Don’t Jump to Conclusions and Skip the Truth

by Chris Eller | July 3, 2010 | Commentary

A couple of weeks ago I had several come up to me following a Wednesday evening class and report on the arrest of four Christians handing out gospel tracts at a recent Arab International Festival in Dearborn, MI.

My first reaction was, “Wow, we’ve crossed a Rubicon here.”

Muslims historically have won their battles through fear and intimidation of their opponents, and the incident in Dearborn seemed like a perfect illustration of how radical Islam is affecting America.

Christian news agencies were quick to jump on the story as revealed here, here, and here. (A Google News search show 86 articles on the topic.)

In the days that followed, Christians were quick to begin calling the event an outrage and a clear violation of the constitutional rights of the Christians involved. The blogosphere lit up with articles describing “creeping Sharia law,” and “Dearbornistan.”

Even Michael Youssef, a man I greatly respect, jumped into the debate:

Every freedom-loving person should be extremely alarmed at the dreadful trend of silencing Christians from the streets of London to the streets of Dearborn, Michigan. In both places, Christians were arrested and imprisoned for preaching the Gospel on public streets...in what Muslims considered to be Islamic territories.

When four young Christian men were recently arrested and imprisoned in Dearborn, Michigan for witnessing to their faith at an Islamic festival, it was hailed as a victory in some Islamic circles-Sharia law has come to America.

Never mind the first amendment...this is the beginning of its demise by overwhelming Islamic ideology that is @#!*% bent on silencing Christians and Jews from speaking of their faith. [1]

Don’t Jump to Conclusions

In a July 2, 2010 article on Baptist Press, Kelly Boggs provides some interesting background on the event:

While the arrest of the four men is troublesome, I have received ample information that makes it clear the Gospel is not being muzzled by anyone in the city of Dearborn. In fact, quite the opposite seems to be true.

For instance, at this year's Arab International Festival several Christian ministries had booth space in an area designated for literature distribution. Among those with a presence at the festival was well-known Christian author and apologist Josh McDowell and the Baptist State Convention of Michigan.
McDowell gave away copies of several of his books including "More Than A Carpenter" and "The Witness," an Arabic murder mystery novel. His ministry distributed thousands of books and McDowell interacted with festival goers while autographing books.

The Baptist State Convention of Michigan also distributed materials during the festival. "Our teams had a strong presence and had no issues at all," wrote Carlos Liese, language ministry leader with the Michigan convention, in an e-mail. "Our volunteers had many conversations about Christ with participants, passed out 2000 'Jesus Film' DVDs and 500 copies of the Gospel of John and Romans in Arabic."[2]

The Verdict

Where does this leave us? It is indeed troubling that four Christians were arrested for distributing literature at an Arab cultural festival. It is equally troubling that the First Amendment appears to be so anemic in contemporary America.

Still, Christians must be careful that we do not herald every incident that appears to be a violation of rights to be clear “signs of the end times.” Christians lose credibility in the eyes of the public when they follow the voices of extreme right over the cliff.

Lesson: Stop, investigate, then decided. Do your research. The Internet is full of half-baked stories predicting the apocalypse. Don’t fall prey to these cooked-up schemes and charges. Do your homework.

Notes

[1] Youssef. M. (June 28, 2010).  “A Wake Up Call”  Retrieved from http://www.christianpost.com/blogs/christianity/2010/06/a-wake-up-call-28/ on July 3, 2010.

[2] Boggs, K. (July 2, 2010). “First-Person: Finding the truth about the Arab festival.” Retrieved from http://www.bpnews.net/BPFirstPerson.asp?ID=33285 on July 3, 2010.