I love Canada. I love our unique and diverse communities that welcome people from around the world. They represent different countries, different cultures and different religions, but they are all welcome here. That is, until something happens and people start, lumping everyone of a particular group together and placing blame on them for something a few disturbed individuals have done.
Last week tragedy struck our national capital and we all had gut wrenching reactions. The loss of any life at all is tragic, but a soldier standing guard at a memorial for the Unknown Soldier was just particularly disturbing. It seemed no sense could be made of it. The week before, someone ran over and deliberately killed a soldier - why? The tragic loss of a life lived well in service to others, those loved ones left behind grieving and the shock of a nation, all show us how much our country, our world is changing.
However, what are even more disturbing are the completely idiotic knee jerk reactions of people online blaring across social media, blaming all Muslims and calling Islam a violent religion. One only has to listen to celebrities like Bill Maher, whose Islamaphobia is becoming well known. He says it’s Islam itself that is responsible for the terrorism and violent actions taking place around the world. You might say we all know that Bill Maher believes all religions are crazy anyway, so why bother listening to him. However, when the inflammatory and ignorant postings coming across social media are from people, who call themselves Christians, something is terribly wrong. The Jesus I follow would likely be inviting his Muslim neighbours out for dinner and a drink. Not blaming them for the world’s problems with violence.
The bright light during this time is my 16-year-old son. He’s in a new school and has made friends with a couple of boys, one a Muslim. He read some extreme inflammatory comments on Facebook from people who call themselves Christians. Well, he got his back up and did his research and challenged them with the truth, quoting the Quran and citing historical evidence. Of course, they shouted him down citing his youth and lack of worldly experience and knowledge. He took that and quoted the apostle Paul from 1 Timothy 4:12: “Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith and in purity.” I am so proud of him.
Our Christian faith teaches us to live in peace, love God and be humble before Him, to love mercy and justice and above all, to love our neighbours as ourselves. Let’s all try to live this, not just in person in our communities, but on social media as well.
Major Kathy Chiui s a writer, preacher and Salvation Army Officer. Passionate about God's Word, family, and of course knitting. She is pastor at Richmond Community Church in BC.
You can read more articles from our interfaith blog, Spiritually Speaking HERE
* This article was published in the print edition of the Times Colonist on Saturday, Nov 8 2014
