Wendy Wilson “Christians Need to Stop Being So Naive About Muslim Immigration”
Bu Wendy Wilson
Many Christians have been lulled into a childish view of the world and think that deep down Muslims are not too different from them.
Soon after the November attack at Ohio State University, we learned the Somali Muslim perpetrator had been welcomed to the United States as a refugee by Catholic Charities of Dallas. This bit of news caught my attention because years ago I worked there for a brief time.
In the early 1990s after graduating from college, I served there for a year as part of a volunteer stipend program, helping immigrants caught here illegally prepare their cases for immigration court. My roommates worked on the refugee resettlement side, helping newly arrived families with refugee status.
I’ve continued to be fascinated with immigration and looked for ways to be helpful. It’s what drew me to teaching English to immigrant students. But my perspective widened and concerns grew as I learned more about our porous borders and problems throughout the West with assimilation, and as I witnessed the growing influence of a warped multiculturalism that convinces many to quash any uneasiness about newcomers, no matter how reasonable. In voicing my concerns, I’ve been slammed by other Christians who’ve called me ignorant and uncaring.
Although I worked for Catholic Charities, I’m a lifelong Protestant. I was raised Lutheran and for many years now have attended conservative Presbyterian churches. Multiculturalism long ago began to muscle its way into mainline Protestant churches but is now running amok in conservative churches, too, with many Christians fearful of being called a bigot for criticizing other traditions and beliefs.
While those in mainline churches tout diversity in a way that differs little from those outside the church, more devout Christians have adopted multiculturalism as a way to better evangelize. Emotion and sentiment have taken over reason, leaving people without the resources to sufficiently analyze threats to our culture and safety, and in some cases, even a diminished interest in doing so. The more pious shame others for their concerns, saying sacrifice and saving souls should come way before worries about ensuring America’s survival as a strong nation.
Many Evangelicals Don’t Seem to Get It
Trump did well among evangelicals in winning the presidency. Many conservative Christians cited Supreme Court picks as the top reason they were voting for him despite his personal moral failings. It’s far from clear that Christians en masse would fully support proposals to seriously restrict Muslim immigration, especially once they face the wrath of activists and journalists more determined than ever to smear them as racists. Also, there’s a strong movement among intellectual evangelicals to embrace Muslim immigration.
In December 2015, more than 100 evangelical leaders met at Wheaton College to discuss how Christians should respond to the migrant crisis that began early that year. They released a statement that gave only passing mention to security concerns while focusing primarily on telling Christians not to be fearful.
“We will not be motivated by fear but by love for God and others…We cannot allow voices of fear to dominate,” the statement read. But rational fear is a healthy thing. It serves to protect, and in protecting, shows love. The Bible has plenty of examples of God’s people taking measures to protect their communities. There’s no reason to fear every single Muslim we meet, but in looking at the bigger picture, there are perfectly valid reasons to fear the violence and political and cultural change a growing Muslim population can bring.
Some of my devout Christian friends insist we shouldn’t speak out much about atrocities Muslims have committed because if we do, Muslims won’t be open to hearing the gospel from us. Neither, they say, should we voice too many criticisms about religious differences that might upset them. But how can there be any hope of having a functioning multicultural society if there are taboos against criticizing traditions that aren’t your own? This misguided quest to be nice and welcoming creates space for the strong-armed to run over the weak, the very type of scenario you would think Christians concerned about justice would care about.
Muslims Aren’t Just Another Denomination
I’ve also heard Christians point to successful assimilation of immigrants in years past as proof that waves of Muslim immigration will work out just fine, too. When migrants began pouring into Europe, my friends shared stories of their ancestors arriving at Ellis Island, as if there are few differences between what happened then and what’s happening now. I recently got into a discussion with a Baptist pastor who says we shouldn’t worry since competing Protestant sects as well as Catholics were eventually accepted into the mainstream of American life.
