No such thing as good Islam, Baptist theologian argues

Mark CoppengerIn his column for the Florida Baptist Witness newspaper, religion professor Mark Coppenger discusses the two schools of thought on Islam: one that contends that Islam is a “great religion with awesome accomplishments” and the other that it is a “false and dangerous ideology”.

Of those two schools, Coppenger argues, “I’m urging folks to matriculate in the later. In fact, I’m not convinced the former should be accredited.”

He discounts the fact that majority of Muslims are not aggressive and oppressive: “You don’t define a faith by the behavior of its slackers or its observants who lack the numbers and power to fully advance their agenda, as is currently the case with Muslims in the West.”

And then gives his own reasons why Islam is a bad religion doomed to ruin: “When you start with an adulterous warrior-profit, who is literally anti-Christ (though touting a non-biblical version of Jesus), mix in generous helpings of totalitarianism and the marginalization/persecution of women and non-Muslims, and cultivate tribalism, legalism, and victimism, you have a recipe for disaster.”

Coppenger, who is professor of Christian apologetics at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, makes no apologies for his condemnation of Islam: “… let’s not be cowed by charges of ‘Islamophobia’ when we rehearse the unmatched, bloody record of Muslim terrorist attacks… Such talk may not be our calling or your cup of tea, but it has its place if I read my Bible right.”

Orlando Sentinel, 19 September 2011