Making genuine distinctions between classes of events or objects or people, distinctions that are real and reflect an understanding of those distinctions is proper, right, just discrimination between differences.
I say this because it is easy to fall prey to those who simply sneer at careful discriminations between classes (of objects, events or people), especially when such folks climb on a “moral equicalence” horse and attempt to equate events, behaviors and people who are not equivalent.
Recently, in a Facebook discussion, I mentioned some clear behavioral distinctions between Christians and Muslims, and a respondant replied with, “Yeh, but there are some pretty horrific acts incited by God in the Old Testament.”
I threw the bullshit flag on that one, and here’s why. Compare the Old Testament (which is very influential but not dispositive in Christian theology; that’s why there’s a NEW Testament) with Islam’s primary text, the Koran. The Koran is at least 70% by actual content filled with exhortations to murder, slavery, theft, lies and more directed toward non-Muslims–and that doesn’t count the many exhortations to abuse women. The Hadith is even more bloody-minded, as it is more directed toward a recounting of the life of Mohamed. The Old Testament? About 5%–mostly in such books as Judges–of the content approves of violence against those who do not follow the Israelites’ religion.
But don’t stop there. The commenter’s postition was that since this 5% or so of the OLD Testament approved of violence against “unbelievers” then that meant Christians were the moral equivalent of Muslims (note: he never actually denied the facts of the brutality approved of–indeed encouraged by–the Koran… because no one can and not be proven a liar or idiot). But…
When Muslims commit mass murder or rape or theft or enslavement or any number of other brutal acts condemned by civilized people, they are directly, honestly and genuinely emulating the life of their so-called “perfect man”–Mohamed–and following his explicit teachings.
When someone claiming to be a Christian does those things and says it is excusable on Christian grounds then he is a liar, for,
…whoever says he abides in him [Christ] ought to walk in the same way in which he [Christ] walked.–I John 1:6
…and nowhere in the New Testament is there any record of the Nazarene condoning such behavior or engaging in such. Nowhere. (Go ahead: argue with me about Jesus driving the money-changers from the temple. I can handle that easily, especially in the face of Mohamed ordering 900+ Jewish men killed after they’d assembled under a truce; their women raped; their homes plundered and their surviving families taken into slavery.) Indeed, his teachings are the polar opposite of the violence and other abuse against unbelievers advocated by Mohamed.
So, whenever you see or hear false comparisons between the many horrific acts of Islam–consistent through history on up to today’s Islamic terrorism–and such things as the abuses of the Inquisition, remember: Islamic abuses have clear and unequivocal roots in the life and teachings of Mohamed, whereas all the horrific abuses perpetrated in the name of Christ by evil men, from the mass murder of Cathars to the Inquisition, WERE NOT in any way, shape, fashion or form in agreement with the life and teachings of Jesus of Galilee. It’s simple, really: evil can be freely committed by Muslims legitimately following the example and teachings of the founder of Islam, whereas such acts can never honestly be claimed to be in discipleship of the Christ.
That’s a discrimination that any honest, decent person must make.
