This past Saturday I attended a talk given by Dan McVey at Highland about Islam and Christianity. I became interested after my dad told me about Dan speaking in his Bible class at church. I have never had much exposure to Islam or Muslims, so I thought this would be a good thing to go to. Let me tell you- I took over 4 pages of notes!! Here are some things I found interesting:

-Something we, as Westerners, may not understand is that in many Islamic countries, there is no separation between church and state, or religion and culture. Something that many Muslims do not understand about Western culture is that religion and culture ARE separate. Therefore they look at our TV shows, our music, our wealth, and see this as Christianity. This clears up a lot of Usama's demands of the US after 9-11 (stopping debauchery, immorality, etc.)

-People of honor/shame cultures (many Islamic countries) believe that if you leave the realm of the Islam culture, then it is okay to take part of that new culture. This explains why the 9-11 hijackers visited strip bars one night, and flew in the name of Allah the next.

-(a common Muslim belief) "A sin that is not known is 2/3 forgiven already." Yikes!

-We as Americans and Westerners value and have come to expect our freedom in every aspect of our life. Freedom is not an important concept for Muslims. So when we tell our Iraqi friends that we are making them "free", they might not be quite as excited about it as we would be.

-Americans have very short memories. I would never accuse my Hispanic friends of killing my ancestors in the battle of the Alamo, nor would I accuse my English pals of not allowing us our freedom!! However Muslims have lllloooooonnnngggg memories. Dan said that when he visited an African village made of up Muslims who had never been outside of a 10-mile radius, they were able to recount the names and dates of the Holy Wars and the violent acts of Christians towards Muslims. Therefore we look at the Gulf War and our current situation and not see a whole lot of correlation. But they look at these wars and think back to the crusades.

-Why would a person convert to Islam? (especially true for African-Americans): 1) a sense of anti-establishment, justice, 2) simple, orderly, concrete theology for life, 3) Christianity does not offer equality... maybe in theory, but not in practice when our churches are so culturally and racially diverse.... Jesus died in suffering, then his disciples lived in suffering v. Mohommed died in victory, then his people followed in conquest and victory

-Christian martyrdom is rising, but it is rising in the places of the most concentrated Christianity... therefore martyrdom is a very effective evangelism.

-So how can we bring Jesus to Muslims?
1) DON'T use the term "Christianity"- carries too much historial baggage
2) gospel is to be preached in historical terms, not theological terms and debates (because they WILL win those debates)
3) just let the Bible speak for itself, and let Jesus speak for Himself... don't try to explain every little thing (I think this goes for any evagelism)
4) this is a spiritual (not intellectual) war
5) we have to remember that Satan is the enemy, not our Muslim brothers and sisters
6) our job is not to convince, but to show Jesus

Well these were just the things I found interesting. Sometimes when I have experiences like this that are so completely different from my life norm, I wonder if God is preparing me for something. Like maybe I'll have a chance to reach out to Muslim children or have Muslim neighbors. Just makes me wonder...