It’s hard for me to wrap my mind around how my educated friends and educated church leaders can’t see that differences between Islam and Christianity are profoundly greater than differences between various Christian groups. Have they not read the history of Islamic conquest? Can they not observe the differences in today’s world between countries dominated by Islam and Western countries founded on Christian and Enlightenment values? Are they not aware of the widespread problems with migrants assaulting women in Germany, one of the latest victims being the daughter of a European official, who was raped and drowned? Have they not heard about the sharia law courts Muslim immigrants have created in England and the schools where Muslim children are taught barbaric practices?
Last year, I joined a class at my church sponsored by the Crescent Project, a Christian ministry founded to share the gospel with Muslims globally. In some respects, it’s an organization I’m happy to support. Their efforts seem sincere and helpful in prodding Christians with little previous intercultural experience to step outside their comfort zones. Yet it’s also one of those programs that leads to some Christians becoming so filled with zeal, they develop tunnel vision.
One woman in my class said she used to be afraid when she saw a Muslim at the grocery store, but now, thanks to the class, believes it’s God’s will for Muslims to come to the United States so we can witness to them. I’ve heard this idea expressed elsewhere as well, sometimes with great enthusiasm. God is blessing us, the thinking goes, by bringing Muslims here so we don’t have to travel abroad to reach them.
However, this turns previous concepts of missionary work on their heads. Missions used to be primarily about assuming risks for yourself and perhaps your family as you ventured into unsafe terrain. By endorsing growing rates of Muslim immigration into the United States, Christians are insisting that their neighbors here assume the risks too, all for the convenience of their evangelism programs.
Such rosy pictures can likely be traced partly to the fact that even in many conservative churches today, pastors shy away from discussing evil and the reality that there are people in this world seeking to deceive and destroy. We’ve been marinating in a theology that focuses excessively on grace and inner peace to the exclusion of other parts of the Bible that tell us evil is always on the march.
Both the Old and New Testaments make frequent use of words such as battle, soldier, and warfare in both the literal sense and in a metaphorical spiritual sense. But you will be hard-pressed to hear those words in sermons today. Many Christians have been lulled into a childish view of the world and think that deep down everyone is not too different from them. But history and the contemporary world should show us that fundamentalist Islam is radically different from the beliefs of Christians and other Americans. If we don’t fully wake up to this reality, we will pay a heavier price for our delusions than we already have.
H/T – The Federalist
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I don’t feel that the majority of Middle Eastern immigrants are “immigrants”. When I think of an immigrant I think of someone coming to this country with a desire to assimilate into our culture or why else would he migrate? Let’s call them what they truly are – invaders.
Yes
Very well said!!! Thank you. I get nothing but turned heads and deaf ears when I share my concerns with fellow Church goers. We have friends who teach ESL to refugees and they see nothing but people trying to make a better life for themselves, and in the same breath saying how these refugees do not want to fit in, but are happy to make thier communities within thier own groups to keep their traditions and ways. I do not see how they cannot see for themselves how contradicting their words are in one breath. I am cautious and want to share what I read in The WORD, but then told I am ‘fear mongering and hateful’ and that JESUS is Love. We are ‘Loving’ ourselves into a grieve situation by not preparing for Spiritual Warfare. JESUS promised trials and tribulations, we are to keep watch and prepare for the attacks of the enemy and Pray for Wisdom in dealing with him. He is a wolf in sheeps clothing, comes as an Angel of light but is dark and deceptive, evil and destructive, self seeking, out to kill anything or anyone loved by GOD. Muslims say what their agenda is, to take over and implement thier laws and ways, yet when we speak out, we are told we suffer from Islamophobia and not sensitive to the needs of Gender neutrality/diversity,,,, we must make Safe Spaces, be tolerant, open minded and so on. What are we teaching our children? To let the world into our Church and water down the Gospel, don’t be offensive, not to stand firm in what we have learned first at the beginning and be watchful keeping the worlds ways out of the Church. We have such a ‘Gab it and Grab’ mentality coming at us from TV preachers, that our children are burying thier heads more and more in their electronics to block out all the mixed messages. How can they “Stand against the wiles of the enemy” if they don’t know who the enemy is? Where are the Church leaders who are supposed to be teaching and protecting the Sheep? If the Church is not preaching CHRIST and ONLY CHRIST of the Bible, (then it is another jesus, one of love and warm fuzzies, this is not who The SON of GOD Is) then we are ‘To come out from among them.” There are few Churches today who’s leaders teach right from GODs Word and this is a sad thing. I see that is why there is so much conformity in the Church today and why we are taken over by our enemies without noticing.
