How a Radical Jihadist Led me to Jesus – Part 2
By editor on Sep 8, 2009 in Commentary, Featured
How a Radical Jihadist Led me to Jesus
by Aaron D. Taylor
(excerpted from Alone With A Jihadist)
For weeks I walked around in a daze. I couldn’t get the thought out of my mind that if Khalid and his repeated threats to fight with all means necessary until U.S. troops are removed from Muslim lands, if his ideas represent only 10% of the 1.3 billion Muslims of the world, then we are looking at a problem of global significance. Hearing the rage and frustration of Khalid helped me to see that the anger and frustration of millions of Muslims directed at America and Western Civilization didn’t emerge from a vacuum. And how many jihadists does it take to execute a terrorist attack capable of destabilizing the world order? Only a handful. All I could think of was America is not ready for this.
But then another thought struck me.
As I poured myself into watching documentaries, reading scholarly journals online, and scrutinizing the TV news, I realized that something was changing on the inside of me, but I couldn’t put my finger on what it was. After a couple of months I realized that something had happened during my debate with Khalid that I never thought would happen. Khalid had presented an authentic challenge to my faith and I knew that if there was to be any victory at all, like the victory that was prophesied, then I would have to get to the bottom of the issue. Khalid’s charge was simple. Jesus didn’t leave the world with a comprehensive social system, economic system, political system, or any other kind of system to regulate society. At least Muhammed attempted to solve the world’s problems.
Tell me, preacher man. How would you implement the Bible from a governmental point of view?
I poured over the Scriptures for months with this question in mind. Did Jesus really leave us with nothing in terms of how to implement the Scriptures from a governmental point of view? Certainly he left us with something. Or did He? If He did, then we Christians in the West had better find out what it is and get off our lazy derrieres and do something. If He didn’t, then why didn’t He—and how come the vast majority of my charismatic brothers and sisters seem to think that He did?
After months of pouring over this simple question, I realized that my entire world had been turned upside down. But the twist in the story is my life was turned upside down not because I discovered that Khalid was wrong, but because I discovered that he was right. I realized that not only did Jesus not leave a comprehensive system in place to regulate society; He flat out refused every single form of earthly power that people tried to impose on Him. Not only was He not interested in establishing an earthly throne as Israel’s rightful King; He wasn’t even interested in taking on the role of a judge (Luke 12:14).
It’s not that I didn’t know this before. It’s just that suddenly the thought of the Son of God coming to earth to live, die, and be raised from the dead—without suggesting some type of economic, judicial, or political system to give humanity a helping hand—took on a new and profound significance. If Jesus didn’t attempt to solve the world’s problems through seizing the reigns of political power, then He must have found a better way. That better way, I’ve at last discovered, is the cross. At the cross, Jesus taught humanity that it’s better to suffer injustice than to be the cause of it, it’s better to relinquish power than to pursue power, and, perhaps most importantly, it’s better to die than to kill.
I find it odd that after 25 years in the charismatic movement—including three years of Bible school, ten years of traveling the world, and countless conferences for Christian leaders—I’ve heard hundreds of sermons on the cross, but never have I heard a sermon connecting the cross to an ethic of non-violence. I’ve heard the occasional sermon about taking up the cross and denying myself (usually that translates into thou shalt pray and fast a lot). I’ve heard numerous sermon examples about how some saintly follower of Jesus way over there somewhere chose to bless his persecutors rather than to curse them, but never have I heard a sermon about the cross as a challenge for Americans to think differently about violence, war, and—God forbid!!—Patriotism.
Since my time with Khalid I’ve traveled back to Africa to build a radio station, started a vocational training program to help suffering Christians in Pakistan, and—much to the consternation of friends and family—traveled to the West Bank with Christian Peacemaker Teams. After I wrote a scathing newsletter last year detailing the suffering of Palestinians living under Israeli occupation, our ministry has lost a considerable amount of support. Most of my family and friends (including my most trusted mentors) simply don’t understand why a promising missionary like me would put his entire career on the line to challenge such sacred cows in American evangelicalism. Rarely do I feel I have the right words to say when responding to my critics. Even now, all I can think of is, on November of 2006 in a cold, abandoned London warehouse, a radical jihadist led me to Jesus.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Aaron D. Taylor was raised in a Midwestern charismatic church with the belief that Christians had a duty to take up arms in defense of their government and the ideals of freedom. He supported our actions in Iraq and asserted that only one political party was the appropriate home for true believers of God. After a meeting in London with Khalid, a militant jihadist, Taylor came away with a deep questioning of the ideals that, up to that moment, formed a cornerstone for his theology. In Alone with a Jihadist, Aaron Taylor shares his personal revelation that Christians are not to be supporters of military or other violent solutions to the world’s problems. Readers can order Alone with a Jihadist book on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, or on http://www.aarondtaylor.com
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