My friend April grew up a church girl. She attended Bible camp and Sunday school, sang Christian songs, and went on mission trips. When she was a senior at Carleton College in Minnesota, she was elected the leader of her campus Christian group.
That year, a mosque in the Twin Cities suffered an arson attack, and the imam sent out an appeal to religious leaders across the state to stand with his community against religious discrimination. April, who had grown close to Muslims during mission trips to Russia, thought this was exactly the right thing to do. She presented her plan at the next meeting of the Christian group and was surprised when it was greeted with stony silence. Finally, someone spoke: “Why are you asking us to support devil worship?” April looked around the room and saw the other members of the group nodding.
April had a big problem. Her conscience was telling her to be a witness against a hate crime; her Christian group was telling her to applaud it. April made her choice: She went to the rally in support of the mosque. The Christian group made its choice: Members voted to remove April as president.
Read the Full Article
