Consider the remarkable case of four young Christians who earlier this year were dragged to jail for daring to share the Gospel with Muslims – in America! I kid you not. The police actually broke up their attempts to share Jesus at an Arab fair in Dearborn, Michigan.
Thee case has dragged on for some months now, but finally a bit of sanity has prevailed, and a court has just cleared them. But of course the case never should have arisen in the first place. If Christians cannot even talk about their faith in America, then we really have succumbed to dhimmitude.
Their arrest came back in June 18 of this year, and they have been battling the authorities about this ever since. And now that the courts have finally dismissed the case, the four are looking at other options, including possible legal action against the City of Dearborn.
This is how one news report covered the court ruling: "Jurors in Michigan have rejected, at least for now, the concept of a 'dhimmi' status for Christians, ruling that four evangelists who went to an Arab festival not just to be present but to 'change minds' did not commit a breach of peace as police had claimed.
"The word comes from the Thomas More Law Center, which defended the four Christians after they were charged for being at an Arab festival in Dearborn, Mich. Officials said the verdict came from a jury of six Dearborn residents late Friday, who concluded that Nabeel Qureshi, Paul Rezkalla, Negeen Mayel and David Wood were not guilty of breach of peace charges.
"The issue strikes directly at the heart of what many fear is developing across the nation: where Muslims are given a special treatment that subjects those of other faiths to second-class status. Robert Muise, a senior counsel for the Thomas More Law Center, told WND that's exactly the situation in this case, since other organizations with a Christian message whose representatives simply 'were there,' were not subjected to any charges by police.
"Those organizations, said Muise, already are complying with Islamic religious, or Shariah, law, by not presenting the Gospel message of the Bible to others. 'They were, "Let's just get along, just be present".' Muise told WND. 'They are being used. They are not a threat [to Islam]. They already are suppressed'."
In another news story we find this: "A jury on Friday acquitted four Christian missionaries accused of breaching the peace at the Dearborn International Arab Festival in June, but their attorney says the legal battle is far from over. Robert Muise of the Thomas More Law Center plans to file a civil lawsuit on their behalf against the City of Dearborn 'in short order,' he said this morning on WJR-AM 760.
"'They spent a night in jail for doing nothing but attending an Arab festival and daring to discuss their faith,' he told host Frank Beckmann. 'That can't happen in the United States.' Dearborn Police Chief Ron Haddad previously explained the evangelists 'caused a stir' at the festival, and a police report indicated one of the missionaries was 'screaming into the crowd' leading officers to arrest the group 'to gain control of the situation and avoid a possible riotous crowd.'
"But the missionaries – members of the Act 17 Apologetics group, which openly claims Islam is a false religion – video recorded their interactions at the festival, evidence Muise said convinced the jury they did nothing to provoke a confrontation." (The links below offer video clips of the actual evangelism which took place in June.)
At the heart the free and democratic West is the right to freedom of speech and freedom of religion. And at the heart of the Christian faith is the message of what Christ has done for us on the cross, and the urgency of getting that message out.
But it seems that more and more today both of these fundamental goods are being denied to Westerners – not in Islamic countries, but in the West. Freedoms which we sent our sons to die for overseas are now being whittled away in the name of tolerance and not offending anyone.
But free speech will always be offensive to those who want to deny others the right to speak, and the Christian Gospel will always be offensive to those who believe that only Islam is the truth and Judaism and Christianity have been corrupted.
While one must always seek to be discerning as to how best to share one's faith, and seek to not go out of one's way to deliberately be provocative or offensive, Jesus and the disciples warned us that simply proclaiming the biblical message will result in many taking offence and resisting what we have to say.
And that is to be expected, say, in a Muslim-majority nation. But when Christian evangelists fear that they will be arrested for preaching the Gospel in America, then dark days have indeed descended upon us. Fortunately this court saw the light, but sadly I suspect many more such cases will soon arise.
Resources:
http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=208929
http://www.mlive.com/news/detroit/index.ssf/2010/09/attorney_acquitted_christian_m.html
http://www.onenewsnow.com/Legal/Default.aspx?id=1083036
Adapted from Bill Muehlenberg's weblog at www.billmuehlenberg.com.
Bill Muehlenberg lectures in apologetics, ethics and theology at several Melbourne theological colleges. Bill used to work with the Australian Family Association, Focus on the Family, and other pro-family and pro-faith organisations.