Previous Challenge Entry (Level 3 - Advanced)
Topic: GLUTTONY (overindulgence and overconsumption) (01/15/15)
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TITLE: Youthful Indulgences | Previous Challenge Entry
By Gary Ritter
01/17/15 -
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When Pastor Bennett preached that everyone should love others and seek to not only tolerate, but also embrace other religious beliefs, a cheer of approval rose from the congregation. He was speaking their language. What could be more right than interfaith acceptance, dialogues, and shared religious services, especially with their Muslim neighbors? The most wonderful part of this outreach occurred when First Church invited a local imam to call their collective congregations on Sunday morning to Muslim prayer. How stirring was that adhan and the thrilling words, “Allahu Ahkbar”!
Mark and Chrissy’s son, Travis, took their tolerant attitudes to heart. On his sixteenth birthday he announced his intention to attend Friday services at the mosque “to gain a greater understanding of Islam.” His parents encouraged this as they felt every child had to find his own way without being unduly biased by the beliefs of his family. Exposure to such a great religion was the epitome of the diversity they encouraged.
Over the next two years Travis spent more and more time at the mosque and began growing a beard. Mark and Chrissy wondered a little when he told them, “You can begin calling me “Hasan ibn Rabah al-Habashi from now on.”
This seemed a little much. After all they had named him Travis, not Hasan something or other, and they asked Pastor Bennett his opinion. He smiled and assured them not to worry. “It’s only a stage the boy is going through as he transitions to a man.”
The following summer Travis – Hasan – declared his desire to undertake a haj, or pilgrimage, to Mecca. Since Pastor Bennett had said this was all normal, his parents paid his way. He returned with a dark tan and new friends that somehow Mark and Chrissy never managed to meet.
His parents wished that Hasan hadn’t dropped out of college that next fall and moved to Boston. It was such a long distance away and they had so hoped he would finish his studies. He explained in one of his infrequent phone calls that Allah had big plans for him and he had to follow his destiny. That made Mark and Chrissy feel better. After all, if their son was doing the will of his god, who were they to interfere?
The following spring news erupted from Boston of a terrorist attack on the major modes of transportation in the area: subway, train, bus, even Logan Airport. The city ground to a halt as police searched for the perpetrators who had killed fifty-four people in the strike. After several days they apprehended three young men, part of a larger cell group, one of whom went by the name Hasan ibn Rabah al-Habashi.
Major media descended on Mark and Chrissy when the youth’s western name, Travis, was released (and then used almost exclusively from then on by the press so as not to seem biased and inflame Muslim sensibilities). In an interview a tearful Mark said, “He’s such a good boy. There must be some mistake. We know our son. He would never do such a thing.” Chrissy added, “We raised him in church to love and tolerate everyone. I can’t believe he would be responsible for such a hateful act.”
When it was learned that Pastor Bennett knew the lad he commented on TV that, “Any such acts committed in the name of Islam have nothing to do with the real religion of the Prophet Muhammad. It’s a religion of peace and we love those with whom we’ve fellowshipped.”
After Travis was convicted of first degree homicide at the trial and led from the courtroom screaming, “Death to the Great Satan! Allahu Ahkbar!” Chrissy turned to Mark and asked, “Where did we go wrong!”
Mark shook his head. “It wasn’t us, dear. Sometimes these things just happen.”
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Excellent writing here.
God bless~
God bless~