A tale of two sets of parents

There has been a great deal of outcry over the plight of Rifqa Bary, the seventeen year old Christian convert who has fled her Muslim family and run off to Florida. She claims her father threatened to kill her for her apostasy. Christians have by and large supported this young sister in Christ and understand her fear of her parents wrath. What Christian isn’t overjoyed to see this young woman freed from the bondage of Islam and set free as only Christ can.

On the other hand…

What would we think if it were a child raised in a devout Christian home who converted to Islam and fled from Indiana to California to stay with a Muslim couple?

Well, that is completely different! What about the danger of her dad killing her? There have been a couple of incidents where Muslim fathers have killed their daughters in so called “honor killings” so her fears are legitimate and she shouldn’t have to go back to her parents. After all she is almost 18 and an adult.

Really?

There are well over 1,000,000 Muslims in America. There are two recorded incidents in America of "honor killings". Honestly, there have probably been more cases of children dying in so-called Christian homes because faith healing advocates refused to get them medical care than Muslims killing their children for conversions outside of Islam.

My point here, as always, is to try to get us to think outside of the lens of American=Christian. This young woman is probably not really in much danger, especially given the attention she has received. It is against the law in Ohio to kill your seventeen year old daughter for any reason (I grew up in Ohio and I am confident that murder is against the law there). She is a minor and needs to be under her parents authority within the boundaries of the law. We would be outraged if the situation were reversed, but religious liberty is religious liberty.

It is disingenuous for us to get up in arms about kids being forced back to public school by a judge in New Hampshire and yet not see the danger of a kid running away from her parents because she changed religions and having the government intervene. It is a dangerous, slippery slope to link arms with the government on matters of faith and religious practice. Many a Christian martyr died at the stake at the hands of the government working to promote a religious view. We should pray for our young sister and pray for her parents that the Sovereign God of the universe would regenerate their stony hearts. We should not cheer the government intervening between a parent and a child because of a religious issue.