Author: Bruce

Book Review: Handbook on Friendship with Muslims

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Outreach Handbook
Outreach Handbook

Hummus, Haircuts, and Henna Parties: Creative Ways to Reach Out to Muslims. Available from Crescent Project at 1-800-446-5457, but not yet posted to their web site.

Section Titles:

  • Finding a Muslim Friend
  • Initiating a Relationship
  • Deepening Friendship
  • Meeting Felt Needs
  • Asking Good Questions
  • Sharing Your Faith

Too often Christians are hesitant to speak with Muslims, much less build relationships. This guide will help you to start friendships with Muslims, deepen them, and create opportunities to share the hope of Jesus Christ.

Ways to Befriend Muslims on Their Holidays

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Holidays offer great opportunities to start or strengthen relationships. The two holiest days in Islam are Eid ul-Adha and Eid ul-Fitr. Eid ul-Adha is the Feast of Sacrifice. It concludes the period set aside for the pilgrimage to Mecca called the Hajj, and it commemorates Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice his firstborn son. Eid ul-Fitr is the Feast of Breaking the Fast. It concludes the fasting month of Ramadan during which Muslims refrain from eating and drinking during daylight hours. Both of these times of feasting and celebration start at sunset and last for two or three days. Here are some ideas for leveraging this feast day in your relationships.

1. It is a time of giving sweets to each other and to children. Give your friend or neighbor a plate of candy, cake, or cookies to help them celebrate.

2. It is a time of giving small gifts to children. Give your friend or neighbor something simple for the children.

3. It is a time for holiday greeting card exchange. Give or mail your friend or neighbor an “Eid Mubarak” greeting card. You can make this yourself with images collected from the Internet or you can order one from a dealer on the Internet.

4. It is a time for sending text-message and e-mail holiday greetings. Send your friend or neighbor an “Eid Mubarak” or “Happy Feast Day” e-mail or text-message as they begin their celebrations.

5. It is a time when Muslims drop in on each other (often with house gifts). It’s a time when they expect and are prepared for visitors. These holidays are good times to visit your Muslim friend or neighbor to introduce yourself or build your relationship. You won’t necessarily need an appointment, but they may be out doing their own spontaneous visiting.

6. It is a time when Muslims ask for forgiveness from one another for any unspecified offenses that they may have committed against each other during the preceding year. Ask your Muslim friend or neighbor for general forgiveness on these days. Do not mention any specific offenses! Say something like, “If I’ve done anything to offend you in the time that we’ve known each other, will you please forgive me?”

7. It is a time of heightened religious awareness and instruction. It is a good time to ask questions about Islam and Muslim culture, especially about the holiday. However, do not criticize or try to speak knowledgeably about Muhammad or Islam. “Stay in your lane!” You may present yourself as the subject matter expert on Jesus, Christmas, and communion. Let them be the subject matter experts on all things Muslim.

Finally, in thoroughly unevangelized lands, some Muslims meet Jesus in visions and dreams (MoreThanDreams.org). Jesus-in-you, however, may be the only Jesus your Muslim friend or neighbor can be expected to ever meet. Jesus may want you to go out of your way so that he can meet some of your friends and neighbors who he would otherwise never get to know.

Fort Hood Shooter Elicits Enabling Responses

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Nidal Hasan’s killing spree at Ft. Hood along with most responses from secular and Muslim institutions underscore a thesis posted at http://www.atfp.org/articles/9 that violence done in the name of Islam is like alcoholism in a codependent dysfunctional family. Both systems feature excuses, denial, and enabling behaviors of people inside and outside of the systems.

Neither justice nor excuses for violence done in the name of Islam are deterring it. Underlying enabling systems and attitudes must be addressed and changed. If public opinion starts deriding this kind of violence done in the name of Islam as a disease like alcoholism, then Muslims themselves may work harder to address it than they are working to excuse it.

Nothing impacts alcoholics and their dysfunctional families like a reformed alcoholic, and nothing changes an alcoholic better than prayer. Similarly, no one can preach better against violence done in the name of Islam than a reformed terrorist, and nothing can change these deranged people better than prayer. Pray for the miracle of seemingly impossible changes in these desperate lives and their dysfunctional system.

Resource: Kurdish New Testament On Line

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NT-KThe New Testament in all three Kurdish dialects is on line at kitebipiroz.com.

The direct link to the Behdini version is kitebipiroz.com/behdini/bible.
The direct link to the Kurmanji version is kitebipiroz.com/kurmanji/bible.
The direct link to the whole Sorani Bible is kitebipiroz.com/bible.

For any Kurds who struggle with Arabic script, the Kurmanji version uses Latin characters.
From this site you can print out a chapter at a time in any of the three dialects.

