the United Church of Christ:

“I want to say as clearly as I can, and in no uncertain terms, that the United Church of Christ stands in full solidarity with people of the Muslim faith. Their contribution to religion, to peace, to humanity, and to the goodness of all is to be celebrated. The United Church of Christ deplores the narrow-mindedness that fails to see this and seeks instead to engender fear, hatred, and anxiety.” — from Urgent Call for UCC Response to Anti-Muslim Rallies

That quote generated responses ranging from enthusiastic support to accusations of heresy. One particular exchange between a Facebook commenter and an Unfundamentalist Christian admin is a perfect illustration of the obstinate narrow-mindedness that Rev. Dorhauer referenced. I’ve transcribed the dialogue below or you can view a screenshot of the exchange.

Commenter: Gee, last time I checked, Christ never chopped anyone’s head off for not believing in Him, and as I read the Koran, I see it tells it’s followers to do just that, and to do unspeakable things to humans, and animals. Nowhere does God, that is YAHWEH, not Allah by the way, say to ever do any such thing. you cannot reconcile the Bible and the koran, Islam and Christianity, there is no reconciliation between the two. You are an Apostate preacher of heresy. You are a worshiper of a different christ, not the one that God sent to redeem humanity that we read about in the Holy Bible. There is NO similarity between Christ and Islam, the two are diametrically apposed to one another. You cannot eat at the table of Christ and at the table of demons, you either belong to Christ or you don’t at all. You seem to be suffering from a double heart and mind, come to Christ and be restored and reconciled to Him. There is forgiveness at the cross but, it cannot be found in any other place. God has given Christ for remission of sins and nothing more or less, just Christ crucified, buried and resurrected from the grave. Come, and be reconciled to Him and receive eternal life, and stop rejecting the Messiah.

UC: Re: “Nowhere does God, that is YAHWEH, not Allah by the way, say to ever do any such thing.”

Really? You apparently haven’t been reading your bible.

UC: Deuteronomy 13:1-18 [full text originally cited]

UC: Numbers 25:4-9 [full text originally cited]

UC: 1 Samuel 15:1-35 [full text originally cited]

UC: Deuteronomy 2:31-34 [full text originally cited]

Commenter: my, don’t you have a grasp on God’s word! You really don’t understand God’s word at all. you are taking scripture out of context for one thing, and also, some of these tribes where the Nephilim, and also, nowhere does God kill innocent people! God is Holy and Righteous, and GOD pronounces judgment because He is just. Islam, promotes hate and violence, intolerance, murder, sex with children, rape, torture, ect, ect. I have been a student of God word for 36 years, and you are twisting God’s words and meaning. The Lord rebuke you.

Got that? According to the twisted view of the commenter, when Allah commanded violence against his enemies, it was directed towards innocent people, but when Yahweh commanded the very same thing (or worse!), those people deserved it because of their unrighteousness. In other words: “I’m right and you’re wrong. Whatever my side does is God’s will and is right and just, whatever your side does it evil and wrong.”

It’s precisely this sort of binary thinking that makes fundamentalism — whether it’s Christian, Muslim or any other variety — so very dangerous. A deliberate unwillingness to step outside one’s personal perspective and fairly consider the positions of others is nothing more than bigotry that continues to perpetuate unfounded fear and hate.

My thanks to the Unfundamentalist Christians admin team for their assistance with this post.

Dan Wilkinson

Dan is the Executive Editor of the Unfundamentalist Christians blog. He is a writer, graphic designer and IT specialist. He lives in Montana, is married and has two cats.

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