ABOUT FAITH & FREEDOM

Friday, December 11, 2015

Tolerance and Terrorism

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FBI Director James Comey made worldwide headlines Wednesday when he revealed the San Bernardino killers "radicalized" years ago---before they met online---yet US authorities were never alerted to their Islamic jihadist views and activities.

Yesterday's Rasmussen National Survey reveals that Americans are concerned---very concerned, that the terrorists may, too often, be one step ahead of us.

This Christmas season, many Americans are singing, "Do You Fear What I Fear?"


A national defense analyst has traveled to Germany this week to discuss the dangers of radical Islam with concerned officials in that country.

Bob Maginnis, a retired US Army colonel now working with the Family Research Council, says in light of what happened in Paris and elsewhere around the world, including here in America, "obviously people are scared."

Director Comey's words also caught the attention of James Carafano, a national defense analyst with the Heritage Foundation.

He said, "The question is, is this something that just slipped through. Or are we not doing as good a job, or are the bad guys coming up with ways to get ahead of the system?"

Clearly these are questions that must be addressed.

However, as the immigration conversation changes from the Mexican/Texas border to the crossing of the Atlantic, the dynamics and realities also change. And intensify.

The bold new enemy is exposing weaknesses in the West's tolerance.

Tolerance is a Christian virtue. However, like other words, meanings and virtues, it has evolved within the secular progressive Left narrative to mean something very different than its original meaning.

Because of the invasion of secular progressivism, the purpose of immigration has changed. It used to exist for people who wanted to come to America and assimilate.

Tony Perkins rightly says there has been a dramatic shift---"Now, in a dramatic shift from even our grandparents' generation, the 'sensitivity' and 'diversity' doctrine of the modern age is suggesting that we create cultural enclaves, where outsiders come to our country and live as if they never left home."

He says that doesn't work well. It doesn't. Look at Europe---specifically France and Germany---but all of Europe.

Yesterday on the radio I referred to the study by the Center for Security Policy which affirms that a majority of Muslims who are living in America believe they "should have the choice of being governed by Sharia law---and believe under Sharia they would have the right to kill those who would violate it."

Sharia Law, whether individual Muslims say they adhere to those teachings or not, authorizes murder against non-believers who won't convert, beheadings, and a number of unthinkable acts that relate to women.

When Founding Father and President John Adams said, "Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other"--- "religious people" meant "Christian" to both he and the others who founded this country.

He, Thomas Jefferson and others were already dealing with Islamic pirates, representing "Sharia" along the Barbary Coast. This was not the kind of religion Adams had in mind.

The growing and deepening divide in America regarding allowing tens of thousands of Syrian refugees into the country is difficult for many to discuss.

The goodness of the Christian heart in America reaches out to all, but wisdom often requires caution.

Hospitality and Wisdom are both Christian virtues.

NBC reveals their conflict in trying to get their own ideology and agenda out to the public under the guise of "news."

The far left Huffington Post doesn't even pretend.

They picked up on a statement Pat Robertson made this week on his 700 Club. Huff Post published this headline: "Befuddled Pat Robertson Declares Islam Is Not A Religion, Again."

Robertson said on the 700 Club, "Islam is a political system that is intent on world domination. It isn't a, quote religion, as such. It is a political system masquerading as a religion."

The Huff Post responds with, "This information will surely come as a surprise to the more than 1.6 billion Muslims in the world, the vast majority of whom have little to no interest in world domination."

Robertson told his audience, "Christianity isn't intent on dominating and killing people---it just isn't."

Huff Post responded, "Robertson has apparently forgotten the Crusades, the Inquisition and the ethnic cleansing in the Central African Republic," while they themselves "forgetting" that the Crusades was about recapturing land that had been taken by Muslim invaders.

There's more, but this defines at least a part of the contention that exists in our country over this issue.

Perkins correctly points out, "What most people either don't realize or willfully ignore is that only 16% of Islam is a religion---the rest is a combined military, judicial, economic, and political system. Christianity, by comparison, isn't a judicial or economic code---but a faith."

Apparently 85 year old Pat Robertson is not as "befuddled" as the far left would like you to believe.

The bottom line is that the US Constitution is an agreement between people about how they'll be governed.

Perkins says, "What good is it if people immigrate to America with the sole purpose of undermining that contract."

He says, "We shouldn't be embarrassed to say that we oppose those who want to come to the United States to destroy it."

It is neither anti-American,or anti-biblical to stand with wisdom.

Perhaps most Muslims don't want to commit terrorist acts and won't become "radicalized," however, when the Center for Security Policy finds that most Muslims living in this country have not assimilated and believe they should have the right to live under Sharia Law in America, an awareness of what Islam actually teaches should give concern to those who do embrace the US Constitution.

The sweeping, categorical statements made by President Obama, the political and religious Left and uninformed conservatives that "Islam is a peaceful religion" may play well in a world of inverted tolerance, multiculturalism and denial, but it isn't playing well in the real world.

Although the Left wishes it so, Perkins says, "There is a gap between Islam as it actually exists and Islam as ...President Obama would like it to be."

Much hangs in balance---homeland security, freedom, liberty, our identity as a nation characterized in the Constitution.

The words of Daniel Webster are so very, very relevant today: "Hold on, my friends, to the Constitution and to the Republic for which it stands. Miracles do not cluster, and what has happened once in 6,000 years, may not happen again. Hold on to the Constitution, for if the American Constitution should fail, there will be anarchy throughout the world."

Be Vigilant. Be Prayerful. Be Bold.