Observations on Western Christians’ Recent Revised Views of Syrian Refugees
by drfuture2013
Friends,
In recent days since the Paris bombings, I have felt a major increase in the chill in the air in the Christian media and in my own local Christian circles in regard to the fate of the Syrian refugees fleeing certain death in their civil war-torn homeland (a war itself aided and sustained with Western assistance). Recent reports state that governors in states across the Bible Belt are refusing to accept refugees now. Evangelical favorite Donald Trump is now open to restricting or closing mosques in America (other Christian favorite Ben Carson has already gone on the record as saying that Muslims should be forbidden from holding the office of President – a blatant religious litmus test and discrimination that always comes back to bite Christians themselves in history).
As one example in the media, Erik Rush, a regular commentor for the online popular news site World Net Daily, which caters most specifically to the conservative Christian community, described the refugees in his recent article as “human garbage”, while acknowledging his “good standing as a narrow-minded, far-right racist”. He describes people like me as those “who, due to reasons of naïveté, stupidity, or collusion, are advancing the notion that some sort of long-term coexistence with Muslims is possible. In truth, they are abetting Islamists in their mission to spread their putrefactive creed across America.” He adds that “Thirty years ago in America, it was understood – even by avowed liberals – that Muslims were the backward, belligerent aggressors in the Middle East”, as Americans unabashedly solely sided with Israel, whereas others who see the issues are more multi-faceted and deserving of or considering the rights of all as being “Islamophilic”. With his professional background as a musician and martial artist, his analysis of history tells him that “For the past 1,400 years however, Muslims – all Muslims – have repeatedly proved that they represent a societal malignancy; they will always perform as a body of enemy operatives, insidiously and incrementally worming their way into non-Muslim nations with the express intention of undermining and conquering them.”
Franklin Graham, son of “America’s Pastor” Billy Graham and one who until recent years focused on ministering to the needs of people in the Middle East and Third World (while pocketing close to a cool million a year in salary from his ministry to the destitute called Samaritan’s Purse, on top of a similar amount for running the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association), said in a recent published address that “If we continue to allow Muslim immigration, we’ll see much more of what happened in Paris — it’s on our doorstep.” This is because he says “Islam is not a peaceful religion”, and “This is not the time to be politically correct. Our nation’s security is at stake.”
Back in the days of my youth, his dad was known for going to the ends of the earth to try to contact people of other cultures, even behind the Iron Curtain, to win them for Christ. Western Christians send woefully few missionaries – even tenmaker varieties – to Muslim lands, either because of their lack of spiritual concern for them due to their Zionist first priorities, or because they fear for their own physical lives in those lands as their overriding priority. As a result, even through the efforts of Western governments to remove their stable leaders and create civil war atrocities, God has presented an opportunity for Western Christians to still ignore their call from Jesus to “go out into the world” and share the Gospel in their lands, and rather send them here as a desperate people willing to accept help from anyone, including Christians, and thus be open to their message in a land where such dialogue is safe. Hence, an opportunity has presented itself for an unprecedented set of circumstances to minister and share the Gospel to those who are ready to hear, on a massive scale heretofore unforeseen as possible. In response, Western Christian leaders and their flock appear to be concerned about their own “skins” and personal security first, which evidently they are in unbelief that God Himself can preserve, and thus put their own interests above God’s agenda, and certainly the destitute Syrian people whom they are sending back to certain death, just like the ships of Jews they turned away that came from Germany before.
I know my comments section may get filled with retorts that while trying the “bless” these people would be ‘nice to do”, people like me are very naive, and the risk of a few terrorists mixing in with these hundreds of thousands of desperate people is just too much of a risk to tolerate. Certainly, the terror attack in Paris is a major tragedy, and civil governments should use every lawful and reasonable effort to bring the handful of true culprits to justice, while not molesting the innocent. However, it must be noted that we lose many, many magnitudes more of our loved ones in automobile accidents each day, and we do not see the same level of panic or outrage, and compromise of our supposed Christian beliefs, and we get in our vehicles every day without thought, or at least an acceptance of the much higher risk it entails. It is amazing how fast I have seen Christians around me quickly adopt this xenophobic view of these suffering people. I ask them where they got some of these sudden ideas, including the desire of all Muslims to lie and kill Westerners, or that “Barack Husein Obama” is leading all the Muslims in to declare sharia law. They don’t seem to know the origins of these ideas, but my experience tells me that I know – Christian media, the Drudge Report, World Net Daily, Fox News, Sean Hannity, Michael Savage, Rush Limbaugh, etcetera. They turned Saddam Hussein from a US ally to an enemy overnight, our new ally Qaddafi into an enemy in the Arab Spring, and even Ho Chi Minh, who had been an ally of the U.S. rescuing US pilots from the Japanese in WWII not long before our Establishment (government/media) decided he needed to be our enemy. I know it certainly wasn’t from Jesus that they obtained this attitude.
Certainly our societies’ governments have a societal duty to protect its citizens by lawful means, but do its Christians also have a role in not letting it citizens forget those innocents who suffer in the crossfire? Are they expected by Christ to risk their safety, or rather to place it in the Lord’s lands, so that they can minister to the “stranger” and those in need, particularly those whom God has brought their way? Do Christians have any role in being the conscience of a society, or when they figuratively see a woman raped in the city street, desperately calling for help, they only lock their doors and draw their curtains?
