Crosstalk: March 26, 2019

The edition of Crosstalk began with the announcement from the White House that the U.S. is officially recognizing Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan Heights. This is a view that flies in the face of the international community but marks yet another change in U.S. policy toward Israel.

Recently all of us became aware of the senseless taking of 50 lives in New Zealand, a tragedy that appears to be causing the nation to rapidly embrace Islam and bring forth new policies on gun control.

Joining Jim live from New Zealand was Joshua Riddle. Joshua was home schooled and saved before his 11th birthday. He’s deeply interested in church history, theology and Christian apologetics as it relates to cults and Islam, as well as how to refute such beliefs from a biblical and historical perspective. He’s concerned about the spiritual direction of his country and is a resident of New Zealand.

After giving a brief summary of the shooting at 2 mosques, Jim relayed information from early reports indicating that the shooting suspect is a nationalist, one who expressed anti-immigrant sentiments, some called him a Trump supporter, and an honorary professor of theology labeled him as coming out of Christian extremism.

Joshua, however, has a different view. The suspect is very anti-Christian, he disbelieves the policies of Trump, and China is his preferred form of government.

Jim added to that narrative by noting that the suspect believes capitalism is destroying the planet, fossil fuel use is causing global warming, and that all guns should be banned. Interestingly, he used guns in order to get politicians to ban them, he views the planet as being over-populated, and claims he wanted to help eliminate invaders who have more children than native New Zealanders. In other words, he’s an eco-fascist.

Other facets of this tragedy point to an embracing of Islam. For example, the prime minister and other female members of parliament went to the refugee center wearing a hijab.

Then the Speaker of the House brought in an Imam to pray before members of parliament. In attendance was a Jewish rabbi, a Catholic bishop, an Anglican priest, a Buddhist monk and a Sikh priest.

In the aftermath of this tragedy, the atmosphere in the nation is perhaps best summed up as Joshua quoted from the front page of the ‘Australian’ where it said, ‘In face of racist terror, we are all Muslims today.’

Jim and Joshua presented much more on this issue, while Crosstalk listeners added their views as well.