We all carry in our pockets powerful cameras that are technologically more sophisticated than anything we could have dreamed of 30 years ago. The incredible convenience of having a high-end camera in your pocket, ready for snapping beautiful scenes, memorable moments and capturing unique life events is hard to argue with.

Yet, I recently purchased a screen-free, simple point and click camera that has made photos fun again. The serenity of snapping a photo through a tiny view finder and then putting the camera away is liberating. There is absolutely no temptation to look at the photo after I take (because you can’t), even better, I’m not dragged into distractions on my camera/phone after snapping.

When was the last time you had fun with photos? Check out these two screenless cameras for a return to the mystique and hit-and-miss of photography!

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The Camp Snap 2

I’m pretty sure I was drawn into purchasing the Camp Snap camera after seeing ads for a similar camera on Instagram - the Klik Camera. I did some research, spent the $70 and bought a Camp Snap 2 camera.

Here are some of the pictures I got with it - at a Virginia Tech football game and our creek house in Giles County.

The Maxmango D53

Unfortunately, the small LCD panel on the back starting flickering. I returned the camera and noticed the Maxmango D53 on Amazon was similar (and $10 cheaper). I bought it, and here are the results of some shots with it:

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Conclusions

First of all, I love the experience of not having a screen on the back of the camera. I love having a “camera.” No phone. No notifications. I like the small size (though it’s much thicker than a phone).

I’m going to keep enjoying this little camera experience. It’s brought mystery, fun, and anticipation back to photography. I had forgotten how fun it was to snap a picture, and discover that you got a great shot. The reverse of that is also deeply experiential - discovering with disappointment that you missed a shot, or it’s blurry/bad quality.

Which camera would I recommend?

I’d still like to try the Klik Camera, but here’s my summary of the two I’ve tried:

Camp Snap 2

• Easy to change filters. There’s a mode button on the camera that you can cycle between filters.

• The panel on the bottom of the camera to access settings is a small Phillips screw. Inconvenient but easy to take off.

• My Mac recognized the Camp Snap 2 when plugged into USBC as a camera, with easy import into the Photos app.

Maxmango D53

• Apparently you have to download filters from their website, and the camera can only access one at a time. No one has time for that. Not worth doing.

• The panel on the bottom is a tiny star screw. They do provide one with the camera, but with both cameras, I still don’t understand why the inconvenience of a screw to access the bottom panels.

• My Mac didn’t recognize the Maxmango. It showed up as an external HD, from which I had to import the photos into the Photos app.

I’m going to stick with my Maxmango, even though the filter issue is a pain. I can always edit the shots on my computer, so a filter on the camera itself is not as important.

What about you?

I want to encourage you to try getting a camera. You’ll be pleasantly surprised by the joy and freedom of having a dedicated device. I think you’ll discover afresh that taking pictures is fun. Maybe we’ve all gotten too big for our britches with oodles of pixels on our phone-cameras. Who needs a selfie that you can put on a billboard anyway?

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Each month I dig through the archives and dust off a few posts from years gone by. All posts are historical, but some are occasionally hysterical, and all offer a glimpse into the ideas, lessons, and adventures that have shaped my journey.

Now, here are posts from Octobers-gone-by on my blog. October’s archives take us from political divides and the temptation of power to family memories, church staff appreciation, and learning to trust God when life gets hard. Come along for another trip through the time capsule—where the posts are historical, the occasional story is hysterical, and the lessons are still worth revisiting.

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2025 · Attention & everyday life

Make your boredom better

What if boredom were an opportunity instead of something to escape? This practical reflection challenges our reflexive phone-checking and asks how we might use idle moments more intentionally.

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2024 · Leadership & character

The temptation of power

Power tests the heart, including the hearts of people who believe they are doing good. This reflection connects a familiar warning about power with the Bible’s sobering perspective on leadership.

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2023 · Faith & public witness

The religious yard sign

Can a public declaration of belief open a conversation—or shut one down? This post considers how Christians communicate their convictions in a culture where signs and slogans can divide as easily as they declare.

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2019 · Church leadership

Pastor/Church Staff Appreciation Month

Appreciation shouldn’t stop with the senior pastor. Here are practical, creative ways churches can encourage, support, and care for the entire staff—not just during October, but all year long.

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2015 · Gratitude & spiritual growth

Honor those who fear the Lord

Psalm 15 offers a challenge to honor those who fear the Lord. This personal reflection names mentors, friends, family, and fellow believers whose faith has nudged you closer to Jesus—and invites readers to make their own list.

