Why Doesn’t the World Love Us?

It is fairly common for we citizens of the U.S.A. to think of ourselves as the premier country of the world. Like the British Empire we have a feeling of manifest destiny, that God intends for us to be the leaders of the world in all ways: economically, politically, spiritually, culturally etc. And we Christians of the country think of ourselves in a similar way. Early in our country’s history religious leaders perceived ourselves as God new chosen people and that we practice religion/Christianity better than other believers in others countries.

And in our education we have been taught that this is true, at least by our educators in the primary and secondary schools systems and our books read that way. We used to laugh to Russians saying the invented things before we knew we have invented those things.

Not everyone agrees with this. It might be fairly safe to say, hardly anyone outside of our country believes this. In fact, those who have received a solid liberal arts education and learned more real history don’t believe it either.

Now let me head back into history. We are most familiar with western history particularly the Greek and Roman thinkers and political leaders and the history of Europe and ultimately at that leading up to American history.

Part of that history included the persecution of Christians by the Roman conquers who fed Christians to the lions, blamed them for the burning of Rome and the like. Then in the Roman Emperor Constantine (306 – 337) came to power and he had a vision of a Cross in the sky which meant to him in this sign you shall conquer. So, he converted to Christianity and forced everyone to convert with him or suffer the consequences – death. Suddenly Christianity is the major religion and spreads all over the western world where Rome flexed its might.  It is rather a vicious history, but one we are accustomed to and justify by various means.

Now a few years after Constantine another fella was born in 570 in the Arabian city of Mecca. He shared many of the ideas and history of the Christians and the Jews from which Christianity sprang. He believed in a monotheistic God, the same God. He was part of the history of the Middle Eastern people who came from Abraham and Sarah. He came from the line of Ishmael, Abraham’s first son by his wife’s handmaiden Hagar. But when Sarah had her own baby in their dotage, she thought that Hagar had gotten to big for her britches (or whatever the Middle eastern equivalent for women of that time was,) and asked her hubby to kick Hagar and her son Ishmael out and Abraham did that. Mohammed became a great prophet in the line of great prophets of the line of Abraham and wrote his teachings and ideas down in a book called the Koran/Quran. The Muslims think that Mohammed restored the monotheistic faith of Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus (accepting him as the messiah) and the other prophets.

Now let’s jump to the time between 1095 and 1291 when the Christians of that time decided that their cousins, the Muslims, the Islamic folk were bad dudes not following their version of Judeo-Christian teachings and therefore should be converted or destroyed. Thus begins the crusades, not one of the finer moments of western history or Christianity. The Christians used the idea of the just war to make this carnage more palatable. This action did not make the Christians and the Moslems buddies.

In the modern era we Westerners, particularly the U.S.A.  have fought just wars again against each other and parts of the world. In our second “great war” to end all wars we dropped the atom bomb, which scared the bejebbers out of everyone, and the war ended; therefore it must have been the right things to do. But since we’ve done it before, folk may not trust us to do it again.

Following these great wars the U.S.A. became the great economic power of the world, a superpower and now the only one of these left. We are well known for our consumerism even if it comes at the expense of others.

Now some folk see us as evil folk, who wish to dominate the world, who live by false materialistic values, and do not follow the teachings on God whatever the name of that God may be. I wonder why?

Those who have become the most radical in that belief that we are not a very moral people believe we are the devil incarnate and should be destroyed, even though their own teachings teach against that. But then, why should they be any more moral than Constantine, the Crusaders and other folk?

I am not writing this to justify the actions of jihadists, they are whacko. They are like the Klu Klux Klan of our own country when they, in the name of Jesus, killed, raped and degraded black folk in this country they had stolen from others countries.

But we need to keep things in perspective and understand the history most of have been taught has been greatly skewed to make us look better than we are.

So, if you are a person who condemns all Islamic people as scoundrels, maybe you need to rethink your position. If you don’t have a friend who is a Muslim and have had open conversations with them you are more subject to scapegoating and name calling without serious thoughtful reflection. Most Americans just don’t know much about the Muslim religion and just react to the radical extremists and condemn the whole religion. That is not different that condemning all of Christianity based upon the actions of the Klu Klux Klan.

Or, go and re-read my previous article on “We have met the enemy and he is us.”

I do not write this article to demean us or anyone else. I write it to show that we are all basically the same. We can do what is wonderful and we can do what is awful. But we always need to talk and to be open with each other.