The Clash of Worldviews - Prison Fellowship

This article by Chuck Colson is a lesson in theology, history, politics and culture. You may not be deeply interested in any of those topics but I implore you to read it. Colson attempts to give a history of the current West vs. Islam culture clash and reminds us that this isn't going away any time soon. In many of our minds we're just waking up to this clash over the past 4 years since September 11th. In the minds of fundamentalist Muslims it's been going on since before September 11, 1683! Colson writes: And we believe in religious liberty, because we believe the truth will always win out. The Muslim doesn't. The Muslim believes in theocracy. Not just a state church, but a church state. What you have to understand about the Islamo-fascist movement is that what they are looking at is a war that started in the seventh century and is continuing today. We don't think that way. We think it's September 11 to today. "Oh, man! Four years of this is terrible!" That's what Americans are saying. Muslims are thinking about this as centuries old. You have to understand that many Muslims are still smarting over the fact that their armies were defeated just short of Paris at Poitiers in 732 (halting Islam's advance in Europe). Crusades, then counter-Crusades, and so on until eventually the armies of the Ottoman Empire got as far as Vienna in 1683. Bear this in mind: It was a decisive battle when the Polish and German infantry turned back the Turks at Vienna. Do you know what day it was in 1683? September 11. If you tell me that bin Laden just picked that date out of the air, I've got some costume jewelry to sell you later on. Bin Laden knew exactly what he was doing. He was resuming the war. He was avenging the defeat of Muslim armies that happened four hundred years ago. I also found interesting Colson's comments about Christians are to take the culture back for God. He bases these comments in his theology from Genesis 1-2 where humanity is given the role of exercising dominion over the world. I have mixed feelings about that. On the one hand St. Paul said we are aliens in this world but perhaps as aliens we are to be taking dominion. The part I really struggle with is Christians taking back the culture. Take it back to what? Is there a biblical version that the culture should be identifying with? Certainly there are biblical values we should adhere to. But I'm not sure we all agree on what those are and how they play out in the realm of morality. For example my web blog has the occasional wine review and it has a small picture of my favorite Bouguereau print, "Jeune Fille se Defendant Contre L'amour", translation = "Young Girl Defending Herself Against Cupid". Some would find both of those reprehensible and inconsistent with the Christian faith. I don't. I would love to see a dominant Christian culture that promoted a healthy respect for life, sexual purity, forgiveness & grace, reverence for Almighty God, justice, mercy, care for the poor & needy, and prayer. But there are value perspectives on the Christian faith from within evangelicalism that I just don't appreciate nor think are Biblical. I don't want to see them take the dominant role.