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2010 · Family & faith

Another opportunity to trust

A phone call brings difficult news as Carolyn’s cancer journey takes another turn. Written in the rawness of the moment, this post is an honest invitation to pray, depend on God, and trust his character when circumstances are uncertain.

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2004 · From the early archives

I’m on your side

In the middle of political debates and a nation choosing sides, this 2004 reflection makes a different appeal: what if Christians became advocates for people, period? Drawing on Philippians 4, it challenges us to look beyond our disagreements, find lasting joy in God, and invite others to experience the dance of a lifetime.

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2006 · Family & football

Football fever

Third-grade football, an underdog team, and three overtimes make for a story that’s hard to forget. Relive the “Mr. Bug Miracle,” a thrilling 38–30 win, and a father-and-son memory that stayed long after the final whistle.

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Which of these would you revisit first? And if you’re not a subscriber yet, I’d love for you to subscribe so you don’t miss the next trip through the archives.

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Josh Harris was a prominent evangelical pastor and the author of the bestselling I Kissed Dating Goodbye. In 2019, he publicly announced that he was leaving Christianity, writing that he no longer considered himself a Christian. His very public and dramatic exit from Christianity was a train wreck of how not to experience a faith crisis.

He himself acknowledged his own mistakes in an October 2025 post in which he pointed to three things as he reconsidered Jesus and faith:

1. I carried my black and white thinking into deconstruction.

2. I expressed my hurt by trolling Christians.

3. I too quickly tried to find a replacement community.1

Harris offers us both a sober caution and a hopeful lesson about those who jump on the bandwagon of abandoning Christian faith. The way we respond to a faith crisis matters as much as the questions that initiate it.

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Deconstructing

The trendiness of faith deconstruction2 seemed to reach a fever pitch in the last few years. Deconstructing became a buzz word associated with those who began to ask sincere, sometimes doubting questions about Christian orthodoxy. While there were those who questioned the historic doctrines of Christianity, more deconstruction seemed to be centered on the organized church itself - whether Protestant, Orthodox or Catholic.

Joe Terrell identified five reasons that people deconstructed:3

1. Trust in large institutions is declining all across the board.

2. We live in a more diverse, accessible, and mobile world.

3. High-performing Christians are simply burning out.

4. The prideful prioritization of conformity over unity

5. The acceptance of political idolatry and conspiracy theories in Christian communities

The algorithms are algorithming

Our internets aren’t neutral. That’s perhaps one of the most important realities to remind ourselves of daily. Your social media feed, your search results and even your AI interactions are first shaped by inherent worldview biases. The “powers that be” want to shape you, your thinking, your opinions, your votes, your spending, and who you like or dislike. “They” want you to like the “right” people and to detest the “wrong” people. It’s glaringly apparent that the “wrong” people are most likely you.

It is a matter of life and faith to step away from your screen when you’re processing sincere questions. Why is that? Because your “screen” isn’t neutral when it comes to watching Reels, reading articles, and doing research. You are being fed a curated diet that is intended to confirm what you already think. You are not being challenged. You are digging a deeper hole, aided by algorithms. As a result, you and the public only become more entrenched, more divided and more convinced of your own “side.”

This is especially dangerous to life and faith when you’re processing problems with God.

To be clear, it is not wrong to ask questions about God. It’s an appropriate and healthy way to grow. It’s even healthier to ask God the questions you have about Him! He’s big enough to take your honest questions (and even your complaints, confusions, hurt and anguish). He’s also loving and will respond. The challenge is in the waiting for His response.

We live in a world where we can get what we want instantly. Once upon a time, marketing companies deployed the clever moniker of “Instamatic” to all kinds of products. This was intended to feed our perceived right to know everything, to have anything, immediately. We are a people who have cast off the ancient virtue of patience. We’ve dispensed with delayed gratification. We want it all now.

When Moses questioned God

Moses was in a pickle. God had appeared to him in a burning bush and told him to deliver His people from bondage to Pharaoh. Moses knew that people would look at him as if he were crazy when he said, “God told me…”

When in doubt, and in concern about what he was thinking, Moses asked God. Moses went directly to the source:

“Then Moses asked God, ‘If I go to the Israelites and say to them, “The God of your ancestors has sent me to you,” and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what should I tell them?” (Exodus 3:13)

The result of that conversation was convictional clarity for Moses. God answered him. Moses proceeded (after some wrangling) to return to Egypt and lead the Israelites out of slavery.

