What Kind Of Witness Are We?

I'm sorry so many of my posts have a sense of negativity to them, I'm hoping to have some uplifting ones very soon. I do like to think that there is hope in the recognition of wrong things and us turning away from them.

There's a new youtube-like website available on the internets. It's... well maybe you should just read for yourself.

Quotes taken from here.

Mission Statement

MuhammadTube.com/.org/.net, is a video-driven social network that enables people to connect and share with friends, family, co-workers and ministries in an unfiltered medium where it concerns the wickedness and filth that is Islam. The community of Christians use Muhammadtube to upload, imbed and share videos, upload and share photos, create their own blogs and forums, seek answers and explore their faith.

Yes! Finally a place where I can focus all of my "ministry" against Islam. Took them long enough. MuhammadTube.com, welcome.

Their mission statement doesn't even try to seem respectful at all. Total abandonment of objectivity I guess. And it's unfiltered... does that mean profanity and nudity are accepted, as long as they go to tear apart Islam?

"The wickedness and filth that is Islam." They do know that we share a belief in Jesus and the Old and New Testament, right? The statement they have goes to say that Islam is entirely filthy and wicked... even the Bible? Are we sending these videos to Muslims so they can convert, prospective Muslim converts so they can change their mind, or Christians who are looking for something else to oppose?

At the end of that statement it says this is for us to explore our faith. It sounds more like a place to claim our faith rather than explore it. You've already told me there is nothing redeemable about Islam.

Muhammadtube Vision

Jesus Christ is the foundation and cornerstone of Christianity. Because of His love demonstrated on the cross by dying for our sins, we now have reason to fellowship with one another and proclaim salvation through His life and resurrection. We place great emphasis on teaching the Bible in public, studying it in private and using it as a guide for our daily lives. We encourage Christian growth by abiding in Jesus Christ through His Word, prayer, fellowship and by yielding our lives to the Holy Spirit. Our endeavor is to show a Christ-like love to all men, and we feel it should be exhibited in our lives by our words as well as our actions. Our goal is to develop the ministry of every member to the benefit of all. We feel we are held accountable to help people connect with Jesus Christ and experience the gift of eternal life.

This sounds great if you hadn't read their mission. When you put the two together you realize they are contradicting themselves, or have a skewed view what Jesus says, or what "all" means. It would greatly appear that they are excluding Muslims from those to love, as Jesus expressed love. I don't think I've ever heard of Jesus condemning another religion, unless it sacrificed children or had barbaric practices that were obviously unethical... but not usually then, either. Love was embracing. Getting someone close enough to you that they could see how you do things and experience it themselves.

I'd like you all to know that I first heard about this site from a blog post on a site called Friendly Atheist. The atheists aren't angry at "God," they are angry at what is done by those who believe in God. They see a direct relation, all too often, between a religion and violence, hate, corruption, dehumanization, hypocrisy, etc. How is this site helping that?

The thing about atheists is that they are usually people of reason, and often times level-headed, or at least smart. Creating things like Muhammadtube.com makes nothing better. And that's obvious. It's feeding the flames of resentment from all sides, we are turning ourselves into the radicals we are opposed to. We are seeing them as our "enemy" with no redeemable quality, and because of that, others see us as an enemy.

And in the mean time, we are not doing Jesus justice. We are crucifying Jesus all over again. When we've been given and experienced the grace, peace, and love (the heavenly gift) of God and then abandon it by not showing it to others, we are denying its goodness and its power. We are denying the power of Christ, and the validity of his nature to act in the world. We are abandoning him on the cross all over, choosing Rome (worldly power) instead of Christ (the humble power of God).

Let's stop feeling like we need force to overcome our enemies, and let's encourage each other, in love, to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us.

We are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses, Christians, Muslims, atheists, agnostics, those starving, those with excess, the condemning, the accepting, those who have conviction of justice, those who are ignorant to it; they all are watching, and not the least of them, God is watching too.