Why religious folks get angry

"How sweet to hold a new-born baby
And feel the pride and joy he gives;
But greater still the calm assurance:
This child can face uncertain days because Christ lives."
Because He lives, Gloria and William J. Gaither

Things are getting global these days, as the Nordic countries have discovered. The Danish newspaper Jyllandsposten publishes some caricatures of the prophet Muhammed, and suddenly (well, four months later) the Nordic dairy company Arla Foods have to suspend their operations in the Middle East, Danes and Norwegians are warned against travelling in certain Muslim countries, threats of suicide bombings abound. It´s a bit like “The butterfly effect” in chaos theory, only not quite so charming and without the butterflies.

Of course Muslims have a right to boycott Danish products, even Nordic or indeed Western products as a whole. That´s exercising their consumer rights, to not buy. They don´t even need a reason to do so. And actually the publishing of the cartoons was provocation, i e it was an act of protest against the repercussions that the publishing would eventually cause, but was not prior to publishing. It´s circular logic and not a very nice thing to do to someone, for instance, it is forbidden conduct for the Swedish police.

All of this however pinpoints a major difference between Islam and Christendom, at least in ideality. Islam is at the root a Law religion, whereas Christianity is at the root the faith in Grace. Of course there are christians who believe more in law than grace, but that is the exception and an error on their part, as it was when the Church (sadly) held supremacy in medieval times. How does this express itself? Sharia (muslim law) will among fundamentalist muslims be seen as a global law (and thus it´s perfectly logical to blast Nordic people to smithereens for breaking it), or for the more moderate elements it´s a law restricted to muslim countries or even the individual believer. In all these cases there is still the assumption that god needs an earthly sword for his judgement. That is not a Christian thought, and anyone who think the Kingdom of God can be brought along with swords, bombs or law paragraphs are sadly mistaken.

For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways,
declares the LORD.
As the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.
Isaiah 55:8-9

The main reason people burn Danish flags, smash up embassies etcetera, is not really theology, it´s psychology. And psychology is common to all man; muslims, christians, yes, even atheists have to deal with the phenomenology of the soul. We need to be aware of those mechanisms and not confuse them with faith. When someone attacks religious beliefs, slanders the God we believe in, we get somewhat upset. Part may be a just concern that God is worthy of all praise and glory, like we would feel if someone calls our mother a whore. This is OK to feel faithwise, just as long as I don´t return the favour and try to conquer evil with evil. But another part of the emotion which we never really can escape is the feeling of our foundation being threatened, and us rushing out to defend it. We go crusading or fall into extremism when we see what we base our lives upon being put in question. In order to silence the very nasty and uncomfortable suspiscion that I´m living a lie. Paradoxically, fundamentalism is often due to lack of faith, not “calm assurance” in Christ. That animosity is an enemy of faith, not a friend.

Let´s not pray this happens, but if a christian finds herself the very last believer in the world, her city or church, she should in no way let that diminish her hope in God, who will not fail to deliver even one single soul of his flock. We can find such examples in the Bible, Lot in the doomed town of Sodom, and Moses when the Jews were doing their golden-calf-worshipping. Did they burn flags? Smash up things? Kill the infidels? No, they cried to God, “Please have mercy upon them, spare them, let your judgement be mild”. And God did listen, not as in obeying, but he did show restraint and mercy in his judgement.

As soon as they had brought them out, one of them said, "Flee for your lives! Don't look back, and don't stop anywhere in the plain! Flee to the mountains or you will be swept away!"
But Lot said to them, "No, my lords, please! Your servant has found favor in your eyes, and you have shown great kindness to me in sparing my life. But I can't flee to the mountains; this disaster will overtake me, and I'll die. Look, here is a town near enough to run to, and it is small. Let me flee to it—it is very small, isn't it? Then my life will be spared."
He said to him, "Very well, I will grant this request too; I will not overthrow the town you speak of.
Genesis 19:17-21