Actor John Rhys-Davies’ comments about radical Islam and our political correctness (while being interviewed by Adam Carolla) were trending all over social media last week. Rhys-Davies is best known for playing Gimli in The Lord of the Rings series, as well as his role as Indiana Jones’ friend Sallah in the Indiana Jones movie series.
You can read the article about Rhys-Davies’ comments at HollywoodReporter.com and can listen to the full Adam Carolla interview here (comments made around 14 minute mark).
When comments like these go viral on social media, I think it’s helpful to pause and examine why.
First and foremost, it means that there is a huge segment of our population that agree with what Rhys-Davies is saying and by sharing the article containing his message, they are showing their social media networks and friends where they stand on said issue. We share articles like these to try to persuade our friends to our point of view; in some ways it’s our way of saying “The media can’t drown me out,” because we realize media isn’t about entertainment as much as it is brainwashing to this worldview or that. In this case, those sharing the article are agreeing with Rhys-Davies that 1. We need to stop acting like Islam is innocent and a “religion of peace” and thus completely ignoring how they are trying to cunningly and ruthlessly take over the world. (Gasp) And yes, I know there’s a difference between “moderate Muslims” and “radical Muslims,” something I blogged about at length a few months ago (You can read the entire 4 part series beginning here) and I intentionally just used the word “Islam.” Political correctors are quick to point out that “Moderate Islam is true Islam, not those radicals.” Oh really, and you know this how? The problem that hardly anyone is willing to talk about is that it’s the radical Muslims who are following the Qur’an, not the moderate ones (which they readily admit to), and the Qur’an isn’t going anywhere anytime soon, no matter what nice and peaceful moderate Muslims like Malala and others say about it. There will always be plenty of “radical” Muslims out there following what the Qur’an says, and our new “it’s hip to be pluralistic, politically correct, make no judgments, and allow for every single thing under the sun that any human being wants to do” mantra for all of life has created a pretty terrifying scenario when mingled the Qur’an’s commands. Commands a growing number are now acting on renewed zealous fervor, which is what Rhys-Davies (and Adam Carolla) was courageous and prophetic to point out.
People also share Rhys-Davies’ article because they agree that 2. It is absurd to believe that making no judgments is the utmost-in-progress way to live, and we are tired of being force fed this “You will not show any judgments, OR ELSE!” mantra. Imagine if we taught our children to live this way? I have a 3 year old and a 2 year old. Imagine if as a parent I told my kids, “Here’s the key to life kids: don’t make any judgments about anyone or anything…that creepy man who wants you to take candy from his van, don’t even question it. If he likes giving out candy, that’s great! If he likes molesting children, that’s great too! Different strokes for different folks you know, but don’t you dare judge him you judgmental monster!” (Also, yes I know my kids are 3 and 2 and not adults, this is an analogy…you and I are the 3 and 2 year old’s, those shoving the politically-correct movement on us are the parent.) This what we do in so many areas already:
- Abortion – It’s okay to kill babies, and don’t you dare judge anyone who does.
- Marriage – Marriage can be anything anyone wants it to be and don’t you dare judge anyone for what they feel like making it into. (It’s also okay to divorce for whatever reason you feel like, and don’t you dare judge anyone who does) And don’t tell me there are any societal repercussions to this, because there aren’t!
- Sex – It’s okay to have sex with whoever you feel like, and don’t you dare judge anyone who does. And don’t tell me there are any societal repercussions to this, because there aren’t!
- Gender Fluidity – The newest trend of political correctness hitting department stores, school curriculum, and government law. It’s offensive to say male and female are different so we’re going to make them all the same, and don’t you dare judge someone for this. And don’t tell me there are any societal repercussions to this, because there aren’t!
I bring these up to ask, what is next?
Certainly polygamy will be legal before we know it. Maybe children can be killed prior to their 1st birthday soon? Child molestation certainly will become legal, as will rape. How dare someone judge the people who need to do that? Hell, you know we should just get rid of all law altogether. What right does the government have to tell me what to do? In the right context, this statement makes for the the mantra of so many “causes,” typically shouted, in all CAPS, bolded, underlined, and on a poster at a protest outside of the Capital Building.
The irony is this, pretty much anyone can get anything to the Supreme Court nowadays, then we have 9 people who tell the rest of us what is right or wrong. This is what many hate about God and the Bible. So they trade in God and the Bible for 9 random people sitting in a room in Washington D.C. to be God instead.
