I saw an episode of 30 Days, Morgan Spurlock’s new show on FX. You’ll remember Morgan from Supersize Me, the movie which convinced quite a few people to stop eating McDonald’s all together.
The premise of this show is the fish out of water concept. Take a person and put them into a totally different environment for 30 days.
So this particular episode show a Christian from West Virginia living as a Muslim for 30 days. He had to participate in everything a typical Muslim would do for 30 days. He lived with a Muslim family, ate Muslim approved food, and participated in Muslim rituals.
And during all this I discovered something about Muslims:
Islam promotes Obsessive Compulsive Disorder
What other religion would systematically compel their followers to pray 5 times a day at specific times. And have a certain way of praying. Prostraiting oneself on the floor…toward Mecca. Which makes one think, are you worshipping Allah or Mecca?
Also Muslims have to eat approved meat. It’s somewhat like Kosher meat that Jews have to eat. However at slaughterhouses, when slaughtering the animal, the butcher must turn the animal’s carcass toward the east and utter a phrase in Arabic just before killing it. Why this is so important to God, I don’t know. But I just seems a bit compulsive to me.
Part of the show dealt with everyday Muslims refusal to condemn, or even apologize for extremist views. The typical Muslim view is that these extremists are the fringe group. However Muslim leaders don’t seem to urge compromise. If anything they look the other direction while embassies are burned over Danish editorial cartoons.
Still the concept of a religious rules being very very close to OCD, is not foreign to some Christians. Unfortunately some Christians tend to look at their religion as a set of rules which MUST be followed or else one ends up being punished in Hell. I used to look at life that way. What I missed was the concept of grace. You’ll never be good enough for heaven. But you are made perfect through God. So live your live the best you know how and don’t let rules get in the way.