After receiving a lot of affirmative, and some not-so-complementary, email about last week’s articles I felt this follow-up was necessary. I maintain that the Southern Baptist Convention’s legal and missions arms did the right thing in helping Muslim neighbors navigate religious freedom laws to get a mosque built, but there are examples of Christian’s crossing a line from helping one’s enemies to actually supporting a false faith. The most recent example of going too far comes from a Christian university in the heart of the very conservative state of Texas, that decided to open a prayer room for its Muslim students.

McMurry University, a Methodist institution, decided that its 60 Muslim students should not be detained from their studies by having to attend to their daily prayers either by going home or to a nearby hotel. Instead, they reasoned, Muslim students should have a space on campus for their daily prayers to Allah. Jeff Lust, McMurry’s chaplain, assisted the Muslim students in gaining the prayer room and stated in an interview to local radio station KTXS:

“We anticipate over time we’ll have students from a variety of countries and possibly different religions. We need to learn to live and work together in this world that is increasingly diverse and then we can truly become better together.”

What’s that? No mention of challenging unbelieving students with the gospel? Perhaps it’s an oversight. What we can say with certainty is that the university is showing acceptance of Islamic belief rather than confronting it.

How is this different from a Christian organization assisting a neighbor of a different faith navigate the complexities of US law? The Southern Baptist Convention was concerned with justice for all people (in this case that meant Muslim people) under the law. McMurry University, on the other hand, is permitting the worship of another god on their property. The situation might be different if the universities efforts were evangelistic in nature, but they’re not. Joe Yousef, president of the Saudi Student Club and leader of a new interfaith club, stated:

“We are going to talk about faith and belief,” he said. “Some people have their own bias. We want people to get together, so we can help each other out.”

If this were a public school or university, such inclusion would be expected. However, the very first stated Core Value of the school is to teach “Christian Faith as the foundation of life.” Permitting the practice of a false religion on campus does not promote this core value. Or “do [they] not know that friendship with the world means hostility toward God” (James 4.4)? The institution appears to be more concerned about being accepted by Muslim’s than in Muslim’s accepting Jesus as their savior.

I am not suggesting that Christian’s cannot have friendships with people of other faiths. What I am saying is that while we can accept others we cannot accept any belief or practice that opposes God’s truth. Here’s some food for thought:

We tear down arguments and every arrogant obstacle that is raised up against the knowledge of God, and we take every thought captive to make it obey Christ (2 Corinthians 10.4b-5).