Friends: I was paying attention to global events even when I wasn’t a Bible-abiding Christian. Let’s maximize this chance to build the world.  - Bob

--- --- ---

Spirituality Column #1014

April 21, 2026

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

Religious Studies

By Bob Walters

“Hate what is evil, cling to what is good.” – Romans 12:9

I wandered away from church in my mid-teens, but wandered back at age 47.

As cited here just last week, I mention this life-shift often. I suppose the frequent retelling is because I’m as surprised to be a believing, functioning, Bible-literate, church-living Christian as I’ve been surprised by any turn in my life.

My Episcopal youth in Kokomo as an altar boy (acolyte) was fine. But I aged out of that (14-ish), couldn’t sing (so I just sat there), the service changed (the New Liturgy of the late 1960s), and I had a busy high school career of sports, friends, and extra-curricular activities.  Nothing among my interests or formal education soon pointed me back to church.

But I did pay attention to world events including the too-frequent Middle East skyjackings, the attack on the Israeli Olympic team at the 1972 games in in Munich, the 1979 kidnapping of U.S. diplomats and military in Tehran (i.e., The Hostage Crisis}, Lockerbie Square, the Libyan encounters of the 1980s, the Gulf War in the 1990s, and of course, 9/11.

I mention these specifically because they all involved Muslims as the perpetrators, and until 9/11, I really had no curiosity, animosity, or knowledge of Islam. “Jihad” entered the American lexicon in the 1970s, but all I knew was that Islam seemed to be very, very mad at the West but I had no idea why.

“Death to America.” “The Great Satan.”  Well, what did I/we ever do to you?

In an ironic but perfect twist of timing, my first return to pretty much any Sunday church service was September 2, 2001 (search that date in my blog for details). There I met retired pastor Russ Blowers who suggested we do lunch. Nine days later was 9/11.

We kept that lunch date later in September when as a new believer – though at that point I wasn’t sure what it was I believed – I was embarrassed as Russ said grace right there in a public restaurant, the original Sahm’s on Allisonville in Fishers.

As we discussed 9/11, Russ noted that despite 50 years of ministry he knew little about Islam, while I knew nothing.  I had seen a then-recent Wall Street Journal editorial about a new book on Islam, What Went Wrong, by Princeton professor and Islamic expert Bernard Lewis. We agreed to read it together, and it was eye-opening.

In May of 2002 I met George Bebawi, a guest at a small gathering here in Indianapolis of old high school friends from Kokomo. He was a divinity lecturer at Cambridge University who was born Jewish, grew up in Cairo in a Muslim neighborhood, and in his late teens became a Christian and then a Coptic Orthodox priest with a Cambridge PhD. He knew – sorry for the all-caps – a LOT about Islam that both fueled and quenched my curiosity.

Russ also introduced me to the magazine First Things, a scholarly Catholic journal of religion, philosophy and culture that leans heavily conservative but carries all sides of many issues. I’ve been a monthly reader since 2007.

So, I look back at Russ and George showing up in my faith life and intellectual life when they did, as intensely as they did, and the lasting impact they’ve had with my own continuing studies. I’m thankful for, and trusting of, the perspective I’ve gained. 

There is an awful lot of chaff flying in the current swirling winds of commentary about Iran, Trump, the Pope, Just War Theory, Democrat hostility, media subterfuge, MAGA desertions, international politics, energy, economics, globalism, and much else.

We must discern wisely. All this to say I’m glad Iran’s Shi’ite theocracy won’t have a nuclear weapon soon, or hopefully ever. Let’s build the world, not destroy it.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) this week chose his words very carefully.