Love your enemy, but don’t share your home with him

Only a fool would open his door to a person who hates him, who wants him dead, who plans to destroy his home. Yet this is exactly what the Washington National Cathedral administration did on November 14 when they invited Muslims to perform their Friday prayers. 

Christians pray for the peace and welfare for others. Sometimes they do so even before they pray for themselves. They pray thus because their master taught them to love their enemies and to bless them. He also warned that if they only loved those who love them and greeted those who greet them, they would be doing no more than sinners do. Because Christians seek to be people of goodness and tolerance, they sometimes assume that people of all religions pray as they do. Christians, especially in the West, would find it difficult to believe that Muslims’ prayers are full of terrible supplications, ill wishes for non-Muslims, specifically the Christians and the Jews.  

“Oh Allah; make their women widows, make their children orphans, break them apart, and turn them and their possessions as spoils for the Muslims…!” 

“Oh Allah, Curse the infidels the people of the Book [Christians and Jews], who refuse to believe in your messenger and keep fighting your beloved people. Oh Allah; break their unity, shake the earth under their feet, open the doors of heaven and shower them with your wrath… in your name, oh Allah the merciful we do ask…! 

These are simply a couple of samples of how Muslims pray! 

Christians should indeed apply the teaching of Christ to love their enemies and bless those who curse them. But love and naiveté are two different things. The Christ who taught his followers to be “as innocent as doves” also told them to be “as wise as serpents.” He knew exactly the sort of world he was sending them to: “I am sending you out like sheep into the midst of wolves; so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves.” 

Yes, He indeed taught them to love their enemies but certainly not to accommodate evil. And what word better describes those who harbor such despicable ill wishes and hatred for mankind? 

While the Muslims were gathering in the cathedral a woman stood up and shouted, “Christ is my Lord!” Security quickly escorted her out. This is tolerance? Christians cannot proclaim their faith inside their own church because it offends Muslims? 

Islam considers all non-Muslims enemies and calls upon its followers to fight them and subdue them by all means. Islam makes itself the enemy of Christians, Jews, and of all mankind. This is entirely logical. That logic badly needs to be applied by Christians. 

Yes, “love your enemies and bless those who curse you.” Christ’s very civilized principle is not easily understood by those “whose hearts were hardened,” but it is foolish to interpret it as tantamount to sharing one’s bed with the enemy!

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