Jesus said that when you offered a cup of cold water to the “least of these”, you are offering it directly to Him; likewise, when you refuse it, you refuse Him, and there will be consequences. American Christians are evidently more afraid of ISIS than they are of Jesus’ throne of judgment. They will find that with “the same measure with which they measure, they shall be measured”. These refugees are desperate fathers and mothers, just like you readers, who find themselves and their children (through no fault of their own) in immediate peril, and they are helpless and at our mercy. They have walked countless miles, leaving everything behind, to merely find safety for their families, as any of us would do. I have seen concervative media (and Christian commentators) insinuate that they are all deceptive and spoiled, taking advantage of those who help them, as an effort to purge any public empathy for them or concern to engage in assistance. To the Devil with these workers of iniquity!
Our supposed “Spirit-filled” American Christian flock has turned into an assembly of trained seals, or lemmings, rather than discerning people “as shrewd as wolves”. They do not even know how to ask the right questions, rather only consdering the narrative handed to them. They embrace total animosity toward the people of the Middle East when told to, and to be afraid of them when cued, even though they do not know them at all – their culture, religion, past experiences and sufferings, etc. – which could be legitimately gained by personal reading or better yet face to face contact, because they purposely avoid them, even though they are abundant on our universities and many neighborhoods. They suddenly stop their main focus on sports, leusire activities or entertainment when a terror attack is broadcast and analyzed ad naseum on their television screens (because it rings the cash register in advertising revenue from great ratings), to support draconian actions suddenly when told to. They also want an instant fix by “bombing the Middle East into a parking lot”, even though the experience in their own lifetimes has shown that this approach has not solved a single problem, and only made them worse. They support presidential candidates who pledge to continue the long-standing American policy in the Middle East for the “beatings to continue until morale improves”. They do not ask why people in another culture could be so wounded as to be desperate and take such actions, the role poverty and lack of economic opportunity as a region victimized by imperialism plays in their malaise, the reasons why they feel so exploited and betrayed by the West, and particulary their own refusal to do what Jesus insists that they routinely do, but is blasphemous to proud Americans – to admit that they made a mistake in years past, to apologize and make amends, as a “Christian” society themselves. They do not ask why their own government pushed so hard to eliminate the only stable Arab governments in the Arab Spring uprisings – in Libya, Egypt and now Syria – that could have handled ISIS and thus saved so many lives. They do not ask why the American, Turkish and Israeli governments armed and trained ISIS in camps in Jordan and Turkey over two years ago. They do not ask how the disastrus Iraq War led to the domino effect that we see today, and why continuing that same brutish path won’t produce the same results, and why the politicans who led American into such reckless acts are not being held legally accountable for the lives of many. As a result, they respond as their government desires, with a knee-jer reaction against a people group, rather than asking for answers from their own elected officials, whose salaries they pay.
People will do whatever they are going to do. However, when God gives America and its Christians what it deserves for its cold hearted indifference to others and selfishness, and – let’s face it – its ultimate unbelief in Christ and His instructions and values, these Christians will blame everyone else for their plight – Obama, the Muslims, atheists, gays, etc. – for their woes as a part of “Christian persecution”, and they will never recognize that their plight is a result of actions by their own hand, while their neighbors who see them as judgmental and bitter in their contempt for others will see it as their just desserts. Meanwhile, God will find others, probably not as outwardly pious, wealthy, politically-correct or even European-looking, to do His business and further His certain deliverance of mankind.
As I said, they can do whatever hateful and uncaring thing they want to do; however, if they continue on this self-serving path, I just wish the would not sully Jesus’ name and call themselves Christians, without following its primary imperatives.
(NOTE: An amazingly insightful analysis of how people of Godly wisdom should respond to terror today was provided by my good Christian friend FDLP, and can be read at this website. I warn you – this website is not “Christian” in its outer piety or self-perception, and in fact uses some naughty words now and then, but for a rough-hewn site its insights are indeed heavenly in its revelation, and I assume the readers here are grown-up boys and girls. It is indeed a shame when an outwardly non-Christian site shows more Godly wisdom and values than all the Christian sites combined, and states it far more eloquently than I ever could.)
The Two Spies Report 
Thank’s Dr. Future. It’s easy to get caught up in the anger and hysteria that comes from these types of attacks and I must admit, I affects me too.
As mentioned in the article you linked, the numbers of potential Jihadist’s are large enough that a lot of killing would have to take place to make a dent in “wiping out” their numbers. The very nature of political/religious fundamentalists buried within societies precludes the use of the great western war machine and will undoubtedly lead to more mass surveillance and monitoring, that is apparently useless as well since many of the men in the recent attacks in France were on a “watch list”.
This is a spiritual issue as much as a socio-political one and I think it’s important to remember what Jesus said about our enemies, Politicians will will grandstand about attacking ISIS in Syria and Iraq but the truth is these retaliations are ineffective and and don’t resolve the overlying issue of the proxy wars being driven in the area by Russia and the West. More importantly, as you mentioned, these retaliation methods have not, in the last 20 years, have been completely ineffective in this region.
I’ve heard that there is somewhat of a resurgence of Christianity among certain regions in the Middle East. I don’t know if this is true but I think your notice of a lack of missionaries in the region rings true. It would also take a lot of faith to step into that region to deliver the message. Maybe that’s the whole point.
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Thanks for your thought-provoking comments, brother.
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If what we are seeing are all those poor huddled masses escaping a war-torn zone (that we created), I’d agree with you. However, what we are seeing is thousands of fighting-age men (with a few women and children sprinkled in for good photo ops) streaming into Europe and heading for the countries with the best welfare benefits. That’s an invasion.
