The World Clashes With Itself

Concerning the "Clash of Civilizations" thesis being batted around right now in talk circles- where the conflicts of the Middle East are portrayed as a clash between "Christian Democratic Ciivilization" and Islam- or Islam vs. freedom and reason...another good friend of mine recently offered me this:

"I like the take of Robert Webber on all this. He says:

"God's kingdom is what narrates the world for Christians....The
Communist story arises out of an atheistic view and says we have to
bring workers and management together to create a communal world.

The Islamic fundamentalist story is that Allah will rule over the world
through Muslims. One way to implement that is to get rid of all the
infidels.

The story of democracy says freedom is the most important thing.
All three stories are political. In a contest between Communism, Islam
and democracy, I'll go with democracy. But as Christians we're about
the politics of Jesus and about the politics of the kingdom. Our
primary belongingness is to that realm, as opposed to any other
political realm. So we're at odds with all earthly politics."

I concur totally. This "Clash" is a conflict arising from a wicked and fallen World- not from any script written by God. See my "Pastor Strangelove" post- or posts about "The Myth of a Christian nation" for more thoughts on this.