Independent Fundamentalist Baptist Steve Van Nattan, the purveyor of a blog aptly named Balaam’s Ass, thinks Muslims can’t be “real” Americans. Van Nattan posed the question, Can a Muslim be a good American?, to a friend of his who worked in Saudi Arabia for 20 years. What follows is his response:
- Theologically – no, because his allegiance is to Allah.
- Religiously – no, because no other religion is accepted by His Allah except Islam (Qur’an 2:256).
- Scripturally – no, because his allegiance is to the five Pillars of Islam and the Qur’an.
- Geographically – no, because his allegiance is to Mecca, to which he turns in prayer five times a day.
- Socially – no, because his allegiance to Islam forbids him to make friends with Christians or Jews.
- Politically – no, because he must submit to the mullahs (spiritual leaders) who teach the annihilation of Israel and the destruction of America, the great Satan.
- Domestically – no, because he is instructed to marry four Women and beat his wife when she disobeys him (Qur’an 4:34).
- Intellectually – no, because he cannot accept the American Constitution since it is based on Biblical principles and he believes the Bible to be corrupt.
- Philosophically – no, because Islam, Muhammad, and the Qur’an does not allow freedom of religion and expression. Democracy and Islam cannot co-exist! Every Muslim government is either dictatorial or autocratic.
- Spiritually – no, because when we declare ‘one nation under God,’ we are referring to the Christian’s God and not Allah.Therefore, after much study and deliberation, perhaps we should be very suspicious of ALL MUSLIMS in this country. They obviously cannot be both ‘good’ Muslims and good Americans/Canadians; they cannot and will not integrate into the great melting pot of America.
The religious war is bigger than we know or understand. Muslims everywhere have said they will destroy us from within.
As I read this, I thought, are Fundamentalist Christians really this stupid? I know, that’s a rhetorical question. Let me show how easy it is to destroy Van Nattan’s position on American Muslims:
Let me pose this question to you, can a Fundamentalist Christian be a good American?
- Theologically – no, because his allegiance is to Jesus.
- Religiously – no, because no other religion is accepted by His God except Christianity.
- Scripturally – no, because his allegiance is to the Bible.
- Geographically – no, because his allegiance is to heaven, to which he turns in prayer without ceasing.
- Socially – no, because his allegiance to Jesus forbids him from being unequally yoked together with unbelievers.
- Politically – no, because he must submit to the pastor who teaches the protection of Israel and the destruction of the world.
- Domestically – no, because he is instructed to marry one woman at a time and beat his children when they disobey him.
- Intellectually – no, because he cannot accept the American Constitution unless it is properly interpreted through his fundamentalist worldview.
- Philosophically – no, because Fundamentalist Christianity, Jesus, and the Bible does not allow freedom of religion and expression. Democracy and Fundamentalist Christianity cannot co-exist! Every Fundamentalist Christian government is either dictatorial or autocratic.
- Spiritually – no, because when we declare ‘one nation under God,’ we are referring to a our particular version of the Christian God.
Therefore, after much study and deliberation, perhaps we should be very suspicious of ALL Fundamentalist Christians in this country. They obviously cannot be both ‘good’ Christians and good Americans/Canadians; they cannot and will not integrate into the great melting pot of America.
The religious war is bigger than we know or understand. Fundamentalist Christians everywhere have said they will take back America for God, using force if necessary.
Man, that was easy.
Hey Bruce
Steve’s late brother Tim was one of my closest friends. I should tell you the story one time. It’s a fascinating one that goes right back to Kenya in the 1950s.
Matty
Wasn’t the same said of Kennedy? His allegiance will lie with the Pope, with Rome, instead of with the US?
It’s an extremely old argument that… since it was also used against Thomas More when he wouldn’t accept Henry VIII as head of the Church of England.
Looks like Van Natten wasn’t the first to think of this one…
Wow, Dogbert the exorcist is really needed on the fellow who wrote this.
Apparently, there are people in the States who don’t know that Allah is simply Arabic for God, just as Dios is Spanish for God. Arabic Christians pray to Allah. That simple bit of information trashes several of his points.