Those who have honest questions, plaguing doubts, embittered hearts, and disappointed hopes would do well to do the same. Seek understanding from God rather than seek to have your doubts confirmed by those who would seek to lead you astray from Him.

Be mindful that scripture has explicitly taught us that there are forces at work that seek to lead us astray from trusting in God.

“Don’t be led astray by various kinds of strange teachings; for it is good for the heart to be established by grace and not by food regulations, since those who observe them have not benefited.” (Hebrews 13:9)

“For false messiahs and false prophets will arise and will perform signs and wonders to lead astray, if possible, the elect.” (Mark 13:22)

Scripture also provides some insights into those who have at one time professed faith in Jesus and then walked away from Him and the church. Jesus told the following parable about soil:

“Consider the sower who went out to sow. As he sowed, some seed fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured them. Other seed fell on rocky ground where it didn’t have much soil, and it grew up quickly since the soil wasn’t deep. But when the sun came up, it was scorched, and since it had no root, it withered away. Other seed fell among thorns, and the thorns came up and choked it. Still other seed fell on good ground and produced fruit: some a hundred, some sixty, and some thirty times what was sown. Let anyone who has ears listen.” (Matthew 13:18–23)

Later Jesus then explained exactly what He meant to His disciples:

“When anyone hears the word about the kingdom and doesn’t understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is the one sown along the path. And the one sown on rocky ground — this is one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy. But he has no root and is short-lived. When distress or persecution comes because of the word, immediately he falls away. Now the one sown among the thorns — this is one who hears the word, but the worries of this age and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful. But the one sown on the good ground — this is one who hears and understands the word, who does produce fruit and yields: some a hundred, some sixty, some thirty times what was sown.”

Jesus told us there would be those who spring up quickly and then wither away. Anytime someone jumps into Christianity with fervency and zeal, we should lovingly welcome them. And we should teach, counsel, disciple and be wary of promoting their Christian platform until they have matured in their faith.

When Paul wrote, “Don’t be too quick to appoint anyone as an elder…”4 he was encouraging us to not give leadership influence to recent converts. They may look like they’re growing, but Jesus’ parable reveals that their root may not have rooted.

Paul wrote that Demas had “deserted me, since he loved this present world.”5 Two others, Hymenaeus and Alexander, “have rejected and have shipwrecked the faith.”6 “All those in the province of Asia have deserted me, including Phygelus and Hermogenes.”7 Paul also called out Hymenaeus (again) and Philetus and said that these first century deconstructionists should be avoided because their teaching was a contagion, an infection:

“Avoid irreverent and empty speech, since those who engage in it will produce even more godlessness, and their teaching will spread like gangrene.” (2 Timothy 2:16–17)

Those who deconstruct very publicly and would seek to influence you to their ways of thinking are not operating in neutral. They are modern-day versions of:

• Demas

• Hymenaeus

• Alexander

• Phygelus

• Hermogenes

• Philetus

What about disillusioned deconstructers?

There are also those who deconstruct who bit off more than they could chew, so to speak. They jumped into faith with joyful hope, but they were not prepared for the demands of following Jesus in full obedience. They started, but they did not finish.

The disturbing reality is that too often the church is so zealous to win converts that we fail to communicate the cost of following Jesus. People are unprepared for the challenge, the trials and the difficulty. Yes, following Jesus is wonderful, AND following Jesus is hard.

Jesus said this:

“But Jesus said to him, ‘No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.’” (Luke 9:62)

There is a cost to following Jesus. Were those who abandon ship not informed or not prepared?

“For which of you, wanting to build a tower, doesn’t first sit down and calculate the cost to see if he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, after he has laid the foundation and cannot finish it, all the onlookers will begin to ridicule him, saying, ‘This man started to build and wasn’t able to finish.’

“Or what king, going to war against another king, will not first sit down and decide if he is able with ten thousand to oppose the one who comes against him with twenty thousand? If not, while the other is still far off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. In the same way, therefore, every one of you who does not renounce all his possessions cannot be my disciple.” (Luke 14:28–33)

Some who deconstruct are fearful of being identified with Jesus in moments of pressure.

Some deconstructionists become ashamed of Jesus in a broader culture that seeks to humiliate or accuse Christ followers as being less intelligent and more parochial. Peter faced that in the courtyard of the high priest when Jesus was arrested. “You are one of them!” was the accusation. Before the echo died, Peter denied, and then the rooster cried.

Pressure on faith reveals its source. When someone values what others think of them or if they seek to preserve their physical life and livelihoods over their allegiance to Jesus, they have allowed fear to subsume their faith.

