Christianity and the Immune System

 

I have been struck with the similarities of how disease affects our bodies and how evil corrupts society. The HIV virus, for instance, “deceives” and invades healthy immune cells, and through a complicated process reprograms them to become HIV-producing factories. Slowly, the number of healthy immune cells dwindles and AIDS [Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome] develops, rendering the body susceptible to many diseases.  HIV corrupts and disables the system that should be guarding against HIV.  In Nazi Germany, Hitler professed Christianity and pledged to maintain religious freedom in order to gain support from the Catholic Pope. As his power grew, he replaced the Cross with the swastika, the Bible with Mein Kampf, and forbade pastors to speak from the pulpits of churches unless they professed the state religion. He eventually burned the Bible and indoctrinated young minds toward a political religion of his own devisal [obviously analogous to the HIV virus replicating itself]. He secretly loathed Christianity and saw it as a threat to his power [as it thankfully turned out to be in the work of true Christians like Dietrich Bonheoffer and millions of others who fought against the spread of the Third Reich].

In the cases of HIV and of the Third Reich, we see the dynamics of deception, invasion, corrosion, replacement and destruction. If we compare the body’s immune system to the Christian Faith, we see that many Christians of the day were deceived by Hitler; in the same manner that healthy T-cells are deceived by the HIV virus. If the body survives, the viral process is thwarted and enough healthy cells remain to protect the organism. This is analogous to the Allied victory in WWII.

 

Some view the Christian Faith or Western Culture as the virus that infects and destroys other cultures or religions. Currently Islamic extremists enact violence to push back what they perceive to be the corrosive effects of Christianity and westernization. Quoting an article by Steven Emerson entitled “Boston Bomber Reveals Islamist Secret”, recorded in “The Jewish World Review”:

 

That motivation echoes justifications offered by Army psychiatrist Nidal Hasan for the Fort Hood shooting spree that killed 13 people and Faisal Shahzad's sentencing rant about his attempt to bomb Times Square in 2010. "The crusading U.S. and NATO forces who have occupied the Muslim lands under the pretext of democracy and freedom for the last nine years and are saying with their mouths that they are fighting terrorism, I say to them, we don't accept your democracy nor your freedom, because we already have Sharia law and freedom," Shahzad told the court. "Furthermore, brace yourselves, because the war with Muslims has just begun. Consider me only a first droplet of the flood that will follow me."

 

We are faced with the decision of which philosophy/theology to consider healthy, and which to consider the invasive, corroding factor. In making this decision, let us examine carefully and openly the “fruit” or results of those cultures that have been dominated or guided by each philosophy/theology. One important factor to consider in our response to this clash of religiously-shaped cultures is the fact that Islam, as opposed to both Christianity and Judaism, does not co-exist peacefully with other religions/cultures once it has gained dominance. As a life-long Christian, seminary graduate and serious Bible student, I think I can say conclusively that Christianity promotes voluntary transformation from within, but never justifies force, coercion or violence against unbelievers. Jesus Himself gave us this example. And this fact is born out in history. Antagonists would point out such events as the Crusades, bombing of abortion clinics and the medieval witch executions as examples to the contrary. Regarding the Crusades: It is frequently overlooked that they were in response to brutal expansion of Islam in that time period, and without them the world would likely be even more Islamized than it is today. But all examples of religious-motivated violence outside Islam pales in comparison to that within Islam, which is almost a daily occurrence. It is simply not rational to put religious violence enacted by radicals outside Islam on an equal par with that enacted within Islam, and to accuse those who point this out as being “Islam phobic”.  Christians all over the world join with non-Christians in protesting loudly and immediately against any violent act committed in the name of Christ.  Conversely, Islamists cry out against those who protest their brothers’ violent acts,  calling them “Islamophobes”. This only increases, in the non-Muslim world, suspicion and fear regarding the true motives and direction of Islam.  Or perhaps it reveals what those true motives are for a large number of Muslims who would, for now at least, label themselves moderate. One cannot help but wonder what resistance, if any, moderate Muslims would put forth against radical Muslims who were oppressing non-Muslims in a Muslim-dominated culture.  It seems likely that, if they did put forth resistance, they would themselves become the focus of such oppression. And why do that when your holy book [the Koran] teaches what the radicals are fighting for?

Christianity, I believe, is the nation’s or culture’s immune system against such oppression and invasion. To point out the violent or pathological manifestations of Christianity in an effort to support a movement toward its exclusion or eradication is equivalent to pointing out the autoimmune diseases [diseases like diabetes, crohn’s disease, or rheumatoid arthritis which are caused by an adverse or over-reaction of the immune system]  as a reason to eliminate the immune system.  This would represent a gross oversight of the good that comes from both the body’s immune system and the Christian Faith.

 

But we must keep our immune system healthy, vibrant and strong. This can never mean hateful, violent or fearful. But Christians must, more than ever, abide in Christ—in His peace, compassion, and courageous adherence to Truth. We must not stick our heads in the sand nor be deceived by nice-sounding philosophies of political-correctness or tolerance. Regarding tolerance, perhaps we should be guided by the wisdom of the physical body, which assimilates all that is healthy and enhances its survival, but which repels, expels or destroys that which is toxic to its survival.