Dear fellow Christian,
Thank you for your feedback regarding my support for Halal certification in Australia, for calling for unity in the wake of the Martin Place tragedy and for my public stand of solidarity with my Muslim friends when they are vilified and abused.
I don’t think Jesus wants you to “come past my church and pull my tongue from my throat.” I could be wrong about this, but it seems that between “love one another”, “love your neighbour as yourself” and “love your enemy” there isn’t much space for that kind of behaviour.
Have you heard those ‘Halal food funds terrorism’ stories? Yes? Read this.
It’s been good for me, though, to discover what it’s like to be on the receiving end of some of that old-time Christian love. The kind that’s expressed in phrases like, “I love everyone, but do I have to like them?” and “I love everyone – and that’s why I have to tell them how despised / damned / depraved / demonic they are.”
And my favourite – “I love everyone, but I need to tell the truth about them too,” – meaning the “truth” about Muslims / gay people / Aboriginal people we read online or heard a preacher say.
The Apostle John once wrote to us, “This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us.”
Pastor Brad Chilcott
It’s up to us, then, to measure love by only one gauge: Jesus Christ. We know what love looks like because we know the way he loves people: he gave up his life for them.
Yet, if I had a Bible for every time I’ve heard a Christian use “love” as an excuse to be bigoted, insular, selfish, fear-mongering and self-interested I’d be the library at the Vatican.
I’m pretty sure there isn’t a special, secret, form of love that looks and feels a lot more like hate but on a higher spiritual plane still qualifies as love.
If it sounds like hate, feels like hate and has all the same outcomes as hate… then it isn’t love.
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If it looks like prejudice, feels like prejudice and excludes people like prejudice, then it’s prejudice.
I’m suspicious of any claim to “love” that allows us to act hideously towards others, to safely stay in our insular faith communities, to judge people from an impersonal distance and to protect ourselves from diversity of ideas, culture and practice.
Dear Australian Muslims: We will ride with you.
There’s a reason that doesn’t sound a lot like love.
Because it isn’t. It’s prejudice wrapped up in faith.
It’s ignorance veiled in religion.
It’s bigotry masquerading as Christianity.
It’s selfishness appropriating the name of the Selfless One to excuse greed and insularity.
It’s not love, it’s blasphemy.
I support Halal certification for one simple reason – my Muslim friends would like to know what they’re able to buy and eat and I think that’s fair enough. Because they’re people like me and I think that’s what love would do.
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I visit mosques and encourage others to do the same because love grows with understanding and mutual respect. You can’t love someone from a safe distance.
Jesus taught us that, too. We call it the Incarnation.
I expect that my Christian friend was planning on removing my tongue “in love” – or at least “in truth” – because that’s how we Christians tend to give all our violent, discriminatory or offensive actions a sense of religious legitimacy.
And so I write, dear Christian, to remind us all of the only measure of love we know, and to seek to engage with the world and all its people accordingly.
This is how we know what love is: Christ laid down his life for us.
Pastor Brad Chilcott
Top Comments
It would be good if peple stopped looking for the racist
bigot angle of this debate and focused on the real pressure being applied to
Australian business. The fact is there are a multitude of businesses paying for
certification with the belief that it's in their best interests to do so, that
new markets will emerge if they do and that it's good for Australia. The
reality is halal certification in the vast majority of cases is simply not
necessary. Many companies have naturally Halal products and with minor checks
can quite actively promote their products as Halal suitable. Now if you ask any
company providing certification they'll tell you that this is not good enough,
however when you ask most muslim consumers, they'll tell you that it really is
good enough. They do trust that if a company has checked that it's product
complies with the same requirements as that of any certification, that it is
good enough.
Recently Cerebos, the company that produces gravox wrote
this;
"Cerebos (Australia) Limited is not Halal certified. A Halal suitable food means that the food does not contain pork products or alcohol, which are not permitted in a Halal diet. The food and it's process of manufacture have not however been certified by a third party Halal certifier. In our experience, Muslim consumers will accept products
that are Halal suitable, but not Halal certified."
Yes there are some companies that will need certification,
mostly because countries such as Indonesia force it on any business wanting to
export goods there, however most countries do not require halal certification. In the majority of cases Australian business, or ultimately the consumer, is simply paying for something which as the humble little jar of gravy proves, is just not necessary.
A Muslim Journalist recently wrote " The motives in raising the issue of what is allowed and what is not are therefore based on vested interests, ignorance and religious prejudices!
To put Halal labels on water bottles, cereal packets vegetable oil, sugar, flour,
tooth paste etc. and for a person or church to dare certify them and declare
oneself as God’s agent, is at least ‘playing minor God’.
This action produces confusion, disharmony and division in the community of Muslims.
Any action that causes difficulties and strife in the community is akin to
shirk, (30-31,32)—sinful!
Who then has nominated them as the certifying authority? Certainly not the
Quran!"
http://www.newageislam.com/...
Hi Brad, I agree with you that we should love our neighbours and enemies as Jesus did. However Jesus had some very direct and confronting things to say to the religious leaders. Did He not love them? He loved them enough to tell them the truth, but without malice. Is it loving to not tell the truth in order to avoid conflict? For example, I am always amazed how our leaders are always telling us that Islamic terrorists are not Islamic. I understand why they say this - to try to avoid people wanting to take revenge and so increase the conflict. However, would it not be more inspiring and honest to face the truth that the Islamists are following the book that all Muslims claim to follow, but encouraging people to not respond in the same violent, vitriolic way but rather to speak truth with love as Jesus did. Maybe they would crucify us as they did Him, but at least we would be following in his footsteps and making an indelible mark on our world that could not be achieved by compromising for peace. It's great what you do for migrants and I applaud the love you have for them but check out Matthew 23.13-37, and John 12.24-26 if we want to use Jesus as our example.