Those who truly belong to Jesus will not ultimately abandon Him.

John Davidson asserts that those who abandon Jesus completely were not truly saved. He says that “Many ‘former Christians’ were never truly saved.” Their deconstruction typically stems from:

• Bad theology that distorts God’s character

• Selective reading of Scripture that creates an unbalanced faith

• Making God in their image rather than accepting Him as He is

• Building faith on the church rather than on Christ”8

Jesus clearly communicated that those who truly belong to Him will ultimately be saved:

“This is the will of him who sent me: that I should lose none of those he has given me but should raise them up on the last day.” (John 6:39)

Many who publicly claim to have reconsidered their faith in Jesus may be wooed again by His amazing grace and love as time progresses. Josh Harris may be a good example of a slow return to Jesus. In a February 2026 interview with Skye Jethani on The Holy Post, Harris discussed his journey from fundamentalism through deconstruction and toward renewed curiosity about Jesus.9 One sober caution I offer - do not give Josh Harris more “air time.” Just as his leaving the faith was very publicly proclaimed by him, so his reconsideration is very publicly proclaimed. I have deep reservations about his motives and desire for limelight.

An enlarged soul

I love this quote. It’s my contention that if a person has truly experienced and placed their faith in Jesus, counting the cost and embracing the Savior, that their heart has forever been “enlarged by truth.”

Consider Colossians 2:9-10:

“For the entire fullness of God’s nature dwells bodily in Christ, and you have been filled by him, who is the head over every ruler and authority.” (Colossians 2:9–10)

This means that the very fullness of who God is dwells fully in Christ. When a person receives Jesus by faith, the Holy Spirit takes up residence in their being, filling them. The Holy Spirit is a seal,10 an assurance,11 an eternal claim12 of God upon a person. Our doubts and fears and disappointments cannot override God’s possession of us. No one can take you out of God’s hands once you surrender your heart to Him - not even yourself.13

Thoughts to consider about those who deconstruct:

• It’s ok to ask honest questions. Nicodemus came to Jesus at night, asking honest questions, wondering if Jesus was who He said He was. Nicodemus later helped embalm Jesus’ body.

• Some who deconstruct have never made their “faith” their own. If faith is simply that which we’ve learned or inherited, it is not faith. It’s a pedigreed religion. It’s no wonder that competing ideas and philosophies begin to cause doubts. Growing up in an insular Christian bubble doesn’t prepare a person to respond with conviction and confidence if their “faith” is just an inherited set of religious facts that they’ve always assented to.

• We will be wrong at times as we seek to understand Jesus, even when we’ve said the right things once upon a time. Peter is a good example of this. After making a magnificent confession, Peter negated it with a sinful suggestion.14

• Seeking full understanding before giving your full commitment eliminates faith. We can’t know everything. There’s a sweet moment of surrender when we simply say, “From what I can understand, I choose to believe.” Faith is a conscious decision to trust the truth of what you don’t fully understand.

• Not everyone who deconstructs falls away from faith. In Terrell’s article, he distinguishes those who deconstruct from those who deconvert.

“While everyone who deconverts from Christianity probably deconstructs first, not everyone who deconstructs deconverts… the degree to which someone deconstructs varies wildly… there’s no such thing as a “one-size-fits-all” deconstruction narrative.”15

• Jesus stands ready to restore. His parable of the prodigal son has nurtured and invited a plethora of prodigals back into the loving, waiting arms of the Father. We see Jesus’ gracious restoration of Peter as a real-life example of restoration.

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Everyone sees it. Few want to acknowledge it. It’s not like the sudden voracious and disastrous flooding in Nepal that happened so fast that thousands were swept away in flood water. The steady encroachment of Islam and its evil doctrines are more like a leak in a water line.

A friend recently returned home after being gone a month to discover that a small leak in his refrigerator’s water line had, over the time he’d been gone, ruined not only his kitchen floor but had leaked to the floor below and ruined flooring there as well. That steady, unrelenting trickle, when not fixed, causes great damage.

Back in 2014 I wrote Can one be neutral toward Islam? As I reread that post recently, I was struck about the dangerous slow leak of Islam into western society in the past 12 years. In some cases, it’s appeared to be organized and intentional.1

Twelve years ago, I wrote:

…Is ISIS’ brand of Islam truly radical?

