To the Editor,
Thanks to the Fillmore County Journal for featuring young talented writers in our area. Thanks also to Leah Himlie, one of these young contributors, for her thoughtful and timely article about the human need for love and compassion. After reading her article in last week’s Journal, I re-read Flip Huggenveck’s letter. It got me thinking not so much about radical Islam, which his letter focused on, but about radical Christianity. I’m sorry he lost a friend on Flight 93, and for all who lost family and friends. My son lost an uncle on that same flight.
In looking at the history of Christianity there are many commonalities, positive and negative, shared between it and Islam, sometimes much more than we care to admit. Over time both religions have used their sacred scriptures to justify radical actions. Mr. Huggenvick claims that Muslims believe their religion is peaceful because they don’t know the history of Islam, because they don’t read their Quaran. But is every Christian able to site chapter and verse in the Bible? And even if that’s possible, each word is still open to interpretation.
The tortures of the Inquisition, the atrocities of the crusades (which also practiced the ideology of “convert or die”) the slaughter and slavery perpetrated in the New World in the name of cross and king, attacks by the KKK and hate crimes are examples of Christian scripture being used to justify radical causes. When we question if Islam is a peaceful religion, to be fair, that question must also be asked of Christianity. How we interpret the Quaran, the Bible or any other sacred text is up to us. Ms. Himlie’s article focused on love and compassion…the best kind of radical religion.
Sincerely,
Lynne Farmer
Rushford, Minn.