no god but God cont...

Sometimes I think we put too much importance in Christianizing the nations that we forget what it is that God called us to do. I say that because I look at the Crusades, or even now, and we desire to bring Christianity to nations that perhaps thank that they don’t need it because what they have ‘true’ and the amount of pressure we put on converting makes people more mad than accepting. When looking at Medieval Europe during the time on Constantine and his ‘massive-forced-conversion’ I wonder how many people cared about becoming Christian or if it was a way to unite his world. I do acknowledge that he cared to save souls but his conversion is troubling. Many town conversions because people do not know what they are getting into or don’t really understand what exactly they are trying to believe, therefore resulting in a European Christendom’s filled with many micro-Christendom’s. Christians went into war with Muslims to conquer them, save the Holy Land from the ‘enemies’ and perhaps turn what areas they conquer into Christian territories.
From my little historical brief I then find myself drawn into Aslan’s discussion of the creation of a democratic Islamic society and if it is really possible. “Islam has been invoked to legitimize and overturn governments, to promote republicanism and defend authoritarianism, to justify monarchies, autocracies, oligarchies, and theocracies, and to promote terrorism, factionalism and hostility. Can Islam now be used to establish a generally liberal democracy in the Middle East? Can a modern Islamic state reconcile reason and Revelation to create a democratic society based on the ethical ideals established by the Prophet Muhammad in Medina nearly fifteen centuries ago?”[1] What I think we forget though, especially now as our frustration with the U.S. government increases, that as Aslan suggests, this is something that must be done. However, to change a very historically bounding and controlling government that has in place for centuries will take more than some 7 or so years. In order for them to change, they have to find ways around leaders who don’t want this change, find stable ground, stable leaders, in a way a common and united ground. It “cannot be imported, it must be nurtured.”[2] Sometimes I get discouraged with the fact that people discourage the work that we are doing overseas. Yes, I agree that there is a lot being done that isn’t helping, perhaps making things worse, our economy’s having problems, but nurturing them and helping them become successful is why we went over, and by leaving them now, we won’t do anything other than hurt them more. I think that it if we continue helping them, it will be rewarding to be a part of and see the product of their national identity.

*Sorry for the brief history section in the first part. I heart history…and we are getting ready to talk about the Crusades and I am really stoked about that, cause it’s sooooo good, or perhaps interesting to me. Nonetheless, I like history as much as you like puns. History + philosophical history=Hannah’s happiness.



[1] Aslan. No god but God. Pg 253
[2] Ibid. Pg 254.