Context: Responding to Terror (Ep. 1519)
A Christian response to terrorism. Will it be fear or faith?
LORNA’S WRAP
Live in any large Canadian city and you are mindful of terrorism; Islamic jihadi inspired terrorism. It’s threat has deeply damaged the reputation of Islam. So on today’s program we asked, how should a Christian mind engage this fear of terrorism?
We heard two challenges:
1. Reach out to our Muslim neighbours and build friendships with them.
2. Provide support to missions working to serve war victims and building peace.
We also learned from Dr. Garrison that the Spirit of Jesus is actively at work in war zones and in Muslim communities. Dr Brian Stiller, our guest who travelled to the refugee aftermath writes, “when life was dangerous for the early church, the Spirit reached out to a Roman soldier, Cornelius.” Cornelius was the enemy!
Brian reminded us, “It was by Cornelius working with the disciple Peter that the Gospel was introduced to the gentile world. We can assume that the Spirit is at work in places and in ways known only to God. In time we will read or meet those for whom even amidst deadly persecution Jesus was there in the center, bringing life in the most surprising ways.”
Such hope cannot come soon enough as we move forward in the mandate to be peacemakers in a time of terror.
RESOURCES
Gravity: A Center for Contemplative Activism
Dispatches from the Global Village with Brian C. Stiller
The U.S. Circus of Religious Nationalism
GUESTS
Jonathan Merritt
Author & Columnist, The Atlantic Magazine
Chris Heuertz
Author and Activist
Brian Stiller
Global Ambassador, World Evangelical Alliance
David Garrison
Author, A Wind in the House of Islam