Frustrated after discovering one of my library books was three weeks overdue, I tried to distract myself by getting lost in one of those Internet-wide search-engine sweeps. Jumping from link to link, I somehow ended up reading a rash of poorly written online disputes between Websites trying to debunk Islam and Websites trying to debunk the Christians trying to debunk Islam.
It led me to conclude the attempt to debunk Islam to a Muslim is pretty much doomed from the start.
Nobody wants to be told their faith is a lie, and any attempt to undermine another religion with logic is fraught with peril...since that same logic can often find seeming absurdities in one's own faith.
Just try to find a "logical" way of proving the Real Presence. It's a lot easier to "debunk" such a belief than it is to prove. All a "debunker" has to do is run a quick chemical test on it to "prove" it's bread. I'm afraid I'm becoming one of those people who always uses provocative quote marks, but hopefully you see my point. (Obviously, I don't believe it's really bread, but I know of no incontrovertible way to prove this to someone who believes otherwise...if I did, I don't think I'd spending my time writing this blog entry.)
Anyways, all these debunkers seem to really achieve is expressing their own frustration with the other side. They aren't really building bridges or making their faith seem more attractive.
And that's the key here. If Christianity is going to prove its worth, we need to show our non-Christian brothers and sisters what we are capable of achieving...not through signs and wonders, and not through intellectual bullying...but through lives that are holy because they freely choose what is good, and through lives that show mercy is stronger than punishment or retaliation.
The whole Middle East crisis is like a drawn out version of the scene at the end of most action movies...the one where two opposing characters are hanging off of a cliff and in danger of falling into a bottomless pit. They could help pull each other out, but one of them will probably try to kill the other, and end up falling headlong into the pit in the process. We want to make sure that we play the role of the protagonist who offers to help save his opposition despite their differences...and hopefully the other guy will break character this time.
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