Author Archives: shanedar

With the carnival of carnage continuing unabated in the Middle East, so much is unknown. What is pretty certain is this: More refugees. When homes, hospitals, groceries and gas stations are reduced to rubble, Gazans will be looking for new places to live. 

Maybe you side with presidential hopeful Ron DeSantis who says they should be taken in by Middle Eastern countries, not the U.S. Maybe you think we should throw open the doors as we did recently for Ukrainians. 

Either way, I’m wondering how you feel about the idea of sanctuary. Not what you call the room where you hold worship services, but allowing migrants to stay in your church building even though they lack legal right to remain in the U.S.

If someone was being deported and you understood their life was legitimately in danger in their homeland, would you try to help them by letting them stay in your church? Whether “yes” or “no,” I’m curious how you come to the decision. 

If you think, “I’m not sure a church building is really much protection,” you’re right. While no law prevents ICE from serving warrants at churches, some reports indicate they’re reluctant to. If you think, “My church is tiny. No one wants to stay there,” you might be right. Although my guess is that the tiniest of churches beats the specter of torture and death back home. 

Maybe your mind goes quickly to Paul’s admonition in Romans 13.1, to “be subject to the governing authorities.” But we’ve always realized there’re moral limits to that verse, haven’t we?

I admire churches in the U.S. who are taking risks to care for migrants this way, but I realize it’s easy to be for something that’s likely not going to happen where I live, to “pre-decide” a decision I likely won’t be called upon to make. That admitted, the world does seem to be on a Tilt-a-Whirl right now. Who knows what decisions we might actually face? 

How are you processing what’s going down in Israel and Gaza? I’m gutted. This morning I made the mistake of reading past the headlines a bit so I could write a couple coherent words about it. Bad idea. Now I’m hoping to finish this email and get it out before I’m totally depressed.

And you know what? I can hear the voice in my head saying how ridiculous I am for sharing my pain when pain beyond my comprehension multiplies by the hour nine hours east of me. 

If I didn’t think you might let your kids read this, I’d probably swear. 

How do people like us, presumably Jesus-first people, oddballs who advocate for loving Muslims and telling them good news, people who aren’t totally stupid, think about and deal with a situation like this?

1. We keep our mouths shut. We don’t engage in fruitless fights. We don’t share spurious or incendiary information online. 
2. We speak up. With love and humility, in our circles we don’t let all Palestinians be painted as “human animals.” With wisdom and balance, we speak of hope for Christ’s kingdom. With humility, we consider the possible complicity of our country. 
3. We talk to God. We pray for the families of Israelis who lost their lives, for those held hostage, for those injured or now paralyzed by fear. Believing our theology, we pray for members of Hamas, though their deeds are evil and reprehensible. We pray for the 2.1 million people of Gaza who are rapidly running out of water and food, electricity and fuel. 

I’d love to hear how you’re praying and what you’re thinking today. You may enjoy praying along with this video prayer for Gaza and the West Bank by an Arab brother and our friends at PrayerCast.

Gratitude is good for the soul! If your soul could use a little goodness today, here’s something to be thankful for: The U.S. is moving in the right direction regarding refugees. 

Although there’s a laundry list of things wrong with our country and the favorite topic of conversation at church might be recounting those wrongs, we are doing something right. Or at least righter than in recent years. 

Following the one-two punch of Covid and a refugee-adverse oval office combining to drop refugee admittance to its lowest levels in the history of the program, the numbers are now moving up. 

This means a widow and her two kids, displaced from their country, having weathered an intense investigation by international experts and found to have legitimate cause to fear for their lives, now has a better chance at finding new life in America. 

The current upper limit for acceptance has been set by the president at 125,000. My best understanding is that we had taken in around 50,000 this year by the end of August. We won’t make 125k for sure, but this is more than the last three years combined and growing. 

Although I’ve cast shade on Texans recently for the way they drive in Colorado, big time kudos is due for their leading the way in resettling refugees. You outpaced California, even though they have (for the time being) a higher population! Atta boy to Kentucky as well, although only 1/6th the population of Texas, you’ve taken in half as many refugees as them in this current U.S. fiscal year.

Let’s keep in mind: 
• Refugees are not the same as immigrants. 
•This good news is not a comment on the situation at our southern border. 
•Some refugees are so in part as a result of US action and policy (Afghans, Iraqis), others not so much (Congolese, Rohingya).

Jesus was pretty clear that his followers care for widows, orphans and the oppressed. I’m happy that we’re doing more of that this year than last. 

I was at a conference once that included a lengthy prayer time sitting on the floor. When it finished and we all stood up, one of my friends remained seated. We thought, “Wow, he’s really spiritual!” Then a song started, his head snapped up and we realized he’d been snoozing! 

Surely you’ve never fallen asleep in a corporate prayer time, then awoken to realize now you don’t know what has been prayed for and what hasn’t! Nor have you slept in when you could have been praying. I’ve done both. 

I love that in the Muslim pre-dawn call to prayer between “Hurry to the prayer. Hurry to salvation” and the last “God is great,” the muezzin sneaks in “Prayer is better than sleep.” 

