If you ask a Christian leader why he does not speak out on Islam, you get some version of: My duty is to tend to my flock, to help them become better Christians. My job is not to oppose Islam.
What if a Christian leader actually took the advice to tend to his flock? Start with the image of tending the flock. This is a Christian image of Christ tending to the flock, the church, a warm pastoral image of lambs and no violence. Jesus is the Good Shepherd.
There is a common abbreviation, WWJD, what would Jesus do? This should be a living question in a Christian’s mind. An even more important question is: What did Jesus do? It turns out that we have detailed accounting of Jesus debating and criticizing religious leaders. Even a causal observation of the gospel accountings shows two things. Jesus knew more about the subject under debate than anyone in the room. He also stood up in public and private and confronted error, even against leadership.
What would it mean if a Christian leader tried to follow Christ’s example of knowing the subject? It would mean that the leader would know the Koran and the Sunna of Mohammed. He would be able to comment on the great themes of the Koran and know it as a story. He would know the Sira, the life of Mohammed, and have detailed knowledge of the Hadith. He would know the history of the Christian dhimmi. He would know what happened to the Seven Churches of Asia mentioned in Revelation. He would know how Egypt, Turkey, North Africa, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon all went from being Christian to Islamic. This is not difficult work for a scholar. It can be done in six months with present books. Just reading Mark Durie and Bat Ye’or’s The Third Choice, would give them a running start. He would know more than 90% of all Christian leaders.
Once you get your knowledge, you need one more quality, courage. A leader would stand in public and discuss the truth of the facts of Islam. According to political correctness and multiculturalism, that would not be nice, since someone might disapprove or become upset. Nice people do not confront others. That is not nice. The modern Christian prefers the Gospel of Nice to the Gospel of Christ. As a result of the Gospel of Nice, the Christian leader does not need courage.
Does tending the flock include being able to give fact-based advice to the Christian woman who comes to him and asks if it all right to marry a Muslim? Tending the flock would mean knowing the doctrine of wife-beating found in the Sharia, Koran and Hadith. The nice thing to do is saying, “Sure marry the Muslim. We worship the same god.” That is nice, but it is a lie. That nice lie is the one that many shepherds have given their flock.
Tending the flock would mean being able to teach a Christian who is flirting with Islam the truth about Islamic doctrine. But if the leader is ignorant, how can they refute Islamic arguments for the Christian to convert?
What if the flock extended beyond the limits of the boundaries of the church building? Tending the flock would include the suffering of Christians in Africa and the Middle East. A good Shepherd would tell of the murder, rape and abuse perpetrated by Islam to Christians on a daily basis.
Would the idea of a larger flock mean inviting persecuted Christians to speak to the congregation? Should the persecuted be recognized and prayed for at church? The current nice policy is to never mention the martyrs or the oppression of the Christians in Muslim countries.
The Black Church is hemorrhaging young males to Islam. If tending the flock meant seeing the flock large enough to include the black church, then a true Shepherd would be able to give guidance to the black leaders and educate them about the cruel Islamic doctrine of slavery still in existence. Tending the flock would include the story of Mohammed as a retail and wholesale slave trader, a man who owned white slaves, Arab slaves, black slaves, and sex slaves. The wise Shepherd would tell the story of how Islam enslaved a million white Christians and murdered 120 million Africans in the process of running the Islamic slave trade on the Mediterranean coast, the east and west coast of Africa. Of course, talking about Islam and slavery is not nice. And besides, it would marginalize all that white guilt about slavery in America. The Christian leader can bemoan that history and wallow in guilt, since that is considered nice. But to talk about the 1400 year old Islamic slave trade active in Africa today would require both knowledge and courage, and that is not nice.
A Christian leader would be able to see that the Great Commission of preaching the gospel would include converting Muslims to Christianity, increasing their flock. Preaching the Gospel to Muslims may be in the Gospel of Christ, but it is excluded from the Gospel of Nice. As a result, Christian leaders avoid the Great Commission when it comes to Islam in the West.
We will never defeat Political Islam as long as our Christian leaders see their job as being nice. Some of Islam’s biggest supporters are our ignorant religious leaders. Although this article has focused on Christian leaders, let be a public record that Christian leaders are ahead of Jewish leadership. If Christian leadership is tragic, then Jewish leadership is pathetic.
A piece of advice to Christian leaders: be a real shepherd, don’t just be nurturing and caring, but be a defender of the flock as well. Stop being nice. Be like the Good Shepherd, be wise, and be courageous.
Bill Warner, Director, Center for the Study of Political Islam
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Copyright © 2011 CBSX, LLC, politicalislam.com
13 Responses
Bruce Lieske
The Good Shepherd tends his flock with the rod and the staff. The staff symbolizes the caring, nurturng and feeding of the flock – the responsibility of the pastor. The rod is used to discipline the uruly sheep, AND to defend the flock – to point out danger and to fight against wolves who would destory the flock.
Islam may be the greatest enomy of Christianity, and it is the responsibility of the pastor to oppose it by warning the flock and by sharing the Gospel with Muslims.
Every Christian pastor should ask himself, “Am I imitating the Good Shepherd (John 10:11), or am I imitating the hired hand (John 10:13)?