The site developers are also adding Kurdish language audio recordings on the site. Sorani mp3 recordings of the Psalms are at kitebipiroz.com/en/downloads.

Book Review: Through Mid-East Eyes – Illuminating Mid-East Service and Bible

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bailey_coverJesus lived and taught where most military men and women are serving. Kenneth Bailey’s book, Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes: Cultural Studies in the Gospels, reveals what Jesus’ life and teaching meant to his Middle Eastern audience. His impact on them was often quite different than his impact on Europeans and Americans today.

For example, according to Rolland Muller in his book The Messenger, The Message, and The Community (p. 237), parents in the Middle East today still indoctrinate their children using a story with a moral about how it is more honorable to say “yes” to your father in public even if you plan not to do what he says, than to say “no” in public and obey him later. Compare this to the parable Jesus tells that is recorded in Matthew 21:28-32. In that story, one son tells his father he will work in the vineyard but does not, and the other son tells his father he won’t work in the vineyard but does. By commending the son who publicly humiliated his father but privately obeyed him, Jesus shocks his audience in ways that we cannot comprehend.

Jesus taught in Aramaic, not Greek. Yet the original New Testament is Greek. Kenneth Bailey has spent 40 years living, studying, and teaching in Egypt, Lebanon, Jerusalem, and Cyprus. He reads ancient New Testament translations and commentaries in Aramaic. From the Greek he can reconstruct the probable words that Jesus actually spoke and estimate the understanding his audience most likely had. His insight into the teaching, context, and drama of Jesus outstrips that of the finest Bible scholars who study texts and traditions in mainly Hebrew, Greek, and Latin.

Service in the Middle East brings sparkle to the Bible through reading this book, and reading this book adds freshness to serving in the Middle East.

Ending Terrorism is Like Healing Alcoholism

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molotov_throwerBrother Thomas, who founded Adopt a Terrorist For Prayer, thinks that the sociology of violence in the name of Islam is a lot like alcohol addiction in a dysfunctional codependent family. He says the symptoms are all in nearly perfect one-to-one correspondence. As a result, he says that ending terrorism as a viable option to many for “defending Islam” is a lot like curing alcoholism. You may read the full article HERE.

Can I Give a Bible When Asked?

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In my Do’s and Don’ts for Deployment handout, I advise service personnel operating in majority Muslim areas to, “Avoid giving Bibles to people who ask you for one.” Several friends have questioned my advice.

Giving someone a Bible when they request one is not proselytizing, but the issue is not just proselytism but also the appearance of proselytizing. Print, audio, and video materials can become “evidence” to substantiate slander. Whether or not the material was solicited becomes a matter of one person’s word against another’s. An unfriendly public will choose sides based on stereotypes and prejudices. Under community pressure, people to whom the material was given may feel too insecure to admit that they requested the material.

Although it’s inadvisable in many situations to give out religious materials even when they are solicited, it may be possible to help seekers obtain materials themselves. They may find materials on a public bookshelf, at the gym, or abandoned. It may be possible to direct seekers to a store or web site where they can purchase materials on their own.

Legally service personnel may be “innocent as a doves” when giving religious materials to people who spontaneously ask for them. Being “wise as a serpents” requires attending to those requests in ways that avoid risky appearances.

Can I Tell Local Nationals about Jesus?

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Recently a soldier asked me, “What are the regulations for sharing the gospel with Iraqi interpreters and counterparts in the Iraqi security forces?” He wanted to be able to answer questions about Jesus, but he also didn’t want to break any regulations or cause any problems for his small team of advisors.

Here is my response.

General Order #1 says not to proselytize. It means service personnel cannot offer inducements or enticements, and cannot use positions or authority to propagate their personal faith.

Webster’ definition of proselytize is:
1. : to induce someone to convert to one’s faith
2. : to recruit someone to join one’s party, institution, or cause
3. : to recruit or convert, especially to a new faith, institution, or cause

Wikipedia says, “Proselytizing is the act of attempting to convert people to another opinion and, particularly, another religion.”

Proselytize is grammatically transitive. It has an object or an implied object. The object is the target that the subject wants to change, and the subject is the person, who is trying to make a convert.

Military legal counsel has concluded that proselytizing is not constitutionally protected as a first amendment right to free exercise of religion. Proselytizing in Afghanistan and Iraq would damage national interests and endanger many lives.

However, religious speech is constitutionally protected speech! Courts consistently rule that service personnel may talk about religion when the audience wants to hear it. Talking informatively about personal faith can be different than trying to make converts. Religious speech breaks regulations when the audience does not want to hear it, or when the speaker does not know whether the audience wants to hear it or not.