In the first quarter of the 20th century, Christian evangelicals arose in the United States to attempt to steer Christianity in the U.S. away from perceived liberalism. In Christian universities, there were faculty members denying basic tenets of the Bible’s teachings, and it seemed that historic Christian beliefs were being discarded daily. The movement to recapture a drifting faith was named as fundamentalism, and the term fundamentalist was used derogatorily by many who would have preferred that the church in America jettison its holiness and belief in the truth of the Bible. (By the way, it was a bloodless movement.)

I believe that instead of labeling what we’re seeing in ISIS, the Taliban, Al-Qaeda, Boko Haram, the Muslim Brotherhood and other militant expressions of Islam is not radical. It’s fundamental to the teachings of the religion. What we’re seeing is Islamic fundamentalism.

Today’s World

Today there is an underlying problem in western culture: there is a conflation of Islam and Christianity in the minds of the irreligious and uninformed. People often treat Christianity and Islam as interchangeable examples of the same category - “religion.” They are ignorant to each religion’s competing truth claims. People assume they are simply different but equally legitimate expressions of religious faith. That false perspective obscures the fact that Christianity makes an exclusive claim about Jesus Christ, while Islam explicitly rejects central Christian claims about Jesus, the cross, and salvation.

Before I unpack this, I want to be clear: I’m not writing to be hostile toward Muslims. In America, we have a religious equality under law, but this does not result in theological equality before God. The First Amendment protects Muslims' freedom to worship, but it does not require anyone to believe that Islam and Christianity are equally true.

My ultimate point here is that the benefits and consequences of Christianity and Islam in the world are not comparable. No one can pretend that the competing truth claims of these two religions are the same. My premise is that Christianity far exceeds Islam as a blessing and benefit to the peoples of the world. I would hope that secular Muslims would thoughtfully weigh the competing truth claims and prayerfully take steps toward a faith that seeks understanding in the truths of Christianity.

Historical Perspective

Exactly when did Christians begin viewing Islam (and other religions) with tolerance and at times, indifference? In his book, Saving Faith: Making Religious Pluralism an American Value at the Dawn of the Secular Age, David Mislin offers the perspective that Protestant liberals, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries began to defend the right to worship for other religions. They believed that if all religions didn’t have freedom of worship, their worship might one day be endangered. This defense of freedom of religion did not take into account the difference in blessing and benefit. In other words, all religions are not created equal.

Here’s an except from the book’s summary:

Between 1875 and 1925, liberal Protestant leaders abandoned religious exclusivism and leveraged their considerable cultural influence to push others to do the same. This reorientation came about as an ever-growing group of Americans found their religious faith under attack on social, intellectual, and political fronts. A new generation of outspoken agnostics assailed the very foundation of belief, while noted intellectuals embraced novel spiritual practices and claimed that Protestant Christianity had outlived its usefulness. Faced with these grave challenges, Protestant clergy and their allies realized that the successful defense of religion against secularism required a defense of all religious traditions. They affirmed the social value - and ultimately the religious truth - of Catholicism, Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Islam. They also came to view doubt and uncertainty as expressions of faith.2

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In God We Trust

Our currency declares, “In God we trust.” Our Pledge of Allegiance contains the phrase “one Nation under God.” “Under God” was added by Congress in 1954, during the Eisenhower administration.

Ironically, a Baptist minister wrote the first pledge of allegiance. His name was Francis Bellamy.3

In the Declaration of Independence (1776), we see God mentioned explicitly and implicitly as Creator:

• “the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God”

• “all men are created equal”

• rights endowed by their “Creator”

• “the protection of divine Providence”

At George Washington’s first inaugural address in 1789, the first President spoke of the “Almighty Being who rules over the universe” and the “Invisible Hand which conducts the affairs of men.” He called upon God to guide the new government and people. Thirty years later, President James Madison gave a Thanksgiving Proclamation in 1815 and referred to “Almighty God,” “His kind Providence,” and God’s providential direction of the American people toward independence and self-government. The overwhelming majority of Presidential inaugurations have also included the newly-elected president placing their hand on a Bible when taking the oath of office.

Even in our nation’s architecture, we see evidences of biblical Christianity. The Supreme Court building itself contains extensive biblical imagery. Moses appears among the great historical lawgivers on the courtroom’s south frieze, holding the Ten Commandments in Hebrew. The Jefferson Building (Library of Congress) contains a statue of Moses holding the Ten Commandments alongside the Apostle Paul dating back to 1897.