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Gina,
Thank you so much for the honor of reading and then commenting on my blog site and this post, and being part of the conversation.
Since I am not sure if I know you, I will assume that you are a Christian, and that you accept the lordship of Christ in dictating your ultimate attitudes and actions, regardless of the duties of others and their institutions. I tried to make clear in my post that I understand that civilian goverments have the duty to protect us, and to arrest those who would harm us, as long as they stay within lawful bounds that do not harm the innocents as well. I don’t have a problem with governments doing background checks on people that enter their shores. Even government officials admit, however, that totally stopping people that are willing to die in taking out others around them is nearly impossible to guarantee, which is why American shooters who kill people in public places are similarly almost impossible to stop; in these cases, one can only pursue long term solutions to address the deeper problems that cause them, be it mental illness and getting (particularly young people) help and not ignoring individual warning signs, or in the case of Middle East terror, addressing their miserable state wrought by a hundred years of Western economic exploitation and political mismanagement of their aritifical nation-states they created (although it must be conceded that history shows that most such terror was done by Western states under the guise of Middle Eastern terror groups, as the US and Britain did in Iraq, or Israel while dressed as Egyptians, both in the 1950s). However, while these civil authorities have their duties, I think we as Christians have differing responsibilities as “citizens of heaven” and under His Lordship and agenda.
With that in mind, let me submit some questions concerning the points you raise, that I think would be profitable to consider:
1. Concerning the pictures we see of men coming as refugees – Do we know who are taking these pictures, what pictures they are omitting, and what are the motives of the people who aggressively disseminate them, with suggestive captions that enforce upon the reader an interpretation of their significance that reinforces our own paranoic predispositions? Americans are particularly susceptible to this, since we have been on Cold War “red alert” that some one is always coming to get us and take our stuff since the end of the second World War, building a bankrupting military juggernaut that dwarfs the next ten biggest global armies, while much of the rest of the West goes on about its business. When I did some research (for my current book series) into the few companies who translate all the Arab broadcasts and writings that come over to Western media, and discovered who ran them and their professed agenda and motives, it frightened me, and I never have trusted these mainstream sources since.
2. Do we as Christians really believe tha God will take care of us, in a manner according to His will, while we due His work of ministry, or do we have unbelief in Him to do this?
3. Is Jesus’ will for us to be afraid of the people you cite, or to see how to minister to them?
4. Do we resent people without a thing to their name getting welfare benefits or aid of any type, and do we as people who were blessed enough to be born in the rich West, through no merits of our own, truly have a righteous indignation over it?
5. If in fact this is nothing more than a secret army invading us, as demogogues are telling God-fearing people, are we certain that it is not God’s will anyway? Is He trying to send them here to hopefully see real Christians in action, who refuse to go see them in their homelands? Could it be like Sennachereb’s army that God let to Israel, which mortified everyone who did not trust God, but the prophet Elisha showed that heavenly armies stood at guard but had sent them, to which he told the people not to slaughter them, but rather to FEED THEM and send them on their way, which actually led to the only peace that Israel experienced with the Assyrians?
6. Are we getting too calloused and hard-hearted, and falling into an agenda of others other than Christ, no matter how naive His calling seems to the rest of the world? If this is true (which I have come to believe), then we need to mistrust those who have led our thinking away from Christ’s agenda, of which the Christian media deserves the primary blame and whom need to be held accountable.
That’s just some food for thought. Thank you Gina for sharing your perspectives and contributing.
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Dear Mike,
I completely agree with you, and with commenter Dave.
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Brother Mike: Excellent article, I agree with each jot and tittle.
One of my main concerns about this Middle East conflict is that most Christians have no clue as to what is really going on in this particular crisis, and the many more we have experienced throughout recent history. I know I will be accused of being a “conspiracy” nut job; however, there is more than ample proof that most Americans are being played by our own government, as concerns ISIS and AlQeda, the perceived enemy in this theatre. They fail to realize that sinister forces (including some of our U.S., British and other countries) actually created, fund and trained these so-called terrorist in order to topple governments that will not play ball with and nor participate in the financial network of the international banking elite hierarchy (see Gen. Wesley Clark’s comments comments http://www.globalresearch.ca/we-re-going-to-take-out-7-countries-in-5-years-iraq-syria-lebanon-libya-somalia-sudan-iran/5166).
Many of our well-meaning and well intended Christians assume a more genuine Christian stance, and point the finger at those radical right-wing Christian Zionists for not being more like Jesus, which is a good thing. But (more importantly) they also fail to point it at some of our elected officials who have been bought out by the Jewish Lobby like AIPAC, ADL and (B’Nai B’rith http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:http://www.hiddenmysteries.org/conspiracy/history/bnaibrith.shtml); but the fact is that they never point the finger at the real culprits (they steadily and consistently have attacked the administration of Barack Obama but they remained faithful to George W. Bush’s, which are both guilty of Treason)!
Sadly, those guilty elected officials will continue to do the bidding of the state of Israel, and they will justify their error by claiming they are told that the Bible tells them they must support Israel regardless of its crimes against humanity (by bombing and killing innocent woman and children in Gaza) because they are God’s chosen people (or they play the Genesis 12:3 card).
Sadly, Mike, our fellow Christians have been playing it safely by taking the middle road, chiding the goals of radical Zionists like John Hagee, while still remaining loyal to the American government and it’s imperialistic foreign policy.
