Would There Be Enough Evidence?
Isn't it funny? We used to use that question as a way of challenging people to think about how they live and act as a Christian? You remember

If you were on trial for being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you?

Now it appears that such a question is the way the Afghan president will squeak out of a potential international crisis. Abdul Rahman has been the center of the storm since he was sentenced to die for converting to Christianity after police found a Bible on him. (Someone recognized how dangerous that book REALLY is!) In order to save his life people have used the insanity defense, Condoleeza Rice exerted pressure and lots of people prayed in churches.

It also appears that Mr. Rahman has said in an interview published in Italy that he doesn't want to go back into exile. His country hasn't changed, he said, so he is willing to give his life.

While the Afghan president may win points in the West, he may very well lose some in his own country and in the Arab world. To convert from Islam is to do more than turn away from God, it is, as they see it, a blatant insult to God that must be avenged by the death penalty.

What an incredible, incredible mess we humans make of all that has to do with God. No, the Muslim clerics of Afghanistan are not alone. Two words: Spanish Inquisition. There they didn't trust people who SAID they were Christians. What a sad lot we humans make when we think we have to defend God, who if God is the ALL powerful, probably does not need our defense.

But what it really is- and probably always has been- involves the threat to our own beliefs and our own certainties when someone who was once "one of us" becomes "one of them." What if the convert is right and we are wrong? It can't be that we're both right? Or what if the convert is just saying it to gain points and is really still one of "them?" That is a real threat to the "true" faith which of course is how WE understand TRUE.

A number of months ago I posted about how the cross tattoos I have will forever mark me as a follower of Jesus. I said then that, God forbid it would come to it, I would have a hard time turning away from Jesus to save my life. I am His. Bro. Rahman has made that same stand. For him it is not about international politics or whether the Afghan president can save face. It is about being a Christian.

May God continue to grant him power to witness in whatever way he feels called!!!