Back in 1791, George Washington and architect Pierre L’Enfant conceived a church building in the nation’s capitol to be a “great church for national purposes.” That vision was realized when Washington’s National Cathedral began construction in 1907. The foundation stone was laid in the presence of President Theodore Roosevelt and about 10,000 people. The stone came from a field near Bethlehem and was inscribed, “The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us” (John 1:14).

While these examples are not evidence that the Constitution established Christianity as a national religion, they do provide foundation for the reality and fact that our nation has a distinct Christian cultural and historical foundation.

The God of America is not Allah

Could the “God” references in America’s history, founding documents and architecture be remotely interpreted as a generic god and so include Allah as well? My contention is not at all. It matters, because we must ask as a nation which “God” are we under? Which God do we trust? Can the God of Christianity be equated with the Allah of Islam?

Consider the following distinctions:

So while Christianity and Islam use overlapping language about “God,” they do not mean the same thing by God. The founding of America both implicitly and explicitly acknowledged the God of Christianity.

Islam vigorously denies the Christian confession that Jesus is the divine Son of God, while Christianity clearly identifies Jesus as God the Son incarnate. This core doctrinal disagreement between the two reaches the very identity and nature of God.

This means that Muslims must recognize that while they have a legal right to worship Allah in America, America as a nation was founded by people with Christian doctrinal realities influencing them. The tension between the two religions is not imagined. When secularists or the religiously ignorant increasingly treat Islam’s understanding of God as interchangeable with Christianity’s, it promotes a blend that is fundamentally incompatible and heretical to both religions.

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The disturbing reality of Islamic violence against other religions

We must consider also the benefits and blessings of each religion. What are their outcomes? Since I wrote my entry 12 years ago, Islam has not mellowed. Throughout its history, it has warred against other religions. In the past decade, we have only seen more Islamic-inspired terror attacks, while in the same time period, no true biblical Christianity-inspired terror attacks.

When we consider that Islam as a religion has seen religious-inspired, historical violence, and we have documented modern, recurring and international incidents of it, we return to this premise: Not all religions are equal, nor are all beneficial to all humanity.

The Slow Leak

I write from a Christian worldview and conviction. I write as a follower of Jesus. I urge grace and mercy as a foundation to relationships with all people, whether they share my religious beliefs or not.

However, I also write with urgency and a warning. As Islam has gained ground in many American cities and cultural centers, we’ve seen the inexorable movement and slow leak of Islam into the milieu of our culture. Three forces contributing to Islam’s growing influence are:

1. Satan. Any philosophy, worldview or religion that opposes Jesus as the Son of God and God incarnate is ultimately authored by the king of deception, Satan, whom Jesus described as “the father of lies.”4 The New Testament is clear on Jesus being the fulcrum of faith.

“We demolish arguments and every proud thing that is raised up against the knowledge of God, and we take every thought captive to obey Christ.” (2 Corinthians 10:4-5)

“But every spirit who does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming; even now it is in the world.” (1 John 4:3)

2. Islamic religionists. There are documented Islamist movements that seek to reshape societies and governments according to Islamic law, pursuing that goal through electoral participation and other legal political means in the countries they’ve infiltrated or immigrated to. Other Islamist movements embrace violence to achieve similar religio-political ends.5 In other words, by vote or by violence, these Islamist religionists seek to subjugate societies, nations and cultures to Islam.

3. Captured cultural assets. As we observe western culture in this first quarter of the 21st century, we see more documented evidence of Islamic subjugation, insidious behind-the-scenes threatening of institutions, and outright terrorizing through intimidation and fear. Western media, academia, whole cities and even cultures have been infiltrated with Islamic militancy.

   Consider the following:

• UK grooming gangs: Investigations have documented decades of organized child sexual exploitation in several English towns, including Rotherham, where an estimated 1,400 children were abused between 1997 and 2013, predominantly by men of Pakistani heritage. The ethnic dimension of the abuse was repeatedly raised, yet authorities were reluctant to confront it. The investigations document systemic, institutional failure to respond adequately to the abuse.6

• Southern Spain/Ceuta: In July 2026, an estimated 80,000 migrants crossed from Morocco into Spain’s North African enclave of Ceuta, overwhelming local authorities. Spanish prosecutors subsequently reported 23 sexual assaults, including nine involving children, following the influx.7

• Dearborn, Michigan: Court cases and recent disputes have raised questions about religious neutrality and treatment of Christian evangelists in a city with a large Muslim population, including litigation over restrictions on Christian preaching at the Arab International Festival.8

• Afghanistan: Since returning to power in 2021, the Taliban have imposed their interpretation of Islamic law, severely restricting women’s education, employment, movement, and religious freedom.9