Once again, at the risk of being labeled a conspiracy nut job (I have done my homework) and or being attacked for not being patriotic enough, Revelation 3:16 reminds me of the reason why I have never taken a safe and comfortable position in my walk with Christ. We have to be willing to move forward with boldness and conviction as to whether we are all in, our merely playing it safe:
“So I will spit you out of my mouth, because you are only warm and not hot or cold, (Revelation 12:3).
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Thank you for your good points, fellow “conspiracy nut job” (I was “outed” as one by others a long time ago). I document a number of the assertions you make with hard data and smoking gun evidence in the book series I will be releasing soon (if I can get off of this blog and back to getting the last ones done!).
Thanks, brother.
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I think if I am not willing to witness in areas where proselytizing is illegal and where the “common folk” will kill you, I can’t point my finger at others who won’t go. How can they go if they are not sent? I think one must know the Lord is directing them to that.
In California, there are multitudes who live off of government hand-outs, tax payer money. Didn’t Paul say if a man doesn’t work, he doesn’t eat? How many Americans are living below the poverty line?
What’s really going on in Michigan or various other “no go” zones? Are we supposed to be happy there will be more here?
What’s been done in Syria is a travesty. Agreed on that but I think “fixing” it there is the supreme right answer.
We don’t even really know what the true agenda is, so how can we counter it?
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Good to hear from you, sister.
As far as reaching out to the Muslim community safely, how about on the local college campus? How about teaching an English class? I engage Muslim people in my local gyro restaurant, pray for their needs, hear their family concerns, etc. One Muslim girl was the only one who would assist my wife on campus when she had ankle surgery, carrying her books, and would even take her to doctor’s appointments downtown. There is much more that I can do; I have tried to find a family in my neighborhood who others tell me are Muslims, so I can welcome them, but I haven’t caught them home. I need to go meet our local imam here and develop a real friendhsip/relationship.
I saw on TV where many of these Syrian refugees have skills such as carpentry which would be useful here, if Christians can help them find work and help them with the language – it must be scary being a refugee in a strange land! When I got lost in Russa one time and accidentally ended up out in the countryside, and spoke no Russian, a kindly babushka understood my plight and pointed me toward the train back to town; I never forgot what that felt like. Our own plumber here is a Romanian, and he is the best. My main addiction is in collecting electric slot cars, and my main supplier is a Muslim-run business, and they are the kindest and most honorable (and self-sacrificing) business I have ever dealt with, for many years.
As far as problems we hear in Flint, MI and elsewhere, that sounds like to me a problem in law enforcement; every neighborhood, of whatever ethncity, should be forced to obey our laws, and adequate law enforcement resources applied to enforce it. When it doesn’t we not only get Muslim enclaves – we get Mexican enclaves, gang enclaves, mafia enclaves, redneck/Klan enclaves, you name it, and the good people of their own ethnicity and community suffer for it, and they deserve better.
Sister, our governments have so “broken” Syria, just like they did Iraq, for reasons that we can only speculate, that “fixing” it may be near impossible or impractical; however, this does not absolve our Christian responsibility to minister one-on-one despite them, and risk our lives doing it, as did the Good Samaritan, those who bind the wounds of their enemies on the battlefield, etc.
I appreciate your friendship and thoughts, sister.
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I didn’t say don’t witness to people here, where it is not yet illegal. I was referring to places like India where they set Christians on fire, or Pakistan. I think a run of the mill good deed doer would get eaten alive in either place unless the LORD told them to go. Even then, they must prepared for martyrdom.
I have people in my own family that have many days each month without enough food. I do what I can for them. You know they are destroying the middle class here. You know socialism is growing and is here to stay.
You know the plan. Realistically, how can we stop it? We know where the world is heading.
The big problem is we, the people, are not represented. A small few run everything. We have no say and we have few people surrendered enough to the Lord such that their prayer could postpone but not thwart the inevitable. Jesus is coming back not before lots of trouble.
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Oh..now I understand. Like Miss Emily Latella used to say – “Nevermind!”
We may not be called to go to a land of headhunters, but we can risk our necks in many types of small ways – even introducing ourselves to someone in a burka in Walmart.
Your first call is to your family (as with all of us), and it sounds like you are serving Jesus faithfully there.
The true fact that the “small few run everything” is why I am generally supportive of Bernie Sander’s views, in a secular and economic context; I do not seek from people like him other spiritual insights for purely spiritual struggles – I usually find that from my close Christian friends.
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Sending you a pic I’d like you see. Check email.
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Great stuff Dr. Future. It amazes me how quick Christians forget the words of Jesus when stuff like this happens.
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Thanks for taking time and effort to encourage, bro – we are surrounded by those who which strongly disagree.
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Thank you, thank you!
I was feeling so discouraged and truthfully very disappointed in many of the Christian reactions I’ve been seeing lately. I came to your blog to see if you had a comment on these recent events and thankfully you did!
I know this is a touchy topic and invites criticism but I want to say thank you!! Thank you for not being afraid to say what needs to be said. I completely agree with you on this, and many other things.
My husband and I found Future Quake around the last 2 years you were still doing shows. We have listened to every episode, some of them multiple times, and I still download shows to listen to from time to time. When Future Quake ended I felt like I lost a friend that I’d never see again. But, thankfully you’ve started this blog and I have found you as a guest on other shows such as Canary Cry Radio & View From the Bunker. And I cannot wait until you release your series of books!
Be encouraged, brother. There are many of us in your camp. 🙂
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Sister Lisa,
You can’t imagine how important your encouraging email is to me, and its timing in particular – it was indeed a “divine appointment”.
