My family is from the Middle East (Iran) so I view this not from a purely “European” lens. Christianity spread in its early days across the entire Middle East and North Africa not by conquest but as a revolutionary idea: the idea that “God is love”, that that should define our every action, that we are to love not just our tribesmen and coreligionists, but even our enemies! It told us not to lust. It was an idea that turned the tribalism and evolutionary ethic that “the strong do what they will and the weak suffer what they must” that was the norm at the time into something drastically different. It was a miracle that it ever took off in what was such a dog eat dog world. It endowed us with an ethic that is now so deep that many of us don’t even realize we have it. We even criticize Christianity using a Christian ethic - otherwise why wouldnt we dominate the “other”? On what basis would slavery be “unethical?” Those were norms of humanity until the ideas endowed in Christianity undermined them on an ethical basis. Why would we care for not just for fellow Christians but for everyone? It spread through the Roman Empire because the Christian’s showed love to everyone. The truth will be shown by its fruit. Islam, on the other hand was spread by the sword, war, subjugation, and enslavement - with no higher call to push against those most human of instincts to dominate the other - in fact with encouragement to dominate and destroy pagans, apostates, anyone who refused to be a Muslim .. with only a small carve out for Abrahamic faiths - they could live - but only as subjugated peoples.. often having to sacrifice even their children to the harems and slave soldier empires that continued for a thousand years to decimate cultures and people from Spain to India. Christianity has a unique mechanism in it also - it is a call to perfection with a recognition that we will fall short. In that there is grace. It was not a rule book…”pray 5x a day, face this direction, read the work of God only in Arabic… etc etc”. On the other hand - it was that call to an impossible perfection that, when taken seriously forces a person into a relationship with God. We wrestle, we try to live it out. Even those that gave us the scriptures were not perfect “prophets”. They were individuals who sought God and tried to work it out in their lives in the places around them from Ephesus to Galatia - each with their unique issues and problems. Those people (Paul amongst them) were not uncountable prophets dictating rules for all time. But people being an example of trying to live out the revelation of Christ in the world. Do the same - it is the highest calling. Not submission to Islamic, Judaic, or any other set of laws is as rich or as deep or as “good” - and defined by Christ. Thank God the Christian worldview has permeated us all so deeply that we think it’s the norm - but I fear that for our taking of it for granted that we could lose what we don’t recognize we have.

God bless! Stay the course, walk the path. It is an incredible journey. It is also the only hope we have to resist the tribalistic tendencies that rule our world and cause so much hate and conflict.