During the Luke 22 prayer time in the Garden of Gethsemane, some of the participants slept while one of them prayed. Luke writes that Jesus got up from his knees ready to face his short and traumatic future while the disciples slept in grief.

Without doubt, sometimes sleep is the best thing we can do. But in the Garden, and often in life, it’s better to pray than sleep. 

Bon Courage, my friends: Your prayers for Muslims are heard. If you’re praying, you’re doing it right! Whether you wake up early, stay up late or pray in the car taking kids to practice, the God of Heaven and Earth, the one who stayed up himself and prayed in the Garden, hears your prayers. And they are answered beyond what you can ask or imagine. 

Can I give you a specific people group to pray for this week? The Bozo people, a barely engaged group in West Africa will get a little more attention than usual this week because I’ll be briefly speaking about them at the Healing Nations annual banquet. I could sure use your prayers, but even more, the Bozo. 

If you didn’t catch last week’s email, “To Bidet or Not Bidet,” you may want to give it a look! It’s a rare bit of bathroom humor in Muslim Connect! 

Sometimes I like to ponder what Muslims have given non-Muslims: 

Coffee, numbers, hospitality, long, flowy shirts that camouflage middle-aged tummies! 

And the bidet. 

To be clear, the idea of post-poo cleansing with water is too generic to really think some one person came up with the idea first. I suppose the French might like to think it was them, and to be sure the Japanese have taken the bidet to a whole other level!

But for me, it was the Muslims of Jordan who provided an introduction to this new form of hygiene. In the Indiana of my youth there were still more functioning out-houses than bidets! When I spent my first post-college summer in Jordan I was faced with a plethora of new sights, sounds, smells and ideas. The transplantation of the little dish sprayer from the kitchen sink to the floor next to the squatty potty was not the least of them. 

Why is this a deal for Muslims? Well, one (sometimes disputed) Quranic verse and several Hadiths indicate that God is happy when his people keep it clean down there. And practically, it’s hard to argue this question: If a bird randomly went poo on your hand, would you feel better washing with water or just wiping it off with paper?

When I wonder why non-Muslim Americans don’t use bidets, my best guess is that we’ve bought the marketing. Companies can sell toilet paper over and over, but a bidet only once. That, and if you weren’t raised rinsing, it’s a small physical step, but a pretty big mental one! 

Since I’ve pledged to not ask you to do anything I’m not willing to do, this email is intended to be descriptive, not prescriptive! But I will say this, I’ve never know anyone who went the way of the bidet to regret the shift or hustle back to TP.

Twin tragedies have rocked the Muslim world in the past week. You’ve probably seen the news:

An earthquake in Morocco on September 8th killed up to 3000 people in Marrakesh and the Atlas Mountains. Recovery efforts are still underway as many people suffer without food and shelter. 

On Monday, September 11th, an intense rain storm in Libya caused two dams to fail, resulting in a wall of water that destroyed a third of the coastal town of Derna. The mayor estimates up to 20,000 dead. 

As you’d imagine, the suffering in the aftermath of these events is intense. The remoteness of the Moroccan villages and the political instability in Libya hamper rescue and recovery efforts. 

To help build a concerted prayer effort, I’d like to invite you to join me in putting the following blurb in your church bulletin or newsletter this weekend or next: 

In response to the devastating earthquake in Morocco (~3000 dead) and flooding in Libya (up to 20,000 dead), please pray for rescue and relief workers. Pray for food, water and shelter to get to those in need. Ask God to breathe hope where despair presently reigns. Ask God to guide the US and each of us to respond as he desires.

If God nudges you to give in response to either the Moroccan earthquake or the Libyan flood, Team Expansion is a trusted partner with connections at work on the ground who are trained in trauma-informed care. Click the link above for a Morocco page. If you’d like your gift to go to Libyan response, use that page, but put “Libya Flood Relief” in the notes section.

I just finished the most amazing book and can’t wait to tell you about it. Dave Eggers wrote The Monk Of Mokha to tell the story of Mohktar Alkhanshali and his unlikely and perilous quest to restart the Yemeni coffee industry. 

Mohktar, a Yemeni-American, grew up in San Fransisco where he muddled his way through school and several dead-end jobs. Then an epiphany, which he attributes to God, focused his life on coffee, particularly to “resurrecting the ancient art of Yemeni coffee.” 

His rollicking journey from no money and no experience to selling coffee for $200 a pound is Hollywood worthy and deeply inspiring. 

I love this book for a many reasons, including:

• Muslims are treated like normal people. Mohktar is a hero, but starts off a bratty kid. The Yemeni farmers seem backward in some ways, but are really just trying to make it. The political powers that be, playing out their dramas on Yemeni soil, are like powers often are: evil. 

• I appreciated the insights into life in a country suffering as Yemen has. The effects of the war are felt by all, but in different ways: In loss of life, loss of freedom or an increased insecurity of livelihood. In the midst of what we’d might be inclined to label tribulation, Yemenis continue to live as best they can.

• I am deeply challenged to consider how badly I want to see the Gospel go everywhere. Mokhtar was jailed, relentlessly sick and financially leveraged to nearly everyone he knew, but he remained determined to make Yemeni coffee happen. What discomfort am I willing to endure to see the great commission completed and to hear, “Well done, son,” from my Father?

