Religion

Didn’t He Know the Risk?!

From The Washington Times this story of commitment:

A court sentenced a teacher to 40 months in prison and 750 lashes for “mocking religion” after he discussed the Bible and praised Jews, a Saudi newspaper reported yesterday.

Al-Madina newspaper said secondary-school teacher Mohammad al-Harbi, who will be flogged in public, was taken to court by his colleagues and students.

He was charged with promoting a “dubious ideology, mocking religion, saying the Jews were right, discussing the Gospel and preventing students from leaving class to wash for prayer,” the newspaper said.

I wonder what this man’s testimony is.

Oh, and before anyone goes off on what the “religion of peace” does to its opponents, wait.

Remember the Crusades. Remember the Catholic-Protestant battles of not so long ago.

That said, I do believe there is a substantial spiritual and moral difference between genuine Islam and genuine Christianity.

The question for me is simple: Is my faith (and subsequent life) an accurate reflection of the Lord Jesus?

Ignoring a Certain Common Thread

OK, so a bunch of “youths” have been busy burning cars and buildings in France.

Agence France Presse offers us this update:

More vehicles were set alight in suburban violence in France after President Jacques Chirac said the country needed to learn lessons from two weeks of unrest.

Rioters torched 463 cars in France overnight and police made 201 arrests, figures nearly identical to the previous night, the national police said Friday.

Overnight Thursday 482 cars were torched and 203 people arrested.

At the peak of the trouble on Sunday night some 1,400 vehicles had been torched and 395 people arrested across the country.

Wow!

I suppose I shouldn’t be in this day and age, but I continue to be amazed at stories like this that not once mention the religious-cultural element that many of these “rioting youth” seem to have in common.

Islam.

The Best Lions

Al Qaeda continues sowing its mayhem. I wonder how they possibly can think that they shall reap anything else.

But that’s not the point of this post.

I just read this over at Yahoo! News:

The Qaeda group led by America’s deadliest foe in Iraq on Thursday claimed bombings that ripped through luxury hotels in Jordan’s capital and killed 57 people.

In Wednesday night’s closely synchronized attacks, two bombs exploded while crowds were celebrating weddings, leaving blood and destruction at Amman’s Grand Hyatt and the nearby Radisson SAS. A third blast targeted a Days Inn hotel.

Al Qaeda in Iraq, led by Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, said in a statement on an Islamist website that “a group of our best lions” had carried out the attacks.

Their best lions blow themselves to bits with the intent of killing a bunch of others, most (if not all) of whom have done them no personal harm.

We can criticize them and mock them and condemn them for that. (They certainly deserve no glory or commendation for such deeds.)

But I ask you — What do your faith’s best lions do and with what intent?

And — Are you one of your faith’s best lions?

Above all, love God!