I recently read about the 16th-century origin of a common phrase still used today. It had to do with bathing, an activity which was seriously disregarded in the Middle Ages.
“Grunge” wasn’t just a fashion trend back then—it was a way of life.
Since I’ve been diagnosed—by my husband, who is NOT a doctor—with hyperosmia, a super-sensitivity to smells, I’m truly thankful I didn’t live back then.
According to the article I read, when 16th-century families filled the tub once a year (yes, I did say that) for bath night, the man of the house went first, followed by the older sons, the women, the children, and last of all, the babies.
By the time it was the baby’s turn, it was literally easy to lose sight of them in all that dirty water. Hence, the warning not to “throw the baby out with the bathwater.”
There you go—a slightly creepy trivia nugget to toss out during those awkward silences at dinner parties.
I was reminded of this notion of throwing the proverbial baby out with the bathwater while listening to a Christian pastor describe a Twitter discussion he participated in following the recent Paris terrorist attacks.
This pastor felt compelled to join the conversation when he read angry “tweets” blaming all religions for the horrific attacks perpetrated by Islamic radicals in Paris and around the world.
Born in the Middle East to Arabic parents, the pastor said he tried to graciously explain to his fellow “tweeters” that all religions are not the same. Not by a long shot.
But he eventually left the conversation, he said, when he realized he was communicating with folks who couldn’t differentiate between the teachings of Jesus and Muhammad because they simply didn’t want to know the truth about either. They were determined to dump Christianity in the murky water with radical Islam so they could justify throwing both out.
It appears our government might be doing the same thing, classifying Evangelical Christians as “religious extremists similar to Al-Qaeda” in some U.S. military training materials, according to a Fox News report.
It drives me nuts when people pluck a few Old Testament verses out of the essential historical context explained in the surrounding verses, and then conclude that Christians are essentially cut from the same cloth as Islamic jihadists.
Also often cited are atrocities committed in the name of Christ throughout history, from the Medieval Crusades to the Spanish Inquisition to the Ku Klux Klan. What’s conveniently ignored is the inconvenient truth that those kinds of things were never condoned, let alone commanded, by Christ.
If you want to understand the real differences between Islam and Christianity, simply and honestly examine the teachings of the Quran and the Bible, and then ask, “What would devoted followers of these teachings look like?”
If you search for “violence in the Bible,” you’ll find references to Old Testament stories that are clearly historical accounts, not imperatives for Jews or Christians living in any other time or place. You won’t find open-ended commands for followers of Christ to attack others.
A search for “violence in the Quran,” however, reveals commands, devoid of contextual limits, to commit acts of violence against non-Muslim “infidels,” which is exactly what experts estimate 15 to 25 percent of Muslims worldwide are committed to doing.
That translates into as many as 300 million followers of Allah who are bent on destroying the rest of us.
What, conversely, would a truly “radical” Christian look like? I think a good description can be found in Galatians 5:22-23: “… love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.”
Every devoted Christ-follower I know aspires to display those qualities. So please don’t throw us in or out with the followers of any other god.