Never the Twain Shall Meet!

by  Rev. Bruce R. Cole                                                                                                                             Vol. XXI, No. 8, October 2008

     Pastor, Hopeful Baptist Church, Montpelier, VA

In an article in the February 2008 issue of The Baptist Banner, “Mohler: Evangelical-Muslim letter lacks clarity,” Garrett E. Wishall critiques a letter that appeared in The New York Times in December. Quoting from the article, the letter drafted by scholars at Yale Divinity School’s Center for Faith and Culture and endorsed by nearly 300 Christian leaders, said, “conversation should take place between Christians and Muslims centered on the ‘common ground’ that Muslims and Christians share.” As pointed out in the article, there is no common ground between the Muslim faith and Christianity.

That matter of religious commonality can rest on the weight of the arguments given. However, it seems necessary to me to take this argument a step beyond its religious implications. Not only is there no common ground between the Muslim faith and Christianity; there is no common ground between the Muslim faith and the democratic government of the United States of America.

The word Islam means “submission.” To embrace the Islamic faith requires men and women, organizations and governments, and every social and cultural entity to submit to the authority and rule of Allah, the Quran, and Islamic fundamentalists clerics. American Democracy with its Constitutional Law can exist along with Islamic fundamentalism only secondarily, if it can exist at all. It must become subjected under an Islamic Law whereby Muslims are considered (wrongly) the holy guardians of true religious faith and the solitary custodians of theocratic government. Islam is a religion that must bring all powers and laws under its authority. It can exist only as supreme.

America is a nation founded upon secular law. It is a democracy in a republic. The American Constitution sets up and guarantees a government of the people, by the people, and for the people. Such a radical concept is contrary to and anathema to Islamic Fundamentalism. For the two to coexist is for Islam to reign supreme and Constitutional Law to be dissolved. The two cannot meet on common ground.

It is dangerous for Christians to toy with any thought of conversation or reconciliation on any common ground with Islam. Once such a conversation or reconciliation begins, the Christian faith will be instantly compromised and will become nothing more than a powerless superstition in our society, if not an outlawed religion. We are not talking here about simple diversity; there is no diversity in Islam. We are talking about religious tyranny. The effect will be the same if Islam gains credibility in American politics. To allow Islamic religious doctrine and traditions to dictate even in the smallest area of American jurisprudence, to compromise any law in any way, will lead to the undermining of the very foundations of American Democracy.

You can mark it down for future generations. Between Islam and democracy there is no common ground. Never the twain shall meet!