Moderate Islam: A Good Idea

Gandhi famously replied to the question of what he thought of Western Civilization: "It would be a good idea". I'm thinking the same thing of Moderate Islam, but not exactly so wryly.

I caught a snippet of Krista Tippet's show yesterday. It was Karen Armstrong's voice and verbaige that attracted me once again as I was flipping through the radio station presets. As I tuned in she was relateing a story of how she and a panel of experts were stunned into silence when a Christian Fundamentalist addressed them in horror and pain. I didn't catch what the details were but it didn't come as a surprise that the man in question was hauled away by security for telling them they were all going to Hell.

We've all seen these guys. Right where my eye doctor is, in a place called the Hollywood Riviera (yes it's kind of all that) there is a man with a van that defies description who daily prophesies about the end times. He's the Man in the Jesus Van. And we ignore him. And if he one day ran himself off a cliff in Palos Verdes or set a parking lot on fire, we probably wouldn't be too surprised. He's 50 or 60 years old. But what if he was 20 and needed more action than that?

I'm an Episcopalian and I have very little to do with evangelism. I personally find evangelism arrogant and sometimes repugnant. That's because I basically grew up secular before I grew up Catholic. I was smart enough to figure out how to pray and live with my conscience as something of Lutheran intellectual exercise at a pre-pubescent age. Did I talk to Jesus? Yes. Did I accept him as my personal savior? That was between me and Jesus and none of your business. What's it to you? I thought it took a lot of nerve to ask such questions of kids, but I was asked, and told how much I needed Jesus like most smart-ass kids who actually memorize their Bible verses with a smirk. I chose which Jesus I would talk to, and He was eventually the Christ as presented by the Jesuits. I chose which traditions I would share in the Body of Christ and those were eventually the Episcopal Liturgy. My Jesus, My Religion, My Church. Not yours.

I am absolutely convinced we all do the same thing. And so it comes as no surprise that I cannot recall any sermons from the Episcopal pulpit feeling a need to explain away the behavior of Jimmy Swaggart or Pat Robertson. I've listened to the most extraordinary message about racism in the American Christian Chruch presented by Rev. Frederick Price, but I don't recall much discussion about that anywhere even by those who insist that America is a Christian Nation. Oh yeah? What kind of Christian Nation?

Jerry Seinfeld is not going to take orders from the Lubavichers. Baptists of the Southern Convention are free to ignore the Pope, and they will. Mennonites are not going to make excuses for Methodists. I think you get the idea. Moderate Islam is not going to moderate other types of Islam. 'Moderate' is an adjective, not a verb. Moreover it is an adjective of American origin. American politics are not going to make 'moderate muslims' influence Islamic Fascists.

"Some of my best friends are Sunni." Start from there.

We simply have to call spades as we see them and deal with the dirt done by those doing it. America's moral leadership on the matter is not really at issue. Even if we were a Muslim nation, we would still have sectarian and class barriers to deal with. There is something very specific that muslim fascists want to accomplish and we can resist that directly and keep our own house in order without being authoritative on Islam or Fascism. Let's stick to the religion of Freedom and let the other mullahs and popes say what they will. We can only come correct in a firm and honest defense of who we are.