She’s crossed the line of eternity:
That is why I no longer consider myself a Muslim apostate, but a lapsed atheist. Of course, I still have a great deal to learn about Christianity. I discover a little more at church each Sunday. But I have recognised, in my own long journey through a wilderness of fear and self-doubt, that there is a better way to manage the challenges of existence than either Islam or unbelief had to offer.
I’m seeing those on social media who don’t think this is a legitimate conversion. To that I have a couple of observations.
I’ve mentioned from time to time my Iranian friends who were baptised and became Christians. They point to people who didn’t seem to me to be overtly Christian and yet they influenced their decision which, as she points out, is major. But obviously a Muslim notices things about us that we don’t, which is why we should take care about the way we act. Christianity makes differences in a culture that even Christians don’t always see, especially in places like East Tennessee where its rootedness is still so obvious.
The second is that I’m sure there are those who have had doubts (my family certainly did, hoping the seriousness wasn’t true) about my own commitment to Christ. There were years when it wasn’t as obvious as it was later. In some ways that was a good thing: vicious South Florida had a way of singling people out. Our crossing from death to life is the beginning of a journey, one that doesn’t end until we stand before our Saviour.
There’s something else she said that I’d like to comment on:
But we can’t fight off these formidable forces unless we can answer the question: what is it that unites us? The response that “God is dead!” seems insufficient. So, too, does the attempt to find solace in “the rules-based liberal international order”. The only credible answer, I believe, lies in our desire to uphold the legacy of the Judeo-Christian tradition.
The one thing that kept me loyal to this country during the Cold War was the simple fact that they were atheists and we, for the most part, were not, or at least we didn’t have to be. (That distinction could get humorous, as it did here.) If that were not the case, I would have run off with a Symbionese Liberation Army or a Bader-Meinhof Gang. Belief in God does make a difference.
God bless her in her journey to a great eternity.
Positive Infinity 