Kind of a tangent, but as a ātrying to beā Christian, I think we have to claim them. Unfortunately for the world, thereās no platonic ideal Christianity floating around. Only what Christians say and do. And while I reject this version as warped and malevolent, I have to admit they fit squarely within the current of historical and theological Christianity.
Throwback to my CVE days but research told people to stop saying that Islamic terror groups were not ātrue Muslimsā or that they were ānot Islamic.ā It was a nice and well-meaning diplomatic phrasing to show that we had not declared war on the entire faith, but the fact is that Al-Qaeda and ISIS are really, really Muslim. And potential recruits were turned off when they found out those guys were super Muslim and could cite Hadith and Quran better than the folks telling them āthose guys arenāt Muslim.ā They listened a lot more to other Muslims, even conservative ones, who could explain a better way to be Muslim instead of just denying that radicalism was Islamic at all.
The decline of mainstream Christianity in our country in favor of supercharged Christo-ethnonationalism has a lot of reasons and in a lot of ways has been a spiritual-social disaster for lots of people. Itās time for us ārealā Christians to roll up the sleeves and show a better positive vision of how to be one, instead of hunkering down and saying āthat aināt us.ā