Giving someone unsolicited religious material can also be proselytism. In nearly all cultures it’s bad form to refuse gifts. Giving religious material, or even asking people if they want to receive it, can appear to be pressuring and can be called proselytizing.

However, when the listener requests the religious speech, it is not proselytism. Under such conditions, the speaker is the passive responder to the listener, who has actively solicited the testimony or the religious materials.

So the short answer to the question is, “Yes, service men and women can talk freely about their faith with interpreters and counterparts as long as they offer solicited information, and as long as they do not pressure or induce others to solicit it.”

Adopt A Terrorist For Prayer Upgrades

Bruce 1 Comment

Terrorists want to attack America, and Brother Thomas Bruce wants you to pray for them. His web site is ATFP.org. A-T-F-P stands for “Adopt a Terrorist For Prayer.” Those letters stand for “Anti-Terrorism Force Protection” in Defense Department terminology and on the equivalent .net and .com web sites.

Brother Thomas believes the best defense is a good offense. He asserts that the best way to overcome terrorists is to pray for them and their sponsors.

For the past year, ATFP’s web site has featured a gallery with brief biographies of the FBI’s most wanted terrorists and the State Department’s identified terrorism sponsors. It has also featured space for visitors to post prayers for those people.

Brother Thomas recently returned from a year of duty with the Army Reserves in Iraq, and he has updated the web site. Now visitors can register and create a profile so that the number of people committed to praying for each featured terrorist or terrorism sponsor can be counted and posted.

For the past year, Brother Thomas has been in harm’s way at the front line of America’s national response to terrorism. He believes that through this web site everyone can get on the front line of a Christian response.

He believes that the struggle against violence done in the name of Islam is primarily spiritual. Therefore, he believes that defeating such religiously inspired violence requires spiritual engagement. He says, “The intent of terrorists is to inspire terror.” And he says, “According to Jesus, the antidote to fear is love.”

On the home page Brother Thomas writes, “When we hate, we are reactive victims. When we love we seize the initiative. Love for country helps soldiers to risk their lives. Love for children enables parents to discipline them without being intimidated. Love for us took Jesus to the cross. Love for enemies will give courage to face, overcome, and transform them and the environment that breeds them.”

Brother Thomas asserts that the Apostle Paul was once a religiously inspired terrorist. He notes that Stephen was one of his first victims. According to the Bible, as he was dying from Paul’s orchestrated stoning, Stephen prayed, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” Later, Paul met Jesus in a vision and repented. He became as zealous for the gospel of salvation in Jesus Christ as he had been against it.

Brother Thomas asks, “Can we pray today like Stephen prayed then?” And he wonders, “Would Paul have seen Jesus if Stephen hadn’t prayed?”

So why the alias “Thomas Bruce?” Brother Thomas identifies with the Apostle Thomas who gets slandered for his skepticism about Jesus’ resurrection. He also notes that of all of Jesus’ closest followers, only Thomas and the women were brave enough to be out on the streets of Jerusalem when afraid for their lives following Jesus’ crucifixion. And what about the pseudo-surname Bruce? Brother Thomas says, “Lots of courageous famous characters have the name Bruce. Heck, Chuck Norris himself probably wishes it’d been his.”

Theology of Calamity

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One of the projects I’m working on is developing a “theology of catastrophe” and guidelines for ministry in those conditions.

> My research tells me that it’s not a question of if a WMD will hit US soil but when.
> My intuition tells me it will be a natural consequence — not a judgment, and that it will be an opportunity for the church.
> My heart tells me that leaders in the church could be doing a better job of preparing the church-at-large for ministry under conditions like what Jeremiah faced.
> My mind’s eye sees a picture of Satan at God’s throne accusing American Christians like the way that Satan accused Job. “They worship you because they have it so easy!” Satan accuses.

In that mind’s-eye image the book of Job is a prophetic parable for the American church.

I also think American church leaders need to be careful not to be accusatory like Job’s friends. By faith and in Christ, the church is righteous before God no matter how things may look through the eyes of observers (like Job’s friends) at ground level.

Of course, like with Job (and also with Jesus), righteousness draws rather than prevents tribulation. Jesus said about the approaching crucifixion, “Now is the Son of Man glorified and God is glorified in him” (John 13:31). Jesus’ brother told his scattered audience to face tribulation with joy (James 1:2).

The world and Satan hate us, not only because they hated Jesus (John 15:18) but also because of the grace that we have received. That is a lesson from the older brother in the parable of the prodigal son. He became bitter over the grace his father showed to his younger brother.

Our righteousness in Christ could be a lightning rod for coming affliction. Can we face it with hope and expectation?

A Theology of Calamity Link to Video