I write this from my cottage deep in the woods of the Japan Alps. A generation ago, before the advent of modern telecommunications deprived us of real and true isolation and the respite it brings, I would not have been as engaged with current affairs as I am now. I might watch the NHK (Nippon Hohsoh Kyoku) evening news and perhaps pick up a newspaper to stay in touch with the netherworld, but the reflection that came so effortlessly in those times suffers interference from the rat-a-tat-tat of posts on X and Substack and Facebook. Karl Barth, the renowned evangelical theologian, said “Take your Bible and take your newspaper and read both, but interpret your newspaper from your Bible.” I can’t ignore what is going on in the world.
A good Christian is a good citizen, and a Christian in a democratic republic under siege, the way our American republic is, had better pay attention. His prayers, his advocacy, and his vote may seem to be insignificant, but not participating is a posture even more insignificant.
Today back stateside it is the first anniversary of the assassination of Charlie Kirk. The juvenile delinquents on Tik Tok call it the “Kirkiversary” or “Kirkmas” as though it were a holiday to be celebrated. Charlie engaged in the sort of “conversation” that leftists purport to promote, but Charlie’s reward for going one-on-one with college kids and dialoguing with them got him a shot in the neck that stopped him dead in his tracks.
It’s already September the 11th here in Japan. Twenty-five years ago this morning, a colleague from church called me and told me to turn on my television. The scene on every channel was of the burning effects of the collision of the first jetliner that plowed into the World Trade Center in Manhattan. Then we watched live as the second plane smashed into the second tower.
That was a Tuesday. I remember going with ny wife to a certain Episcopal parish for the Eucharist on the following Sunday and hearing the former Catholic priest, now Episcopal priest, say something extraordinary in his homily. There is no personal evil, he said, or words to that effect. I am sure that he meant to say that there is no Devil, and I concluded that he probably meant that Mohammed Atta and his band of 19 terrorists were not influenced by demonic voices, that Satan was not responsible for ginning up the murderous hatred in their hearts toward our united States and her people.
Despite the demythologizing bent of Episcopal clergymen and -women, one can say with confidence that Islam is demonic. There is no need to separate run-of-the-mill Muslims from “Islamists” or “radical Muslims” when we speak of the theology of that belligerent ideology. Jesus had said that the Devil is come to steal, to kill, and to destroy. Islam is a cult, a death cult, whose ridiculous claims stem from the contradictory delusions of a seventh-century bedouin who raped, pillaged, and slaughtered his way through Arabia. Just like his father, the Devil. Their “Allah” is decidedly not the same spirit as the Allah whom Coptic Christians worship. Their Allah is Satan himself.
It was Satan who compelled Osama bin Laden and the 9/11 hijackers to commit mass murder and destruction twenty-five years ago today, just as it was Satan who inspired a young man named Robinson to take down Charlie Kirk with one shot twenty-four years later. Muslims who recall with fondness the atrocities of 9/11 and twisted kids who dance at the first anniversary of Charlie’s murder are enemies of our society by their own choice because they listened to that same dark voice from the enemy of mankind from the foundation of the world. They used their God-given human agency to go over to the dark side.
Neither Islam nor Leftism is a force for good in the world. May they both be utterly defeated and eliminated, and may God’s will be done on Earth as it is in heaven. Satan is up to no good, but Jesus Christ is come to grant life, and that more abundantly. All praise be to Him now and forever unto ages of ages.
Handwritings on the Wall 