As to “his allegiance to Islam forbids him to make friends with Christians or Jews.” pretty sure many Christians say the same things about people who don’t share their faith.
Much of what he claims is Islamic is taking the most extreme positions any Muslim has cited and attaching it to all of Islam, more or less like saying that Westboro Baptist represents all of Christianity.
And some of what he’s said is simply false. The United States Constitution is not based on Biblical Principles. The Pledge of Allegiance is a social convention, not a requirement for citizenship. One can be a citizen of the U.S. without ever saying “One nation under God.”( And again, Allah is simply God in Arabic, not some deity-name. If you were saying the Pledge of Allegiance in Arabic, you would say ‘Allah.’) The Qur’an no more forbids democracy than the Bible does – remember, the Bible was used as justification of the old “divine right of kings” rules in Europe.
Where do they find people to keep cranking nonsense like this out?
Hi Bruce,
I’ve just been over to this pastor’s website. In the post you refer to, he makes numerous baseless assertions about President Obama and has no concern for truth. He is either deranged or is purposely spreading lies. He makes the following baseless claims
“Mark it down, the day will come when President Obama will blame American Christians for celebrating Christmas, praying in public, street preaching, open-air religious gatherings, even mentioning God in general conversation. AND he will tell America if these things are outlawed, there will be no more terror.
This is when YOU will decide if you will kiss the posterior of Obama or speak for your faith even more. There will be a showdown with Obama, and all enforcers who suck up to his hate for Jesus, or America will become an Islamic state. There is NO middle way.” (Steve Van Nattan)
Are IFB churches so brainwashed with this kind of nonsense that they can’t see through it? What does it say for their Christianity? Have they forgotten the command to “not bear false witness”. To make baseless assertions against someone with NO attempt to provide empirical evidence to support those claims is bearing FALSE witness and this pastor should be made to apologise to the president or be sacked.
Shalom,
John Arthur
Hi Bruce,
I clicked (again) the link to the post of Steve Van Natten that you gave (so that I could comment on something else he had written). Lo and behold, he’s now deleted the page. Seems that he doesn’t want any of his IFB followers who frequent your website to know what he wrote.
Shalom,
John Arthur
I suppose he doesn’t like the attention I’ve given him. 🙂 Steve is on the extreme right end of Baptist fundamentalism. I’ve read his stuff for a long time. He definitely has moved to the right over the years.
The guy is nutty as a fruitcake.
Ignoring the obsessive hate the christian right has for Obama, the fact is he has a little over a year to achieve all of this turnaround in public thinking. The reality is that he has made every attempt to try and persuade congress to consider some sort of gun control, and in all his time in office has got precisely nowhere. How much harder then to ban Christmas etc in a year.
The more I read by people like this pastor, and many, many of his ilk, including politicians, the more I see features of systems of government they claim to deplore. They work up a fervour of fear and hatred based on a fictitious premise (the Hitler method), they obsess about the ways in which people should behave at a trivial level (things like the ‘six inch rule’), the intention being that if you control at this level then control is absolute (Stalinism, communism, Maoism, totalitarianism), and they encourage an atmosphere in which adherents are expected to spy on others in their group, including friends, and report non-conformity (again, totalitarianism). On top of this, they adhere to a creed that seeks to punish even thought crime (the Ten Commandments, coveting, lusting etc).
It never ceases to amaze me how deep runs their hatred of Obama.
Aw, he’s puttin’ us on! He is probably the spawn of Betty Bowers or a drunk version of Doug Wilson, grrr grrr… Why on earth is there no good television made from this stuff?
I read some of his primer on Muslims
http://www.blessedquietness.com/journal/theworld/Primer_on_the_Middle_East.htm
where he very quickly lays out his great love of all of us and then promptly writes out his hateful message. Don’t you dare come around here to hate, he says, and then puts up a picture:
http://www.blessedquietness.com/islam_moderate_muslim.jpg
Wow, preacher Van Nattan, you are the real thing alright. Go directly to the hospital and tell them the truth, that you have mixed up hate for love and love for hate. They can help you…. well, doubtful but worth a try!