• Iran: Iran’s Islamic Republic constitutionally establishes Shi’a Islam as the state religion and requires legislation to conform to Islamic criteria, with religious minorities facing significant legal and governmental restrictions and strong persecution.10

• Pakistan: Pakistan’s Islamic legal framework includes blasphemy laws and provisions that impose severe restrictions and criminal penalties based on religious belief and expression.11

These examples from around the world demonstrate oppression and repression. Closer to home, however, there are instances of intimidation in universities, in the media, in entertainment, and in government. The consistent strategy by Islamists is to paint Islam in a positive light and to discredit Judeo-Christian values and advocates of them.

The message is simple. Mock Muhammad and face the consequences. In September 2005, the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten published 12 cartoons depicting Muhammad. The most famous cartoon was drawn by Kurt Westergaard. It depicted Muhammad wearing a turban shaped like a bomb, with a lit fuse. That cartoon indeed lit a fuse. Demonstrations and riots occurred in numerous countries. Danish diplomatic facilities were attacked. Cartoonists and newspaper employees received death threats. Ten years later, Charlie Hebdo republished the Danish cartoons and then published its own Muhammad cartoons. In January 2015, Islamists attacked the magazine’s offices, killing 12 people.

Compare that behavior to Jesus’ teaching about those who oppose you:

“Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” (Matthew 5:44)

Today, people can mock Jesus, ridicule Christianity, and even attack Christians. Biblical Christians are called to respond with compassion, prayer, and love for their enemies.

How then do we respond?

Years ago, I was required to read Faith Seeking Understanding: An Introduction to Christian Theology in seminary.12 In it, there are four imaginative dialogues between prominent thinkers to illustrate major theological debates. But the title has always grabbed me.

In today’s world, we must practice our faith while also seeking understanding. We must hold our culture as being anti-Islam at its very core. In Ross Douthat’s 2025 book Believe: Why Everyone Should Be Religious, Douthat takes Islam seriously as a world religion and argues that religious belief is preferable to secular indifference - believing in something is better than nothing.13 Yet Douthat also recognizes that Christianity and Islam make competing claims about revelation that cannot simply be harmonized. In a 2018 interview, he explained:

“If God's revelation to Muhammad were … as definitive a revelation as the revelations of Christianity and Judaism, I can't make that story work.”14

Press on, reader. Keep seeking understanding in your faith. And if you discover like millions of others that Islam (or other false religions that deny Jesus as Lord) don't make sense, seek deeper understanding and discover the joy, grace, and forgiveness found through faith in Jesus Christ.

The God of America is not Allah

Could the references to “God” in America’s history, founding documents, and architecture be interpreted as referring to some generic deity that would include the Islamic understanding of God? I don’t think so. It matters because we must ask which God we mean when we say that we are “under God” or that we “trust in God.”

Allah is the Arabic word for God, and Arabic-speaking Christians use the word. The theological question is therefore not whether Muslims believe in God. They do. The question is whether the God described in Islam is the God revealed in Scripture.

Christianity confesses one God in three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Jesus Christ is God the Son incarnate. Islam explicitly rejects the Trinity, denies that Jesus is the divine Son of God, and denies the crucifixion and resurrection as Christianity understands them. These disagreements reach the very identity and nature of God.

Muslims have the same legal right to worship according to their conscience as other Americans. But religious liberty does not require Christians to regard Islamic and Christian claims about God as equally true. The two religions make fundamentally incompatible claims about who God is and what He has revealed about Himself.

America is one nation under God. That God is the biblical Christian/Jewish God. Yahweh. Christianity and Islam use overlapping language about God, but they do not mean the same thing by God.

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Further Reading:

• The Qur’an and the Christian: An In-Depth Look at the Book of Islam for Followers of Jesus, by Matthew Aaron Bennett (Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Academic, 2022). Bennett is a PhD from Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary and a missions/theology professor at Cedarville. He specifically warns Christians against assuming that apparent similarities between the Qur'an and Bible mean the two faiths are saying the same things.

• Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus: A Devout Muslim Encounters Christianity, by Nabeel Qureshi (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2014). I read it in 2017. I highly recommend it to anyone who needs perspective from a former Muslim on how finding Jesus changes a person’s entire perspective on life, love and eternal values.

Watch this

This Instagram post came out after I wrote this article article, but it is a powerful example of what this article has been about.

