Mr. President, I respectfully disagree.

I was bothered a great deal when our president, during this year’s prayer breakfast, tried to put a damper on the increasing concern over Islamic terrorists, or what he calls “violent extremism.” His message, as most know, was essentially to say, “You did it too!” by blaming violence done in the name of Jesus Christ almost as an excuse for the evil being done at the hands of the Islamic terrorists today.

My answer, Mr. President, is to provide a history and religion lesson. First and foremost, the Crusades were started initially with the goal to free Jerusalem from the Muslims, who had taken it by force, and were killing and robbing Christians who were on pilgrimages to the holy land. It was a battle for the holy city. You can lay the horrors that happened over the course of the crusades, and there were many, right at the feet of the power-hungry people involved, but you cannot lay it at the foot of Jesus.

The Christian religion does NOT preach violence. “Turn the other cheek,” “walk the extra mile,” “love your enemy,” “pray for those who persecute you,” are the teachings of Christ.

As we compare these words of Christ to those recorded in the holy book of the Islam faith, the Qur’an, we find an interesting dichotomy. Words, believed by Muslims to be from Allah, as proclaimed by Mohammad, include those which encouraged friendship with “people of the book,” Christians and Jews, and had much in common with the word of God as recorded in the Bible. However, as Mohammad found himself, and the word of Allah he shared, rejected by the Jewish and Christians of his day, Allah’s instructions to Mohammad started to shift to the condemnation of those same people groups.

There are portions of the latter Qur’an text in which Allah said that non-believers, even those “of the book,” must submit or be killed.

Nowhere in the Bible would you find such a command from Christ.

“Turn the other cheek.” Matt. 5:38-40

“But I tell you love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you.” Matt. 5:44.

This is why you don’t see Christ followers throwing a fit over a cross stuck in a glass of urine and called “art.”

This is why you don’t see Christ followers calling for harm to Muslims or anyone else who insults or demeans Christ, or refuses to believe the Word of God.

Yes, Islamic terrorists seek to do us harm, to kill us in barbaric ways. They even are calling for sleeper cells in the United States to rise up and kill as many Americans as they can.

But as Paul so beautifully put it, “To live is Christ, to die is gain.” As long as we live, we will serve our Lord, Jesus Christ. When we die, we will LIVE with our Lord, Jesus Christ.

You see, we worship and serve a loving God, and a just God.

“When justice is done, it brings joy to the righteous but terror to evildoers,” Proverbs 21:15.

The President further claims that the slave owners, acting in the name of Christ, are more evidence of the evils committed in the name of Christ. As much as I abhor the fact that people were stolen from their home countries, packed into the hellish belly of ships, and transported across the ocean to be used, and sometimes brutally abused, as slaves, I would not lay this at the feet of Christ either. Yes, it was a sin this country is still reeling from today. Yes, it was wrong, and people tried to believe it was biblical, but they were wrong.

“Slaves, obey your earthly masters in everything; and do it, not only when their eye is on you and to curry their favor, but with sincerity of heart and reverence for the Lord,” Col 3:22.

This was spoken to different type of slave, at different time, many of whom were slaves by choice to work off debt. Slaves, in biblical times, were far better off than our slaves in the United States.

Interesting to note, great faith in God grew within the slaves of the United States. They came to a deep faith that remains with their children’s children today, in many cases. If Christ really was in favor of the slave trade, how could it be that those most negatively affected would come to love him so?

I recommend you take a moment to consider who did and still do have the greatest number of African slaves. That information can be found though the links below, and many others. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavery_in_contemporary_Africa, http://africanhistory.about.com/od/slavery/a/Slavery101.htm

You may say, Mr. President, that you never implied that Jesus taught these things, but that people did them in his name. The difference you must understand is this.

Jesus did not command people to enslave or kill those who did not, and do not, believe in him or his teachings. Allah does.

We have one group of people, Christians, who sin and need genuine repentance when they commit such atrocities. Whereas we have another group of people, the Islamic terrorists, who believe they will be rewarded with a special pass to heaven when they commit such atrocities.

I respectfully submit, Mr. President, that there is a huge difference, and it does not appear you understand that difference.