If Islamic fundamentalism is dangerous, it is because The West is so imbued with relativism that it is unable to appreciate the raw, amoral power of religious fundamentalism. For example, ask the typical American, and he/she would tell you Evangelical Christianity is fundamentalist in the same sense as Islam. That's the power of the popular news and entertainment media; what they say must be true. And therein lies the extreme danger of Islam.
Talk about fundamentalism, pop-culture is as fundamentalist as any religion. "If you're not cool, you're dangerous, and must be kept quiet." Madison Avenue controls the West, and its influence is spreading throughout the world. But Big Money and Hollywood jointly own Madison Avenue.
Only one thing can be said for this system: It works, even if corrupt. Most of us plug along our daily paths gratefully receiving what the System deems necessary to keep us complacent, never challenging the status quo because rocking boats tend to capsize.
Is that wrong? Yes. Can we change it? No, because the system has factored in the small minority of lemmings who object. Well-intended grass root organizations such as the Tea Party Movement make participants feel like they're doing something proactive to change the System, but if they were to make a real difference, they would soon quietly disappear.
The World System has existed far too long for transient jitters to seriously challenge it. And it's managed to confine the only factor it can't control: Spiritual revival!
Christ-followers have allowed themselves to be reduced to irrelevant, safe, comfortable, religious folks through the infusion of worldly values and the resultant, public toleration. If members of Christendom were truly Christians(little Christs), the World System could not ignore us, and God's church would advance through persecution as in earlier centuries. But we aren't, and we won't, because we're too comfortable as we are.
All that sounds pessimistic because we want to believe goodness will triumph. But it won't, because we sold the world to The Prince of the Power of the Air, and it's his to misuse as he chooses. Our only recourse is to exist apart from the World System, even as we are subjugated by it. And how can we do that?
1Jn 2:15-17 Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. (16) For all that is in the world--the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride in possessions--is not from the Father but is from the world. (17) And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.
It's as simple, and as impossible as that. Impossible in the natural flesh, but in Christ, all things are possible.
The World System controls religions, and indeed, religions are part of the World System. But the way of Christ is not a religion, even if Christ-followers live His way religiously. Confusing?
1Co 2:14-16 The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. (15) The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one. (16) "For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?" But we have the mind of Christ.
Though Bible passages like that earn Bible-believers the rap of being intolerant, a major faux pas in our society, we must remain so. If we were to tolerate corruption in our food, we'd soon succumb to food poisoning. If we were to tolerate lawlessness in our streets, we'd soon cower before complete anarchy. If we were to tolerate personal laziness ... well ... we'd soon join the welfare rolls.
Despite our cultural indoctrination, tolerance is the social equivalent of the physical law of entropy. But it will never lead to the homogenized, worldwide culture liberals everywhere crave. Rather, it will produce the very Armageddon that they are trying to avoid. For, "If a man stands for nothing, he'll soon fall for anything."
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