Oh, yeah, and there’s the coffee! Along with Yemen, coffee serves as one of the key characters in the book! Brew a nice cup and if you have any money left, buy The Monk of Mokha. 

Although Colorado doesn’t actually border Texas, with our proximity and the beauty of our mountains, we tend to have a lot of Texans about. The behavior of a few on the interstate near my house leads me to think I understand them all: Texans drive way too fast in trucks that are way too big. (The kind you either need to be Pecos Bill or have a small step ladder to climb in to!)

Of course not all Texans are like this. Some have RV’s instead of trucks!*

We do the same things to Muslims: Noticing, and assuming we understand, the behavior of a few, we decide all Muslims are a certain way. Do you see any of these in your thinking or that of those you go to church with?

• Muslims are angry with Americans.
• Muslims want to take over the world, either by violence or birth rate.
• Muslims want to keep to themselves and not integrate. 
• Muslims are religiously and culturally backward. 
• Muslims oppress women, abuse kids, and give way too much credence to old, white haired guys. 

When we allow broad assumptions such as these to roam unexamined in our minds, we limit the connection we might have with Muslims.

Two things will get us on track to thinking about Muslims the way God does:

1. Identify and scrutinize our underlying suppositions. Sometimes all it takes is a little math to realize our thinking is corrupt. Other times, deep, cultural understanding is required to undo stereotypes.
2. Get to know specific Muslims. Optimally, in person, but online and in books will also help. Real stories of real Muslims will illuminate false assumptions and exceptional situations. 

Following the Baltimore Islamic Society account on Instagram would be a good way to start. 

*My apologies to readers from Texas. I’m only kidding. . . mostly.

Can you think of something in your life that you might do, a generally good thing, but you don’t do it because you believe things about yourself that hinder you? 

For me: I’d like Muslim Connect to go from it’s current 3400 subscribers to ten thousand. But I don’t ask for podcast gigs because I think I’d be a boring guest and I don’t write a book because I doubt I have sufficient “expert” status to do so. 

These ideas are known in some circles as “limiting beliefs.” A limiting belief is a state of mind or belief about yourself that restricts you in some way. 

I suppose this could have a little pop psychology feel to it, but it bears, sometimes heavily, on our interaction with Muslims and our efforts to encourage others as well to love them. 

Do any of these ideas ring a bell?

• I don’t have what it takes to talk to Muslims. . . 
• I can’t answer their questions or concerns about the Bible. . . 
• I can’t find any to talk to. . .
• I don’t have the time to cultivate relationships with Muslims. . .
• Christians don’t even like me, why would Muslims?

What are some other limiting beliefs about yourself that keep you from befriending Muslims?

Of course identifying and tackling these beliefs takes serious introspection, vulnerability and humility. For starters, consider this 3-B approach: 

What does the Bible say about your limiting belief? Name it and you’ll find verses speaking directly to it. And in general, all but one of the main characters pulled some bone-headed moves and God still used them.

What do your buds say when you share a limiting belief? (There’s the vulnerability!)

And finally, set a budget: Decide to spend a certain amount of time, attention and money identifying and slaughtering a couple of your limiting beliefs. (I’m going to figure out if I really am a boring podcast guest!)

Be sure to catch next week’s Muslim Connect when we’ll look at things we think about Muslims that hinder our connection.

Our church’s two year preaching trek through Luke will end this November just a week before Advent begins. Odd timing, eh? It means my wife and I are wondering about Jesus’s resurrection these days and that has us wondering what Muslims think about it and the death that necessarily must precede “rising from the dead.” 

Many Christians will be surprised to discover that Muslims, like Christians, think Jesus is alive. While we believe he returned to life after an effective Roman execution, Muslims believe he didn’t die in the first place. 

In a comforting example that we’re not the only ones who build spurious convictions on scant, and often tricky, verses of scripture, the main Quranic evidence that Jesus didn’t die comes from a single verse that might not be saying that after all. 

That they said (in boast), ‘We killed Christ Jesus the son of Mary, the Messenger of Allah’; – but they killed him not, nor crucified him, but so it was made to appear to them, and those who differ therein are full of doubts, with no (certain) knowledge, but only conjecture to follow, for of a surety they killed him not. Q4:157

Scholars believe this verse, when looked at in the context of surrounding text, intends to comment primarily on the short falling of Jews, rather than the reality or nature of Jesus’s death.

Of course this verse is a linchpin of a broader Islamic argument about the essential nature of God and Jesus:

• God is one and has no son. Therefore Jesus is not the son of God.
• Jesus is a messenger of God and God would not allow him to suffer the shame of defeat by his enemies.
• Jesus is coming back some day, so that means he’s alive and didn’t die. 

But what if the linchpin is a little shaky?

This week will close out my semi-annual giving campaign. If you’ve considered donating, now’s the time! Muslim Connect is free, but if you’ve found value in it, please consider sending a gift. Simply click here, find the “Staff” drop down and select “Shane Bennett.” Thank you very much.