Jeanette. You have a clear perception of the Muslim culture & mentality. I lived in a Muslim govern country. What I have understand of them are that they may be nice when their number are small but when their population grow in size, they will become a menace to the society & commuonity(with lots of demands towards their community & religion) & will cause much trouble and uneasiness.
To them, it is all about them & themselves & their religion and they will bring Afghanistan to you community & your country.
Though there may be liberals & moderates but the number it too insignificant to influence the majority.
They are too egoistic about their religion to blend into other society & religion.
In the country I live in, even though they are more exposed to moderation due to multicultural society but their mentality are shallow & no better than the Afghans.
Beware & becare of the influx of them as refugees into your country. Soon they bring chaos.
Support DT of his manifestos during his Presidential campaign. He is right in his views of them.
BULL SHIT>:
Mr. Ostrich :)))))
WENDY WILSON YOU ARE A STUPID ASS FOOL AND DELUSIONAL ABOUT ISLIM AND
MUSLIMS.> THEY WOULD SOONER RAPE YOU OT KILL YOU CAUSE YOU DO NOT BELIEVE AS THEY DO
BY THE WAY ISLIM IS A CULT NOT A RELIGION>:
I thought that was basically what she just said.
That is exactly what Wendy wrote in this article. I guess you didn’t read it before you commented.
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I think their god is not at all the same God I love.
Allah is just another name for the Adversary.
Islam is not a religion; it is a governmental system & the Mosque is where they set up Sharia law & want to replace it over our Constitution. Their conquest is to take over the world; just as their leader Mohammad tried to do. This is not the first time Islam has tried to take over America. Our fore fathers warned us over & over about when countries would come in & do this & that’s why they wrote our Bill of Rights & set up our Congress to stop this from happening; but our Muslim president by passed our laws & our Congress & rammed everything through with his Executive Orders, acting foolish & ignoring everything & Congress never did anything to stop him. A country with no borders is no longer a country, so he knocked down our borders & allowed anyone to come into our country with no legal rights. The people who came over from Europe to America came to have a better life here & didn’t come over to change us, but were proud to apply for citizenship & become an American. The radical Muslims that are coming over now, are not coming for that reason. They are coming in illegally & want to usurp our laws & set up their Sharia law & take over America. Christians are foolish to think we serve the same God. Allah is a false Moon god & is a counterfeit.
Mohamadism is a political religion. They do state their purpose which is ‘convert or die.’ They do act peaceful in small numbers 1st step as they grow is demands iof their food in stores/restaurants; 2nd is to demand their belief education and cultural clothing; 3rd is to take over businesses; 4th is to enact sharia laws in our court system; 5th is to enact no go zones;6th is to take more territory thru courts political heads & land
They will not assimilate especially in larger numbers. They will and are inserting themselves into political positions & they will lie in the world stage as well as in our country to achieve what they want. TAKEOVER look what has happened in India Pakistan and Africa. In N Africa a preacher is fighting for his country to his peril(must) Quran tells them ok to lie Allah will forgive them b/c they acting on ultimate goal.
Must pray for that leader in N Africa and Europe. If Europe falls US is last bastion of freedom. If America falls there is no place to go. Yes Christians must wake up not only to false son Ishmael-Muslims vs Isaac chosen son-Jesus but come out of world,know TRUTH by reading your own Bible. Understand endtime prophecy you will clearly see where we are on Gods timetable
Thanks for the info about the invasion of Islamic teachings in America. I’m informing my 10 grandchildren about the invasion from the Holy Word of God. However, they think I’m a racist. They have been seduced by the secular school system. Their ages are, 8-25.
I blame the Pastors, Sunday School and Parents teaching who are enemies of Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
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