Three Sermons Which Will get Oren Arrested
#2: Religious Bigotry
Mrs. Rabbit had feared for her son's safety. She'd heard several stories about the terrible little fox who had been extremely mean to her boy. Day after day, he'd come home with some new bruise and tell her how the fox had been hitting him for no reason. Determined to put a stop to this, Mrs. Rabbit went to speak to the teacher. As the grown-ups were talking, Mrs. Rabbit looked out the window to see a fox kit calmly running his toy truck over a hill in the sandbox. As he did, her son walked up behind him and kicked him in the tail. before mrs. Rabbit could get to the door, the sand-covered fox had belted the bunny in the eye.
"I saw whay you did!" said Mrs. Rabbit. "What do you have to say for yourself?"
The little bunny wept and wailed. "He started it when he hit me back for no reason!"
You can imagine how tan that little bunny's bottom became that night. But suppose his mother was not a reasonable rabbit. What if she and the teacher both saw things from the bunny's perspective? Wouldn't that just be royally messed up? The rabbit would be permitted to do anything he pleased to the fox, and the fox would not be permitted to defend himself. Perhaps the teacher would even punish the fox boy for saying bad things about the rabbit. It seems ludicrous, doesn't it? Yet we have a situation like that in our society today.
Anyone who has known me for any length of time knows how I feel about Islam. The koran says in chapter nine that it is the duty of all muslims to kill Christians and jews. The religion is inherently violent, imperialist and evil. To prove this, we need only look at the things which islam has brought about. We have a hole in the New York skyline where muslims flew two planes into the twin towers. We have film of a smoking, shattered Pentagon. We hear stories all the time of suicide bombers killing innocent people on Allah's behalf. Attempt after attempt has been made to make peace with the islamic nations, and every attempt has failed. Every treaty has been broken by the muslims. Children are taught to hate Christians and jews, and that killing us assures them a place in Heaven. These actions are not the actions of apostates. They spring from islam's central philosophy of taking the world over for Allah by any means necessary. This religion is exactly what it's founder, a pirate, mass-murderer and rapist named Muhamed, meant it to be.
And yet, I could go to prison for what I just said.
What I have said is true. You have only to read the koran and watch Al-Jezeera to verify it. We haven't forgotten that in 2001, the United States was the victim of an unprovoked attack which claimed the lives of thousands. The evidence is insurmountable. So WHY, if this is so obviously the truth, could I go to prison for speaking it?
It's because there is a third religion at work.
This religion isn't really new, though it has seldom enjoyed such popularity as it does now. It pervades the United States and Canada, as well as a large number of other, supposedly enlightened techno-industrial nations. It has a unique set of dogmas, its own deity, and its own followers who range from the casual to the rabidly brainwashed. I call it "Tolerism". This religion has tolerance as its god. It seeks to reach its own heaven by creating it here on Earth. This goal depends upon their belief that all people are good, deep down, and if we all understand one another, peace is inevitable.
Now I am not saying that tolerance is a bad thing. Tolerance is a good thing which can be used for bad purposes.
How many of you have seen the movie "The Gods Must Be Crazy"? In it, some African tribesfolk get a peculiar gift. An airplane pilot drops a coke bottle out of a window, Immediately, they learn that this gift from Heaven is incredibly useful. It's a hammer, it's a rolling pin, it's a musical instrument... But when one woman becomes angry that she has been denied a turn with the bottle, it becomes a weapon. She takes it from the woman who has it and hits her on the head with it. It is then decided that the bottle is evil, and must be thrown off of the edge of the world. This is the plot of the movie. In point of fact, the bottle was not evil at all. The bottle was a very good thing. It was merely used for an evil purpose by one misguided individual.
Tolerance is a good thing. Certainly, it helps us to stay together. For instance, I don't agree with ashenfox about the rapture. We've argued about it heatedly. but ultimately, it's not important, and so we tolerate each other's views and love each other anyway. I would never dress the way Syruss does, but I don't need to. He doesn't make me dress like he does, so we tolerate each other's fashion sense and we get along fine. I get sick from the subject of vore, and Xyie likes it, so we tolerate each other's preferences and respect them. There are things about each of you I don't like, and each of you has something you don't like about me. But that's okay! Because we love each other, those niggling little things become supremely unimportant. Tolerance, forgiveness and love keep us together and make us strong.
But tolerance can be disastrous in the wrong place. Imagine what it would be like if your body tolerated everything. If you didn't die, you'd have to spend the rest of your life inside a sterile plastic bubble. Tolerance in this case would be devastating. Or suppose the police department practiced tolerism. Suppose they all decided that it was wrong to force their own morality on others. Imagine if someone tried to kill you and when you called the police, they said "I'm sure he has a valid reason for wanting to kill you. You just have to respect his views because ultimately, every viewpoint is equally valid." Suddenly, murder is not illegal. Laws mean nothing if they are not enforced. Murder would literally be legal.