At the end of the day, people just want to do whatever they want and don’t want God, the law, or anyone else to tell them otherwise. Which of course, is nothing new:
Judges 21:25 In those days there was no king in Israel: every man did that which was right in his own eyes.
Which is why Satan gets paid the big bucks. He’s so crafty, brainwashing us, getting us to rationalize any and all behavior under the sun, without us ever even knowing he’s there:
Genesis 3:1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”
This is really what Rhys-Davies’ comments about political correctness got me thinking about. Yes, you can make a case that a theocratic government like Islam will destroy a society, and that (a theocratic government) is not what I’m proposing. While a theocratic government is sort of like a crap-shoot–if you have a love-based theology like Jesus’ at the center, you’d have a great society, but if you get what we’re seeing with “radical” Islam, you’d have a disaster and would be facing the possible end of the “free world” as we know it. But the point that I, like Rhys-Davis, and the so many who shared his article recently are pointing out is that a pluralisticratic / politically-correcticratic government is guaranteed to end the free world, no crap-shoot involved.
I’ve never felt less free in our society than I do right now, and I think billions of us feel the same way. Never in our society have you had to walk on egg shells for fear of offending someone and being called a judgmental bigot for it than you do today.
To say that a religion that is lopping off heads because their holy book tells them to, and then being told you are judgmental if you simply point this out, or are told “their holy book doesn’t tell them this,” when in fact it does, which is easily shown and proven, is actually pretty absurd when it comes down to it.
What Rhys-Davies brings up is no easy riddle to solve, but it needs to be brought up. Is he proposing that the American and Welsh armies (Rhys-Davies is from Wales) come together against ISIS in a full-out war? Against all Muslim nations? Re-create the Crusades of centuries gone by? It’s not that solutions need to be had in order to have permission to bring up the problem, but it is important to show the complexity and difficulty of solutions. One solution I hope to see is that “moderate Muslims” would simply leave Islam altogether, realizing they already have more in common with Jesus than with the Muhammad of the Qur’an.
I’m not saying we are all going to agree or need to agree, in fact that’s the opposite of what I’m saying! I’m saying we need to be allowed to disagree. I don’t expect my readers to agree with the above 4 points I made; I even realize that I probably made some people pretty upset. The point I’m making is not necessarily about any of the individual points in and of themselves, but to show the trend that we are on, a trend that doesn’t look like it’s going to stop anytime soon. It’s a trend that feels like riding a roller coaster where screws keep loosening and flying out. The ride continues on, but the more screws that pop out, the more shaky the ride gets. At this point, the ride is getting pretty shaky and it’s time to say something about it before the inevitable happens. Our culture is rapidly spiraling out of control and we need to be aware of this.
We need to put our grown up pants on and be mature enough to be allowed to disagree. To have conversation.
To silence conversation and disagreement is to silence freedom. And to silence freedom will destroy us.
He is:
Author of Beyond the Battle: A man's guide to his identity in Christ in an oversexualized world
Host of the The Flip Side Podcast
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Hi Noah,
I think that this comment really applies to some of the earlier conversations that you’ve had about moderate Islam, but I think it still applies here. The truth is, you are a moderate Christian. You may not be as moderate as others–but there are many (at least some) Christians who would claim that your interpretations, particularly of the Old Testament, are liberal, less biblical, dismissive of biblical text–in other words, more moderate. A good example would be anyone part of Christian Reconstructionism. Or Bob Jones fundamentalists. They’re (in their view) the “true believers”, the ones who hold the most faithful and highest view of the Bible, the only ones who are brave enough to really do what the Bible commands. And most Christians (honest to goodness, really faithful, trying to follow the Bible ones) look at them and say “Jesus, what a bunch of crazies.” (And we should thank God, by the way, that they haven’t found their way to power in the US or anywhere.) That’s what the moderate Islamic leaders who wrote the “Open Letter to Al-Baghdadi” that you analyzed are trying to do. You can separate yourself from the Christian crazies by your hermeneutics. I think we should let moderate muslims (who again, might still be faithful, real, actual, trying to follow the Quran believers) do the same.
Peace,
Jeff
It may take the arrest and imprisonment of Christians who in peace testify to the truth of Jesus to make visible the lie that America is tolerant and unbiased.