Please continue to share your thoughts here in the future, and don’t be afraid to speak up everywhere else!
God Bless!
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A good post on Natalina’s FB page by Doug O.
http://www.relevantmagazine.com/god/what-bible-says-about-how-treat-refugees
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Thanks for the heads up, Bro. Dave.
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A great, challenging and share-able article. A few years ago, we hosted an exchange student from Argentina. One day, I had to drive her and another exchange student from Turkey in a different town to a convention a few hours away. She warned me the girl from Turkey was a Muslim. So immediately, all sorts of judgements and preconceptions entered my mind about how she would look and act.
Well, out of the house bounded this sweet, happy young olive-skinned woman in blue jeans, a tight sweater, with long black hair and a bright smile. Um… I thought we were picking up a Muslim. Well she was. She just didn’t meet my preconceptions.
She was delightful. She peppered me with questions about my opinion on the Iraq War (my opinions have MUCH changed since those days) and America’s frequent intervention in the Middle East.
She asked if I was Catholic, and I said no, but I was still a Christian but not Catholic. She didn’t understand that at all, and what followed was a fascinating conversation about denominations. She pointed out some Christian girls in her school had to wear long jean skirts and not cut their hair and they couldn’t wear jewelry. She asked if we were that kind of Christian. I said no, but she didn’t understand the distinction.
I finally said something like, “It’s like Muslims in Turkey, and Muslims in Saudi Arabia”, and she had an aha moment.
So did I. That was the first pivotal moment I had in my understanding of Muslims: I talked with one.
Dr. Future, your interview years ago with Carl Medearis was another pivotal moment. It might be worth sending out again.
Things aren’t cut and dry. There have been 500 murders in Chicago this year.. and we’re afraid of a few thousand immigrants?
Haven’t people seen The Godfather Part 2, which shows terrorists from Sicily immigrating to the US and ultimately running huge nationwide terrorist operations? America’s history is a land of importing undesirables. It’s what makes America great.
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Yet again – an astute reader makes my point much more eloquently than I can.
I was just talking to Robert Heid about Carl Medearis yesterday. The nore I think abotu his approach, the more it makes sense to me.
People cannot understand Turkey (just like other cultures) unless they have seen their comedy, like their version of Abbott and Costello: “Ismail and Abdul Meet Frankenstein” (or something like that). I also like “Flying Saucers Over Istanbul”. They have weird people just like me!
Thanks for sharing, brother.
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I’m Italian and I find your comment a tad bit offensive. Would mentioning Mexican cartels have been too politically incorrect? Look into who else was involved in the mafia. It wasn’t all so “Italian” and they didn’t target innocent crowds. They didn’t commit crimes in the Name of God. They didn’t claim that God was the motivations for their actions. And they didn’t think forced religious conversion was their mandate.
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And yet the actions of the mafia constitute terrorist activities, especially when the government tried intervening (killing judges and cops, corrupting government officials, blowing up court houses, etc.) and setting up de facto regimes.
Terrorism isn’t related to religion but in activities of violence meant to undermine governments, and intimidate or coerce populations.
Terrorism knows no religion or creed: it’s been the tool of fascists and communists, socialists and capitalists, Russians and Americans, Germans and Italians, Christians and Muslims.
In Chicago, most of the 500+ murders are African Americans, killed in mainly gang wars that terrorize the population and the government refuses to seriously combat. Isn’t all gang activity also terrorism?
As an aside, what’s so brilliant about The Godfather Series is how we come to see the world through the eyes of the mafia lords, in a sense becoming sympathetic to people who enacted monstrous deeds. At least I was sympathetic to them, even as they orchestrated the murder of people ranging from the Pope to prostitutes.
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I should clarify…My selection of The Godfather to illustrate a sympathetic view of terrorism has nothing to do with political correctness. I chose the example from The Godfather because it’s one of the most brilliant movies of all time and widely viewed. It takes us into their world, and makes what is legally terrorism seem almost justified. That’s a skillful movie maker.
I haven’t seen any movies about Mexican cartels or other gangs, so the point would be lost. I’m not really into violent drug-lord glorifying movies.
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I don’t watch any television and don’t go to the movies.
You can read the news and learn about organized crime of a non-Italian sort. It is very relevant to your point.
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I haven’t been desensitized to the barbarism. Let’s not blur the point: false doctrine comes from demons. We do no one any good by denying that or ignoring the religious element in the present day threat, however well it’s managed by unknowns behind the scenes.
Check out persecution.org
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I hate to see my two good friends duke it out, and miss out on it! I thought just the stuff I said was controversial, and I feel neglected!
To be fair to Doug, even Mafia dons would often go to church regularly, and participate and see no contradiction in their beliefs vs. criminal acts. You can’t tell me the priests and bishops didn’t know what was going on when they cashed those big checks from the dons for their diocese.
Good old boys in the Klan where I come from see themselves as devout “Christian warriors” against foreign faiths (Jews and Catholics) and foreigners. Not that long ago their Baptist chuirches were having Klan recruitment activities during Sunday morning services in church. Today Gen. Jerry Boykin, second in command at the Family Research Council and a regular speaker at Liberty University and churches, must see no problem in his faith and running torture operations at Abu Ghraib and Camp X-Ray, or using Christian aid organizations as an official paid cover for intelligence smugglling in countries under the guise of delivering Bibles. The pastors who give him their pulpits must not see the problem either. I don’t how much about whether Mexican drug cartels are involved in their Catholic Churches, but I also know that Santa Morte religion plays some role.