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A Brief History of the Pledge of Allegiance, by Robert Longley (ThoughtCo, updated June 10, 2025). Further irony related to our pledge is that the accompanying salute back in 1892 looked like the later Nazi salute:

When Francis Bellamy first wrote the Pledge in 1892, he and his editor at the Youth’s Companion magazine Daniel Sharp Ford agreed that its recitation should be accompanied by a non-military style hand salute. Ironically, the hand salute designed by Bellamy bore a striking similarity to what nearly 50 years later would become recognized as the extended hand “Nazi salute.”

The so-called “Bellamy Salute” was used by schoolchildren across the nation when reciting the Pledge until the onset of World War II in 1939 when German and Italian fascists began using virtually the same salute as a sign of loyalty to Nazi dictators Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini.

Concerned that Bellamy’s salute could be confused for the hated “Heil Hitler!” salute and could be used to the Nazi’s advantage in war propaganda, Congress took action to eliminate it. On December 22, 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed a law specifying that the Pledge should “be rendered by standing with the right hand over the heart,” as it is today.

I’m a few days later with this post… I do hope you had a joyful July.

This is the second post in the monthly series: Time Capsule. (Check out the last post). Each month I’ll dig through the archives and dust off a few posts from years gone by. All posts are historical, but some are occasionally hysterical, and all offer a glimpse into the ideas, lessons, and adventures that have shaped my journey.

Now, here are posts from July’s-gone-by on my blog that I think are fun and worth reading! I hope you’ll peruse a few! If you’re not a subscriber yet, please hit the subscribe button!

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In Notes from the Trail history:

• The radical growth of Christianity among Gen Z (2025)

Not only is faith in Jesus growing significantly among all generations, but already in 2026, “…over 19.1 million Bibles were sold in the U.S., marking a 12% increase from the previous year and reflecting a significant growth trend in Bible sales over the past decade. This surge is attributed to both first-time and repeat buyers, particularly among younger generations.” The Lifeway Research 2025 State of Discipleship study found “61% of U.S. Protestant churchgoers read the Bible at least a few times a week, up from 36% in 2007.”1

• The unsettling assassination attempt of Donald Trump (2024)

This post was a disturbing look at the lunatic hatred directed against President Trump. Since it was written, there have been at least two more assassination attempts (that we know of).

• Should we be gracious to Dr. Anthony Fauci? (2023)

Perhaps there’s not a more timely post than this. In the last week of July 2026, Anthony Fauci appeared before a Congressional committee to answer questions long overdue about his management of the COVID narrative and pandemic. Revelations from his journals dismayed Americans as we learned of his infatuation with fame and detestation of Trump (remember 2020 was an election year in which the pandemic raged).

“Extending grace does not nullify the pursuit of justice.”

• Two-part parenting series (2023)

In The primacy of parenting and Parenting perspectives, Part 2, I asked the question, “Could it be that a nation is either blessed or cursed by… parenting?”

“Parenting is a responsibility that is founded in leadership. Parents must lead their kids, not allow their kids to lead them.”

• Dependence Day (2021)

As we have celebrated our nation’s 250th birthday this year, this post reminds us that “we trivialize what we do not sacrifice for.”

• A note to churches: insist on sabbatical (2020)

In the summer of 2020, I was blessed to take a sabbatical. If you’ll remember, 2020 was not a fun year! It was a timely sabbatical. I’m still grateful. This post urges churches to insist their minister take sabbaticals.

“Churches, insist on sabbaticals. Ministers and members may discover that they love the season of sabbatical and the lessons learned during it as much as they enjoy being served by a refreshed leader post-sabbatical.”

You can read the entire series of my sabbatical reflections here.

• More reasons people leave the church (2019)

It’s hard to believe that saying “yes” too much may lead someone to leave your church. Another possibility for leavers is when a member becomes embarrassed about their uninvolvement.

• Loving politics is easier than loving politicians (2017)

I still love politics, but in 2017, it was hard to love politicians. In this post, read 10 points to keep political discourse healthy and wholesome. In addition, you must read Denise McAllister’s article “Voting for Trump Is Not Idolatry.”

• “Hey hey hey” hair advice (2016)

This may be one of the most unusual encounters I had. I was offered a prescription for growing hair in a Mexican restaurant.

• A one year Virginia birthday (2010)

This post celebrated our move to Virginia from Arkansas and also looked back at so much to be grateful for.

• Learning to give (2007)

This post details my journey to faithful generosity in my tithing. I wasn’t a tither when I got married. Hint: Carolyn was right. I was wrong.

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