Several years ago I participated in a discussion with the major networks and movie studios regarding advocacy groups. We were the only registered Christian advocacy group, and there were other groups representing homosexuals, Jews, African-Americans, and Arab-Americans, as well as many other racial and religious affinity groups. The mass media of entertainment senior executives from Hollywood went out of their way to be tolerant, clearly scared that they would offend somebody.

It is understandable why the mass media places a premium on tolerance, given the increasingly diverse culture in which we live. Of course, some of this tolerance is aimed at diluting the influence of Christians in our culture, but most is born out of trying to reach the entire demographic range in the United States.

However, in stark contrast to the media’s obeisance to tolerance, several years before this UCLA-organized event, the late intellectual and humorist Steve Allen spoke on this important topic at the National Religious Broadcasters at my invitation. Steve tackled this very difficult topic even though his wife was a very committed Christian and even though he himself claimed to be an atheist although he also pointed out that he read the Bible every day.

Steve waxed eloquent on the subject of tolerance and explained why intolerance was sometimes the only option. He asked the audience, if you were a Jew and came upon a burning bush where it was clear that God Himself was speaking to you, and the event was so frightening that you fell on your face before Him, and God told you He is a jealous God who would have no other Gods before him and told you exactly what judgment you faced if you refused to obey him, What would you do? Steve concluded that you would obey the awesome Almighty, Creator God whom you just met in person, and you would forever after be intolerant of other gods. In other words, the divine distinctives of Judaism, as well as Christianity and Islam, often compel intolerance, if you believe that your faith comes directly from the Almighty.

It is in this regard that all the mumbling in the press about tolerance is wishful thinking. Islam has been on the march for centuries, believing rightly or wrongly that it is the Truth. Wishing otherwise will not make it so.

In the Ivy League, many years ago, classes on comparative religion used a text by Walter Kaufmann, RELIGIONS IN FOUR DIMENSIONS: EXISTENTIAL, AESTHETIC, HISTORICAL, COMPARATIVE (New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Company, 1976). On page 186, Mr. Kaufman notes:

In spite of claims that Islam is peaceful, the newspapers report almost every day that Islamic fundamentalists are killing Christians in Nigeria, Indonesia, Bosnia, the Philippines, Africa, etc. Why? Because they have a goal, and the goal is the whole world becoming Muslim.

Christians too have a goal, bringing the Good News of Jesus Christ, but those Christians who are wise realize that we are not fighting against men of "flesh and blood, but powers and principalities" and that the answer is evangelism, not conquest.

In spite of our tolerant revisionist history of recent years, most Americans supported the Gulf War as a liberation of occupied Kuwait from a conquering power, Iraq. Similarly, it should be noted, that when the Crusaders went to the Middle East in 1095, they thought they were liberating Christian lands from the conquering Turks, a nation of Muslims who came from Central Asia. These Middle Eastern and North African lands had been the birthplace of Christianity, and had been Christian for centuries, even producing Christianity’s best and brightest theologians. Many of the towns were still over 90 percent Christian when the Crusaders arrived. Thus, the Christians who had been conquered and oppressed by the Turks in these towns welcomed the liberating Christian Crusaders from Europe. Thus, from one point of view, the battle of the Christian Crusaders was actually very similar to the action to expel Iraq from Kuwait. The Crusaders were not trying to drive Islam out of its homeland. They were trying to protect and rescue Christian countries from invading Turks who had adopted Islamic beliefs. Historian Hilaire Belloc clearly documents these facts in his book, THE CRUSADES.

Even so, the Crusades were a tremendous mistake, mainly because they failed. They failed not only because the leaders could not work together, but also because the leaders did not rely on the power of God’s Grace. They would have been better off sending missionaries instead of soldiers.

So, there we have it in a nutshell. The media is trying to portray the current trouble with the Islamic terrorists as a fanatical few when in fact those who are attacking are participating in the long Muslim march through history. The media is trying to tell us that we’re all the same, when in fact the believers in each of the religions in question, especially the Muslims, understand that they possess a unique charge from their particular god. This issue will not disappear even if much of Christendom retreats.

As the Koran points out so clearly:

The answer is not to lay down our lives killing men, but to lay down our lives to proclaim the Good News, a Good News based on a personal encounter with the living God who so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that all may be forgiven and no man may perish.