It is well understood by those who analyze so-called Muslim terrorists that they usually know very little about the Muslim faith itself, other than what they think they understood of jihad, possibly hearing while in jail. That’s why you usually see them in stripper bars right before attacks, where no Muslims (except maybe wealthy lapsed ones) would ever be found. They see orthodox Muslims as their enemies as well. They more resemble the Klan members in terms of their religious knolwedge or devotion to God.
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Dr. Future,
I don’t think we were duking out. No hard feelings or intentions from either myself of Doug.
Now, you get me started on one of my favorite issues: Catholicism.
That “religion” is the perfect set up for organized crime. In fact, it IS organized crime. All I can say in it’s defense, having been raised Catholic, is that many nuns, a few priests and many lay people were quite sincere and dedicated. They taught us to fear God and that Jesus is God. For those things I will always be grateful. I cannot vouch for the doctrine but I can say, for many, that foundation made accepting the real, full Gospel (and hence getting saved) easy.
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Sister, you crack me up. That’s a good word.
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They have their own army, for heaven’s sake. (Irony is cruel.)
So much for their stand on peace.
BTW I LOVE witnessing to Catholics. It’s like a freebee God’s sends me.
Some are so hungry for Truth.
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I agree that there were no hard feelings… just poor communication on my part. What I meant to convey was, America’s history is full of the somewhat contradictory position of welcoming people from other lands while also being fearful of them. For the last 2 centuries, America has welcome the outsider with a hand on their sidearms.
Amidst all these immigrants, a few will be unsavory criminals. Among those who don’t become lawyers and bankers, there will be some who commit murder and rape and commit acts of terror. (Ha!)
Yet, most will arrive honestly and want an honest living, and among those, some will later turn to crime.
Because a few will kill home-born Americans for whatever economic, religious or political reason doesn’t mean the borders should be closed. To suggest so is illogical. Over a thousand Americans this year have been killed by cops. Does this mean police should be banned? About 600 blacks have been killed in Chicago this year by mainly other blacks. Does this mean blacks should be kicked out of Chicago? In both examples, I would suggest reforming black and cop culture towards less violence; similarly attempts to assimilate immigrants have value.
Because a few criminals and murders and rapists will come to the US doesn’t mean the borders should be closed.
The handwringing and border-closing mentality also goes back to the 18th Century. We need to have some historical context. America has always been a very violent place with frequent acts of terrorism throughout its history, and it always will, until the yeast of the Kingdom of God has thoroughly worked through to change the nation.
In my view, America’s violence is a spiritual consequence related to the initial rebellion of America’s wealthiest against the God-appointed authority in Britain. Because America’s Founders sowed rebellion and violence in favor of creating more wealth, rebellion and violence will always be a part of the fabric of this country.
Juxtaposed against America’s violent and illegal separation from it’s God-appointed government is Canada’s peaceful and lawful separation from Britain. Note that Canada far more peaceful and less violent than the US, a spiritual consequence to the nature of its founding.
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Much, much deep wisdom in your comments, some of which I have just recently come to acknowledge (I am writing on the founding of our nation right now). Not long ago we feared Jews coming in (and the mafia groups they ran), and Irish Catholics who were boisterous, and part of a vanguard for Rome’s takeover of America. Somehow, we survived.
America’s history of domestic terrorism is very interesting – for one of the deadliest, check out Meir Kahane and the Jewish Defense League. My Volume 2 will show that the most deadly domestic terrorist mastermind has been the FBI (!)
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I agree entirely that we owe our God the debt of our servitude.
I agree that those who turn refugees away are turning away the very Jesus who died to redeem us.
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It is so great to have you visit here, wise sister. Please be a regular visitor here, and dispense your wisdom regularly; also feel free to “stroll the grounds”…
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Great article. I have come to the same conclusions myself. I agree on most if not all points. It is just hard to support someone like Bernie Sanders politically because history tells us very clearly what the socialism/communism road looks like. Don’t mix or confuse what Jesus told us to do with forcing others to give when they don’t want to give. Jesus calls us to be generous not to force our neighbor to be generous through taxation.
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Thanks for your good words, friend.
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Dr Future,
Thank You.
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You are welcome!
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God bless you Dr. Mike. I agree very much with what you said. I’m sure the HASBARA trolls will be descending on this blog in full force very soon (if they aren’t here already). Be weary, people with views like us aren’t very welcomed on the Internet anymore 🙂
Watch the patterns and keep an eye out for that man of perdition 🙂
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Thanks for the good words, brother.
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Dr. Future,
Thanks for writing this. I agree with your discomfort of Christians participating in anti-immigrant zealotry. I share your contempt of Donald Trump. We should be more open to the stranger and the sojourner, though naturally, we prefer to be with our own kind, and outsiders make us defensive. You need a balance of both perspectives–hospitality to strangers while also protecting those close to you, and finding the balance is tricky.
Couple of thoughts to provoke you, however. I’ve heard it said constantly that what is happening in Syria is the fault of the United States’ invasion of Iraq. Like clockwork, the U.S. invaded Iraq in 2003, 12 years ago, and then presto, in 2015, Syria is a basket case. The people who say this may be right, but the fact that the invasion of Iraq happened so far back in the past causes me to think maybe there’s more going on here. Iraq is not the same as Syria; who’s to say the conflict in Syria we see now would not still be there if Saddam or one of his sons were in power today? It’s a hypothetical so it’s impossible to disprove, but you also can’t prove it either. We just don’t know what would have been.
