Growing up the saying was “don’t talk religion or politics”. It was the way to avoid arguments and be nice friends, neighbors, co-workers, etc. Politics and religion have long had a strange relationship. Some don’t like to mix them and others find their one dictating the other. Now I think we have reached a point where the two are in a direct collision. It’s not that we have never seen this, but the situation these days actually begs for those of us in youth ministry to consider how this affects our teaching. Many denominational leaders are very vocal in the realm of politics these days and the views that shape their political agenda are also the views that are shaping the mainline churches of the 21st century. It is not hard to see the similarities between the religious views of our president for instance and the presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church. This strand of american religion is something other than the gospel that we find in scripture. In some ways it should push us to act on neglected convictions and yet some aspects just need some sound correction.
In an Op Ed piece in the Wall Street Journal, Ayaan Hirsi Ali comments on the larger issues at stake in the ground zero mosque controversy.
“What do the controversies around the proposed mosque near Ground Zero, the eviction of American missionaries from Morocco earlier this year, the minaret ban in Switzerland last year, and the recent burka ban in France have in common? All four are framed in the Western media as issues of religious tolerance. But that is not their essence. Fundamentally, they are all symptoms of what the late Harvard political scientist Samuel Huntington called the “Clash of Civilizations,” particularly the clash between Islam and the West.
Huntington’s argument is worth summarizing briefly for those who now only remember his striking title. The essential building block of the post-Cold War world, he wrote, are seven or eight historical civilizations of which the Western, the Muslim and the Confucian are the most important. The balance of power among these civilizations, he argued, is shifting.”
If Huntington’s argument is valid, what does that say to us about how we prepare students for the world that they are growing up in? If we are discussing the ground zero issue with our groups, are we seeing it from the larger picture of a culture clash? What does it say to us about how we view missions and evangelism?
Ms Ali goes on in the WSJ piece to suggest that our common approach to these issues is to push for a “One World View” that would have us work with mutual respect toward common values and principles. It sounds good and we are hearing it from both political and religious leaders these days. Does it work? Ms Ali suggests that it is failing miserably. She suggests that we take the Huntington model seriously and consider what we are doing to advance our western civilization… because others are advancing theirs with major campaigns.
You can read the WSJ op ed here.
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