In the wake of Donald Trump’s comments regarding the banning of Islamic immigrants in the United States until the government can “figure out what’s going on,” the Southern Baptist Convention has seized the opportunity to rebuke Trump’s popular stance, and paint those who agree with him, especially Christians, as anti-religious freedom, anti-missionary, and unchristian. In fact, many have used the opportunity to advance a left-wing democratic, pro-open-border policy at the expense of national security.
Afshin Ziafat, an SBC pastor at Providence Church in Texas was recently quoted as saying,
We applaud missionaries who have an eternal perspective and take risks, but then when the mission field is coming to us all the sudden we’re saying no, get out, we want protection. The goal of a Christian shouldn’t just be to preserve my life but to expend my life for the gospel.
This is absolute nonsense. He is equating those who care about preserving the security of our nation to people who don’t care to advance the Gospel. Does he really believe that the best way to take the Gospel to lost people is to have an unvetted insurgency of antichrist militants dumped in our laps for our already overwhelmed nation’s security forces and welfare systems to deal with?
But this falls right in lock-step with what Russell Moore, president of the Ethics and Religious Liberties Commission (ERLC) has been saying. In an article Moore published at the Washington Post, (a secular publication geared toward politics that most of his Southern Baptist constituency doesn’t read), he said,
Anyone who cares an iota about religious liberty should denounce this reckless, demagogic rhetoric.
Let’s be real for a moment here. I’m not going to spend too much time making my case on why I believe there is no such thing as “radical Islam,” I’m going to continue from the presupposition that Islam, in and of itself, is evil, and you’re either a Muslim–or you’re not. But the facts show that Islamists desire to destroy Christianity, among any other non-Islamic religion, and establish a world-wide caliphate and establish the Sharia, to be enforced by Islamic militants. What makes Southern Baptist leaders think they have any other intention in the United States?
Further, Moore said at a recent ERLC panel discussion,
Demonization of Islam is not only wrong, but could lead to some very difficult situations in terms of security. If we’re going to confront radical Islam, we’re going to have to have Muslim and Arab partners.
This statement is absurd. The Apostle Paul most certainly demonizes Islam in 1 Corinthians 10:20 when he admonishes the Corinthians to flee from the practice of idolatry. He says
…I imply that what pagans sacrifice they offer to demons and not to God. I do not want you to be participants with demons.
So not only does Paul demonize Pagan religions like Islam, he also exhorts believers not to participate with them. Yet, Moore offers up “partnering with them” as the solution to confronting what he refers to as “radical Islam.”
Do our leaders that are pushing this agenda not get this biblical concept? Do they also not understand who these people are? If we open our borders to an unlimited influx of Muslims, you can start counting down the days to the end of our religious freedoms that we enjoy. That is common sense–something the highly educated, doctorate-flaunting Evangelical Intelligentsia seem to lack.
The religious liberty–even worldwide–that Moore and others appear to be so adamant about protecting would be totally lost if it weren’t for the security the United States offers to it’s citizens. God establishes civil governments for a reason, and when those governments fail to function as they are supposed to, with biblical principles, which include the enforcement of laws with consequences, the system breaks down. In other words, if the United States government fails to protect its citizens from Islam–which is as much if not more of a political system than a religion–then Islam will flourish, and our freedom to evangelize, both at home and abroad, will be gone.
Moreover, Russell Moore, one of the leaders of the George Soros-funded Evangelical Immigration Table, makes the absurd claim that restricting immigration would result in religious freedoms being stripped from us. He says,
The conversations we’ve been having over the last couple of days ought to make the hair on the back of the neck of every Christian in the U.S. stand up. It’s not only an assault on basic religious freedom, but we’ll see those same impulses turned against us in the fullness of time.
Last time I checked, foreigners weren’t protected by our constitutional freedoms. Do they not know this? But I would argue that they do. Russell Moore, a long-time amnesty supporter, has been pushing for open borders for a long time. In fact, he’s been singing the praises of pro-amnesty presidential candidate, and Roman Catholic, Marcio Rubio. Why? Would this open-border policy help the former employee of Democrat congressman, Gene Taylor, advance a social-justice platform to promote his other progressive orders of business, like racial reconciliation and animal rights?
Yet, there is a loud and boisterous following of people behind the ERLC and SBC leadership that continue to make these ridiculous claims. But the Bible says that these blind followers of their leaders are simple and imprudent (Proverbs 14:15). When you sort through all the “Amens brothers,” “well said,” “so thankful for your leadership,” “hoo-hah, yeah yeah,” etc. etc. etc., you would actually see that the majority of Southern Baptists that actually think through the essence of what is actually being said, they disagree. The polls show that Trump resonates with conservatives and Christians alike–and for good reason.
Let me be clear, I am not a supporter of Donald Trump. I believe Donald Trump would make a terrible president, and I disagree with him on a multitude of issues. However, his immigration stance is not one of them. But the fact that Trump is climbing in the polls after his immigration remarks is telling–people agree with him.
People don’t want to open our borders up to illegals or Islamic “refugees”–a significant many of whom would like to see us dead. A simple, commonsensical look at Europe would make it abundantly clear. And the fact is, we have no realistic way of vetting them. What makes anyone think that the Muslim religion in Europe is any different than the Muslim religion in the United States? The only difference is numbers, they don’t have the upper hand in America–yet.
Let’s not be stupid and give it to them.
[Contributed by Pulpit & Pen]