Any rate, though I agreed with President Obama’s decision not to intervene in Syria, and I applauded his decision to withdraw from Iraq, the events going on in that part of the world are still affecting the U.S. vis a vis refugees. In other words, just as human beings are not isolated individuals who occasionally bump into each other when we wanna buy something, countries are not isolated either. What happens in other nations does affect us here.
The simplistic notion that if we leave them alone over there, they will leave us alone, doesn’t seem to be holding up too well. Likewise, the related notion that the source of conflict over there is our military interventions doesn’t seem to be holding up well either. U.S. troops never invaded Syria, but the people there are still fighting, and the consequences are affecting us. If you’re intellectually honest, I think you have to admit this.
It doesn’t mean you need to become a neocon, but world affairs are more complicated than we realize. There are lots of tradeoffs, and world leaders like our president have to make hard decisions. No matter what he decides to do, there will be bad consequences. I don’t envy him; I’m glad I don’t have to make those judgment calls.
One more thing. If the United States and Western nations are to blame for economic subjugation and war in Syria, why is it that the refugees are desperate to come here? Could it be that the refugees blame their own leaders for the mess, and not the West?
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I AM SOOO PROVOKED!! (just kidding)
Seriously, thanks Bro. Ben for your comments.
Your points are well taken – “no man is an island”, and “we are our brother’s keeper”, even around the globe, but that assumes that our motives are benevolent, and not just toward our own kind.
Some additional thoughts to consider in response to yours:
1. We are told that the head of ISIS was radicalized in US prisons in Iraq after we overthrew it. Would that have happened if we had not invaded? Would Iranian students have taken our embassy employees hostages if we had not overthrown their civil secular government in the 1950s and given them a despotic Shah? I would like to have known what could have been. In any case, given what we confirm from Twentieth Century history books regarding terror groups operated by Western governments, such as Operation Gladio and the “Egyptian” and “Arab” terrorists who blew up US/UK barracks after the Suez War and killing the British in the King David Hotel actually being disguised Israelis, I still have suspicions that ISIS may be taking orders from someone above, even if they do not know it, as the Muslim Brotherhood did from British intelligence in the 1920s.
2. Regarding the “leaving people alone” policy in the Middle East “not working out too well”, I am still waiting for the day when that policy is to be tried. It is curious how every strong, secular Arab government in the Middle East (Libya, Egypt and now Syria) that could have stopped ISIS (and has helped us in the War on Terror), has now been overthrown, with US support and/or assistance. Back in 2013, ISIS was trained and armed by the US, Israel, Turkey and Saudi Arabia, in camps in Turkey and Jordan (at least that is what major newspaper reports said then).
I am afraid that by now we have “crossed the Rubicon”, where merely “leaving people alone” in the untenable mess we made over the last century (along with the British) is not enough. It may be time for some old fashioned (but long forgotten) humility, asking for forgiveness (and swallowing the famous American “pride”) on a global scale, and probably some Zaccheus-styled tangible restitution. It may be all wishful thinking, but I would like to try that investment versus that in bombs and napalm, and in hoping in the policy that “the beatings will continue until morale improves” will bring the desired outcome. The civil government may not agree to ever do such a thing, but Christians could lead the way, and by their own private endeavors.
Hopefully we can at least agree to pray for wisdom for our President and leaders (and those of ISIS and other countries), and that God would protect the innocents, and provoke the guilty to repentance on all sides.
Thanks for your reasoned and thought-provoking comments, Ben.
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Funny you bring up Libya.
I was against the Obama administration’s machinations in Libya from the beginning. Not only was it done without any consultation from Congress, but strategically it was a disaster.
In 2003, after Saddam was removed from power, Libya voluntarily opened itself up for WMD inspections. Nobody had suspected the Libyans were working on such an arsenal, but out of fear Qaddafi allowed inspectors into his country. It was one of the good consequences of the Iraq War.
The only lesson President Obama taught the world when Qaddafi was toppled and barbarically executed by rebels was that even if you lay down your arms and work with the Americans, the Americans will stab you in the back. White man speak with forked tongue. There’s much about our foreign policy not to be proud of these days.
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I share your concern about a good part of Obama’s foreign policy – it seems he is willing to help ISIS in some respects if it helps his higher goal of getting rid of Assad – I know he’s not a cuddly guy, but it seems like the Syrians (Christian or otherwise) were generally in better shape before the revolution took place. I am only thankful that he has been more reticient for engaging in full scale war, either in Iran or in Syria (as in 2013) than any of the Republican candidates (excluding the Pauls) would have been.
Running a British-style imperialistic empire – even if just to show superpower “leadership” – can be a messy business with much misinformation, middlemen with their own agendas, and many victims, while many other Christian Western nations mind their own business.
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Having lived in Turkey, I saw a lot of the stuff with the Arab Spring and ISIS/ISIL/IS up close. Turkey’s closet dictator Erdogan (pronounce it “air dough WAHN,” accent on last syllable) and his sock puppet Prime Minister Davutoglu (“dah VOOT oh loo”–the name means “Davidson”) have been using that nasty group to forward a neo-Ottoman agenda. The ultimate end is Israel (Gog could be one of the two). Erdogan made a 180-degree change in his foreign policy with the “Arab Spring,” and was caught red-handed funding ISIS in 2013. Erdogan’s claim of Assad having used gas was whitewashed, but it was (and still is) understood by many in Turkey as having been a false flag by Erdogan’s MIT (their equivalent of our CIA). At the time, Erdogan was trying to push war on the (still) reluctant Turkish public and drag the US into the conflict. Obama wisely was more interested in Mali then since the Russians had moved their ships into Syrian ports, and brought SPETZNAZ in to fight the insurgents.