John K
Great article. Although alluded to at the end, and hit upon by a commenter, I just felt that the discussion of the imagery of a shepherd should invoke the ravenous wolves who seek to devour the flock. As you said, this is not just a warm pastoral image of lambs and no violence.
Virginia Dobel
Thank you for the clear and correct article about Christian pastors being nice instead of shepherding the flock on the topic of islam. Interestingly, I have been saying exactly what you have written here. Thank you for representing me so well.
I posted this on my facebook wall. I hope that my friends will read this several times and educate themselves. Oh, by the way, ALL of islam is political.
patricia bowman
Hi William. Things have been happening here in montreal…like an mna. of the montreal city hall picketing a store that sells shoes fron israel and manufesting in the thousands in front of my church downtown scaring everyone with loud yelling about israel. Here at work my boss sent me a christmas card with a mosque instead of a church.Mr. Alain DeSousa our mayor born in pakistan announced that a newly elected local representitive of the city will replace him when he in out of town.This man is a devote muslim. I am a born again christian. I feel maybe there is a movement to take over in our country in a way.Tell me my imagination is not working right or I have the blessed gift of discernament.In JESUS. Patricia Bowman
Timothy
Dr. Warner,
I felt what you wrote in this post needed to be repeated, so I borrowed it for my blog. If this is a problem, I will remove it from today’s post. I gave you full credit for writing it and a link back to your site.
Blessings
Timothy
cinnamon
so awsomeley wrote… has been something i’ve been wondering why christian church leaders never even mention it , at least not small scale churchs…Pat Robertson, John Hagee,Glen Beck and a few other other do, but why dont our local?
Democracyistheanswer
Pastors should start by educating women on the tragedy of marrying a Moslem man.
Islam always uses Mohammed’s method: at first fair words and charm are used. Then, the warriors within the Trojan horse are released and Troy is sacked and burned. This is the history of Islamic invasion and the history of marriages between a Moslem male and a non-Moslem woman. Many Western women need to learn that one day they may be forced to leave their children in an Arab country because the man wins all under Sharia law.
Beware.
loseyateefa
I’ve been thinking the same for a long time and wondered who would have the nerve to speak up. In addition to the many reasons you mentioned, another may be the overwhelming majority of Christians believe in a pre-tribulation rapture in which they think they’ll be whisked away before anything nasty happens. I don’t want this post to cause flames on that issue, but it could explain why so few will call it what it is and stand up to it. Franklin Graham made negative comments about Islam that got him in hot water and kicked out of National Prayer Day in DC. He has since calmed his rhetoric. He should have used that as a beacon and rallying point. If he is the most well known in the church and he had rather not make a fuss….well, there you go. The faithful among the flock had better pick up the staff and beat back the wolf ourselves.
Democracyistheanswer
Evangelizing Moslems is a niche market requiring years of in-depth study of the hadiths, Sira and Koran.
Few have the time to do so, but those who have are confronted with Islam’s sociological brick wall in the form of first cousin marriage which creates a shield for knowledge of anything else.
Any pastor reaching out to Moslems will realize that vigilantes are a constant, normative part of Islam. Killing the so-called enemies of Allah is a duty for all Moslems and to do so makes them heroes in the eyes of their peers.
There is a price to pay for any shepherd who stands up to the evil death cult. The Rev. Peter Mullen, Rev Danny Nalliah and Rev Daniel Scot, Father Zakaria Botros, Father Philippe Sulmont, and Father Daniil Sysoyev have all paid the price.
UnaMary
The typical pastor should ask himself if he wants to lose half (or more) of his congregation to bombings, shootings, beheadings, and disappearances. That is exactly what happened in the last 30-40 years in many formerly “civilized” prosperous communities in the Middle East and is happening NOW wherever Muslims gain the advantage. Pastors, we know our God will win in the end, but your people may have to face the scimitar before He gets here. Don’t waste time haggling over the color of the new carpet and leave your people unprepared.
Raymond
I have often said, today under our politically-correct system, there should be Christian ministers in jail right now for not “speaking correctly” and/or sharing the gospel with Muslims. Islam is going to creep up against the church and flocks will be scattered without knowing what happened to them. Every church should be attempting to educate its members in the beliefs of Islam and how their presence in our country is going to affect them. This site is a marvelous site for information on Islam.
Mary Mostert
As for Christian Shephards tending their flock… perhaps more importantly than studying the Koran is to read Matthew 24: where Jesus describes the great calamiies that will precede his Second Coming in the latter days.
In Matthew 24 in describing the deception that will take place before he comes again, in verse 26 He very specifically warned us about following false prophets who come from the desert.”
The Desert.
Many of Europe and even many in the USA have abandoned Jesus and are following Muhammed, who came from the desert and claimed to be a prophet.
PatriotUSA
One of the best posts that deals with a very true problem. So many Christian leaders refuse to defend
their followers. Appeasment and bending over will not get anyone
anywhere.
Being nice to islam will result in
the same end, a demand for
your conversion at a very high price,
possibly your life. We saw this in our own church and after a heated
discussion with our pastor, I left the
church. I find no solace with cowards and appeasers but with
Christ and his words.