{"id":2729,"date":"2007-06-14T10:42:00","date_gmt":"2007-06-14T10:42:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/reformedchicksblabbing\/2007\/06\/christian-extremists.html"},"modified":"2007-06-14T10:42:00","modified_gmt":"2007-06-14T10:42:00","slug":"christian-extremists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/reformedchicksblabbing\/2007\/06\/christian-extremists.html","title":{"rendered":"Christian Extremists?"},"content":{"rendered":"

I will say it again<\/a>, there is no such thing as a Christian extremist it goes against everything we believe. There’s nothing Christian about abortion clinic bombers or white supremacist groups, they are not interested in advancing the kingdom of Christ. They have their own agenda that has nothing to do with Christianity. Comparing these groups to radical Islamists<\/a> is not a helpful:<\/p>\n

Violent Muslim, Christian and Jewish extremists invoke the same rhetoric of “good” and “evil” and the best way to fight them is to tackle the problems that drive people to extremism, according to a report obtained by Reuters.
\nIt said extremists from each of the three faiths often have tangible grievances — social, economic or political — but they invoke religion to recruit followers and to justify breaking the law, including killing civilians and members of their own faith.
\n[…]
\nThe authors compared ideologies, recruitment tactics and responses to violent religious extremists in three places — Muslims in Britain, Jews in
\nIsrael and Christians in the United States.
\n“What is striking … is the similarity of the worldview and the rationale for violence,” the report said.
\n[…]
\nThis worldview was common to ultranationalist Jews, like Yigal Amir, who killed Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in 1995, to U.S. groups like Christian Identity, which is linked to white supremacist groups, and to other Christian groups that attacked abortion providers, it said.
\n“Extremists should never be dismissed simply as evil,” said the report. “Trying to engage in a competition with religious extremists over who can offer a simpler answer to complex problems will be a losing proposition every time.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

(via<\/a>)
\nSo, this<\/a> and this<\/a> and this<\/a> and this<\/a> and this<\/a> can be compared to actions of Christians in this country? Clearly, we are like them, right? (If we can’t call these atrocities evil, what is considered evil?).
\nAnd then there’s this:<\/p>\n

Stern said to compare violent extremists from the three faiths was not to suggest that the threat was the same.
\n“These are not equivalent,” she said. “The problems arising from Christian or Jewish extremism are not threatening to the world in the same way as Muslim extremism is.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It’s not equivalent? Then why not focus on the one religion that is a world wide problem? Why even try to muddy the waters with this moral equivalence?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I will say it again, there is no such thing as a Christian extremist it goes against everything we believe. There’s nothing Christian about abortion clinic bombers or white supremacist groups, they are not interested in advancing the kingdom of Christ. They have their own agenda that has nothing to do with Christianity. Comparing these…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":307,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[419,11,63],"class_list":["post-2729","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-life-under-the-sun","tag-christianity","tag-religion","tag-war"],"yoast_head":"\nChristian Extremists? - Reformed Chicks Blabbing<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/reformedchicksblabbing\/2007\/06\/christian-extremists.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Christian Extremists? - Reformed Chicks Blabbing\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I will say it again, there is no such thing as a Christian extremist it goes against everything we believe. 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