Now, Obama has been suckered in, and our troops are watching Turkish soldiers kill Kurds while the Russians fight ISIS. If Obama was planning to be there, he is an idiot. If he was conned by Erdogan, he is a sucker. In any case, Obama has lost what little respect I had remaining for him.
There is little doubt in my mind that we are behind at least the beginnings of the Arab Spring, but I have the feeling that Erdogan has hijacked it. That would go a long way toward explaining why ISIS hit Paris. It would go along with a lot of Erdogan’s agenda and his resentments toward the French over the past few years.
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Bro. Cliff,
I generally concur with all your statements, and you certainly have much more “boots on the ground” experience than me. One of my book volumes shows Turkey’s long record of false flag terror, to serve the West’s interests or just themselves.
Like I have said before, the real issue is not the deadly ISIS, but who they are working for (whether they recognize it or not).
Pertaining today’s news – why did the FBI let the media and public in the terrorists’ home, to find conveniently placed IDs and other critical documents? Are these planted evidence to sway the media and public (the culprits who could dispute it are dead)? The Law Enforcement experts on air today said the events of today are unprecedented in their experience, and inexcusable and unexplainable.
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I am definitely looking forward to the release of your books on all this. May the Lord bless you in all things, Doc.
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Btw: I’m considering your questions. My impression at the moment is that they want to hide any traces that may lead back to Turkey, but I’m withholding that as my answer because I don’t want to allow myself to give a knee-jerk reaction.
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Well Dr. Mike I think given the media’s propaganda regarding the SB shooting the hatred for the Syrian refugees as well as Muslims in general is about to get MUCH worse. All over Facebook today I have seen anti-Muslims propaganda left, right, and center.
I am curious, are you familiar with the prophecies David Wilkerson (The Cross And The Switch Blade, Time Square Church, etc.) spoke about throughout his lifetime? He claimed to have received many dreams and visions from the 1950’s onward. He wrote a book in the 1970’s called The Vision and after Beyond The Vision. In it he layed out some incredible claims. He also spoke of other prophecies he received afterwards. The most fantastic of them is how he spoke of a 4 pronged judgement of America by God. If my understanding is correct, he said that first there would be an economic collapse and then after that a race war on the streets of America. After that he said a massive earthquake would occur then Russia would nuke portions of the United States. Pretty interesting stuff. And a lot of this he said back in the 1970’s.
Anyways, the stuff going on in Syria right now and America’s opposition to Russia on the ground has me very weary. What do you think about it?
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Most of all I perceive right now on this topic I have already written in posts or follow-up comments here. I will repeat – keep looking for who ISIS is working for, even if they don’t know they are answering to somebody; that would be consistent with historical precedents.
I am familiar with Wilkerson and that he said some prophetic things, but I am not sure I would agree with all of them, and I now tend to shy away from stuff like that because the prophecy crowd has turned things into “prophecy mania” and somewhat of a circus (i.e., “blood moons”, “Shemitah year”, etc.)
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I understand your reluctance because of the “prophecy mania” but those other false prophets had questionable ties and questionable teachings. David Wilkerson on the other hand was a man who didn’t hold back in his preaching. He was one of the few that preached the hard message of sin and repentance and total surrender. Anyways, thanks for the response. Its been hard preaching the love the sinner and hate the sin message, but it’s what we must do. Take care 🙂
P.S. Who in the end benefits from ISIS’ existence? I think we both know the answer 🙂
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DR FUTURE: I am familiar with Wilkerson and that he said some prophetic things, but I am not sure I would agree with all of them, and I now tend to shy away from stuff like that because the prophecy crowd has turned things into “prophecy mania” and somewhat of a circus (i.e., “blood moons”, “Shemitah year”, etc.)
I agree. I once heard something to the effect that God told Wilkerson to stockpile food and prepare for disaster. He passed away without there being a nationwide disaster. That was the final straw for me. I no longer read any ‘prophecies” from anyone.
I’m not despising prophecy, I’m be cautious. Too many fear mongers in cyberspace.
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That’s where I’m at too, sister.
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Do we really know the true meaning of “Prophecy?”
A believing hope and prospect of a blessed lot in the heavenly Canaan, at the end of the days, will be an effectual support to us when we are going our way out of this world, and will furnish us with living comforts in dying moments.” – See more at: http://son-of-encouragement.blogspot.com/2014/01/those-who-dabble-in-prophecy-continue.html#sthash.tXYTeYYj.dpuf
Read the following article as well: http://son-of-encouragement.blogspot.com/2009/12/prophecy-human-predictions-or-gods.html
In His Peace,
Joe Ortiz, author
The End Times Passover
Why Christians Will Suffer Great Tribulation
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Hey Doc,
Thank you for saying what I have been thinking,How much easier it will be to take the Gospel to the Sons of Ishmael as they come here than having to cross the big pond to them,nice to know I am not the only “crazy” one.The Lord is bringing them to us. And least we forget the Muslims are indeed sons of Abraham just as the Jewish people are and so are indeed our brothers!! I for one do not want to have to explain to the Lord that I treated His children badly! The Muslims are indeed His children too!
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Your mocked by Satanists. Do something.
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