That sounds pretty stupid, doesn't it? After all, we're not talking about murder, are we? Aren't we? In a single day, Al Queda took the lives of 2,998 people, excluding 19 of their own. 6,291 people were wounded. Most of these people were completely innocent. That was only the most memorable attack. Each year, Islam claims the lives of more people than were killed in the entire Spanish Inquisition. It claims more lives every day than the KU Klux Klan has in the last fifty years. In 2007 Islam and Judaism's holiest holidays overlapped for 10 days.
Muslims racked up 397 dead bodies in 94 terror attacks across 10
countries during this time... while Jews worked on their 159th Nobel Prize. If that's not murder, I'd like to know what the samhill is.
If you live in Israel, you have to live with the threat of an islamic terror attack every day. These people live with a sword of damocles over their head, and yet they thrive. Israel is, in my opinion, the second greatest nation in the world, and I will tell you why. If an injured jew goes into a muslim hospital for treatment, he'll be thrown from the window and the hospital staff will celebrate his demise. If a muslim goes into a jewish hospital, he'll receive exactly the same care as a Hebrew would. Surrounded by nations which are dominated by a culture of hate, Israel is a blossom of love. They have a culture of peace and tolerance, and unfortunately, it's hurting them. Israel has allowed muslims to immigrate in large numbers, having only tolerance for their religion and lifestyle. As a result, muslims are using that tolerance against them and spreading their own doctrine of hate and violence against Israel. Tolerance is like the coke bottle. What was good has become a weapon.
You can check my facts. This is all taken from people who know, who have been there and experienced it. Yet even if it's true, it doesn't matter. I can still go to prison for hate speech. So why not go big? Here's a few little pearls...
"Muslims are the vilest of animals…"
"Show mercy to one another, but be ruthless to Muslims"
"How perverse are Muslims!"
"Strike off the heads of Muslims, as well as their fingertips"
"Fight those Muslims who are near to you"
"Muslim mischief makers should be murdered or crucified"
Those are pretty sure to get me arrested, right? But you know what? Those quotes are straight from the koran. The only change has been to insert the word "muslim". So we're supposed to tolerate them while they say such things about us? That's not right.
So what should we do then? Go blow up a mosque? Throw rocks at people in burkas? Hardly. Does Jesus need to resort to murder to accomplish His purposes for the world? No. Our weapons are not bombs or guns or blades. Our weapons are prayer and the Word of God. Our armor is righteousness, readiness, faith, and very important to this sermon: TRUTH. The enemy is trying to take away our right to speak the truth, because the truth is devastating to him. It's devastating to Satan, it's devaststing to Islam, and it's devastating to tolerism. So if you want to strike a blow for God, use the weapons in the armor God gave you. I'll give you an example.
I'm sure you all remember the recent tsunami and the devastation it caused. Christian relief agencies rushed in to help those in need. Muslims, who have been trying very hard to win every inch of ground between Australia and Japan, demanded that all aid offered by Christians be refused. They shot themselves in the foot that day, because the people looked at the Christians and saw the beauty of their kindness. They looked at the muslims and saw people who thought more of their own agenda than the welfare of the people. The day was won by the breastplate of righteousness and the mantle of love.
That's how God wants us to fight. Righteousness. Faith. Love. And most importantly, truth.
Will you still get arrested? Quite possibly. The world hates us, and it wants to silence us. If you are in God's will, the world will hate you. Arrest is very possible, but let me just mention a few names, here.
Paul. John the Beloved. Jeremiah. John the Baptist. Simon. Luke. Nicholas. Jesus. Every one of these people were arrested because they stood by the truth. Some were killed. All are heroes whose names are spoken today with reverence and honor. May we all be as courageous as them in our defense of the truth.
Today's reading: John 15:18-16:3
18 "If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first.
19 If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you.
20 Remember the words I spoke to you: 'No servant is greater than his master.' If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also.
21 They will treat you this way because of my name, for they do not know the One who sent me.
22 If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin. Now, however, they have no excuse for their sin.
23 He who hates me hates my Father as well.
24 If I had not done among them what no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin. But now they have seen these miracles, and yet they have hated both me and my Father.
25 But this is to fulfill what is written in their Law: 'They hated me without reason.'
26 "When the Counselor comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father, he will testify about me.
27 And you also must testify, for you have been with me from the beginning.
16:1 "All this I have told you so that you will not go astray.
2 They will put you out of the synagogue; in fact, a time is coming when anyone who kills you will think he is offering a service to God.
3 They will do such things because they have not known the Father or me.
