But they're so much better than me!

I am currently reading a book entitled, The Lost History of Christianity by Phillip Jenkins. The book talks of how strong and prevalent Christianity was in Asia from the Middle East, to India, China and even Japan, but eventually through various wars and conquest those churches were virtually wiped out. It is a fascinating story.

There is a point that he makes several times in the book about how a conquered people will often try to imitate their conquerors. In this case, those conquered by followers of Islam started to copy their conquerors. Now the reasons can be varied: the lack of a structured church, with ministers, schools and community or the fact that unless you converted to the conquerors belief system you were considered a second class citizen with virtually no rights or protections.

One of the reasons that is mentioned is the most compelling, I think. Do you switch to the conquerors belief system because, evidently, that is the one the God is really behind? According to the author, that was a compelling reason for many of the conversions. The fact that the Christian armies, navies and kingdoms were destroyed one after another without a significant victory for 400 centuries made many believe that Christianity was false or at least very weak. Why follow a religion that is getting kicked out of all the power of the known world?

Now of course, our mindset has changed quite a bit, at least here in the west. We don't think because we failed a decisive victory in Vietnam or Korea that the United States is following an incorrect policy, possibly the wrong way to fight but not that the United State's system of values and philosophy of freedom is wrong. Or because of the speed of wiping out armies in Iraq means that we are now following a correct or God approved policy. There are those that say we suffered the terrorists attack on 9/11 because of the sin of the country as a whole though. Those same people and others will say the same about Katrina in New Orleans or the Tsunami in India or even the earthquake/tidal wave/nuclear issue in Japan.

What do you say? Does God allow tragedy to strike a nation in order to bring that nation to heel? And on a more personal note, what about individuals? What about you? Do you have cancer, arthritis, suffer a job loss, because God is bringing you to heel. Is that the way He gets our attention? Is pain and discomfort the shout of God? The only way He can get our attention, much like how we raise our voice to get our kids to listen to us. And if you say yes, does that mean if I am following His path, doing as He wants everything is going to go great? And if it is Yes to one but no to the other, how do you reconcile that?

Tell me what you think.