Indicted

I got another Muslim-bashing email yesterday titled "Can Muslims Be Good Americans" and then it went on to list issues of why Muslims cannot be good Americans. Wow. The two things that got to me in the email was another reference to America as a "Christian nation" and shots at Obama for taking his Congressional oath using the Quron. On to my soapbox...again...

First, Keith Ellison from Minnesota was the first Muslim elected to Congress, not Obama. From a report I read, the official swearing-in process for Congress does not have anyone placing their hand on a Bible or anything else. Some people elect to have unofficial pictures made afterwards that show them with a Bible or some other book and Ellison did in fact have his picture made with a Quron in his hands. It is also reported that the Quron he had was first owned by Thomas Jefferson. Now we all know what a scoundrel Jefferson was don't we?

Second, America is NOT a Christian nation. It is a nation filled with a lot of Christian churches and a lot of people who profess to be Christians. Look at the movies we see, the TV shows, the clothes people wear, the ads in magazines and billboards proving that sex sells and tell me we are a Christian nation. If we were, I don't think those shows and ads would exist. I don't think drug and alcohol abuse would be a problem if we were a Christian nation. What we all have to quit doing is projecting the idea of Christian on our nation and start living it in each and everyone of our lives. God does not call us as a nation, he calls you and me as individuals to be Christ-like. Imagine if everyone lived like Christ.

Colin Powell talked about a soldier in the US Army who died recently from an explosion in Iraq. He was a Muslim and wanted to be in the Army since he was 10. He's buried in Arlington National Cemetary and his Muslim parents are proud of him and his service to this country. Muslims can't be good Americans? I know some Christians who aren't always good Americans.

I'm ranting because I've grown disillusioned with politics. I'm ranting because I've disappointed myself in the way I have thought and talked and treated people who had different views than me. I'm ranting because the bar for what is right and good and honorable and admirable continues to slip further and further down. I'm ranting because too often we are projecting our Christian duty onto our political leaders and church leaders instead of taking up the cross and following Christ. I'm guilty.

Here's to the hope that as our nation slips further and further into crises of many kinds, we will respond with Christ-likeness. It will not happen in my life as easily as I can write about it but I hope everyday you and I are one step closer to walking in Christ's footprints.