Love By Itself Does Not QUITE Conquer Everything

Some Christians, although they are not at all cowards where facing death is concerned, are in a sense afraid of ever having to TAKE SIDES in any conflict. As regards the present worldwide crisis of Islamic aggression, they maintain that literally NOTHING is required BUT loving the terrorists, forgiving them and praying for them, "just like Jesus and His Apostles." Yet there is a distinction between our situation and the first Christian century.                                                                                                                                                                  
                                                                           
  When the Apostles and other first-generation disciples went forth to proclaim the good news, although it was a cruel pagan world they faced, NOT ABSOLUTELY EVERY PERSON THEY EVER MET was dedicated specifically to a program of killing Christians. By contrast, Islamic terrorist forces ARE consciously dedicated to killing Christians, along with killing Jews and other non-Muslims. Try telling a fanatical Sharia enforcer that you love him and forgive him, and he will just laugh at you and murder you -- not necessarily in that order. Then he will keep right on waging jihad, not the least bit troubled in his deadened conscience.                                                                                                    
                                                                   
There has to be some DEFENSE against the expanding Muslim empire, or else we will simply all get killed off before we can reach even one Muslim in a thousand with the gospel of Jesus.

The Book Review That Never Got Written

  I keep having to explain things again, because so many people just want to go on believing what makes them _feel_ good. For some of my fellow Christians, the dirty secret is that they actively _desire_ to feel superior to, and angry at, non-Christians generally. Accordingly, they _want_ the first chapter of Romans to have the most relentless application conceivable, so they can say to _every_ unbeliever: "You really _know_ I'm right, you're just being stubborn because you're so evil!"

But part of the answer to this is looking them in the face, always _has_ been looking them in the face, even if they can't read Paul's original Greek text. Romans one speaks of people turning homosexual in a way EQUALLY AS UNIVERSAL-SOUNDING as the part about clearly seeing God's presence in creation. Therefore, if all non-Christians everywhere are already _fully_ aware of God's existence, then it is _equally_ true that absolutely every non-Christian in the world, with NO exceptions ever, is a practicing homosexual.

Add to this the fact that *I* did not "always really know" God was real. As a boy, I was cast adrift, left to _wonder_ every night whether there was a God or not, whether death was total annihilation or not. I laugh bitterly at smug evangelists who claim to know what they're talking about when they say that ALL unbelievers fear death specifically because they know they deserve God's judgment. *I* was afraid that there _wasn't_ any God to do any judging. Because I had this experience before coming to know Jesus, I can communicate with lost people who are as I was in that respect.

None of this, however, is meant to say that there _aren't_ plenty of unbelievers resisting truth! People who are aware of God and just don't want to obey Him are obvious enough; but there are also people who exist in the zone of uncertainty, and _become_ dishonest by insisting that there _isn't_ any reliable truth to be found. It could be plain laziness, a wish not to be obligated to search out the truth.

I have the impression that writer Anne LaMott is a case of this. A while back, I picked up a copy of her book "Plan B: Further Thoughts On Faith." I had in mind reviewing it in depth, but real life just has not _allowed_ me to have time for every such project I would like to have carried out. So all I can do is say what her attitude _seems_ to be, based on the small amount of her book that I found time to read.

Without passing any definite verdict on Mizzzzzz LaMott, I believe that she is one who prefers not to believe that there could be some firm, authoritative doctrine already available to be followed. She says vague things about God in her book, notably saying she isn't sure whether to call God a He, a She, or an It. If she believed Jesus to be God Incarnate and therefore infallible, she would realize that He would not have lied to us about God's nature. That is to say, Jesus would not have _called_ God "Father" if there _hadn't_ been something about God's nature which made it appropriate to call Him a Him.

So, at best, Anne LaMott is not Biblically sound. But I really can't say _how_ far estranged she is from the facts of God's Word. She might be starting from a point of extenuating ignorance, and actually be slowly moving _toward_ a saving knowledge of Jesus. Maybe someone else will critique "Plan B" in my stead. I simply do not have the time for that job -- nor even the _space_ in my cluttered house to keep my copy of her book. It is about to become recycled paper, but this does not mean that I feel any hatred for her.