President Bush went on TV yesterday looking dire, saying that every day the economic bailout is delayed poses increased risks and costs to our nation's and the world's economy. Yikes. How would you like to be a congressman with that kind of pressure to pass legislation? This is the kind of decision that will have a profound impact in many areas, and every detail is important. I would not want to rush into it, but rather make sure everything is done right. Again, it's a good day to pray for our lawmakers and the future of our country.
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Our church is celebrating "Missions Week" when missionaries from around the globe come and talk about their experiences. My family hosted a dinner for a dozen people last night with a local missionary who works at a Christian radio station. The station plays Christian rock and rap, geared for teens and young audiences.
This is such an important ministry because teens today are bombarded with negative images in the media, MTV, advertisements, commercials, adn the Net. They definitely need something uplifting. The Christian rock station offers kids positive and wholesome songs, recorded with high-quality studio production in a wide variety of styles.
Christian music has come a long way in the last 20 years and provides a worthwhile and quality alternative to young listeners.
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Today is Eid ul-Fitr, or "Feast of Fast Breaking," when Muslims celebrate the end of Ramadan. I'm heading out to one of the local mosques to write about the Islamic holiday.
Yesterday, I finally had the chance to watch "Obsession," the controversial DVD about radical Muslims.
While there are truths to the documentary (there have to be, otherwise the documentary would not merit any concern at all) it also distorted many things and made some dangerous and hateful correlations.
Linking Islamic extremists to Nazi Germany, for example, is a totally unfair assertion that seeks to incite hatred and fear. Those are totally different scenarios and the comparison is invalid.
To its credit, the documentary does state clearly in the introduction that the majority of Muslims are peaceful, law-abiding citizens. It's only a very small percentage who are out to destroy America and the West, who denounce us, burn U.S. flags, and call us "the Great Satan."
But that small percentage of radicals are the ones who attacked America on 9/11, blew up the London subway and the Madrid trains, killed more than 200 Marines in Lebanon, killed hundreds at a Bali nightclub, etc. It is a very small faction, but one that is too dangerous to be ignored.
It's a tragedy for the 99-plus percent of good Muslims whose lives and reputations have suffered because of the deeds and threats of a few maniacal extremists. The vast majority of good Muslims have suffered the most. They have, as I've been told many times, had their religion hijacked by radicals.
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Sylvania, Ohio
Oct. 1, 2008