Anti-Christian spirit

Alexander Spinrad’s virulent assault on “Christian” Crusaders (“Maoz Tzur, our Muslim hero,” Comment & Features, December 25) reveals not only an anti-Christian spirit, but a gross ignorance of the very definition of what a Christian is.

This is understandable in a day where anybody can self-identify as a Christian. Politicians from US President Barack Obama to President-elect Donald Trump – and, yes, even the pope, who portentously claims the title “Vicar of Christ” – call themselves Christian, but it is only fair to let Jesus define who a Christian is.

Jesus said in John 14:21: “He that hath my commandments and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me.”

There is no moral equivalence between the Crusaders and the Muslim jihadis. When “Christians” try to advance Christianity with the sword, they do so in direct disobedience to the teaching and example of Jesus. When Muslims slaughter people in jihad, they are following exactly both the teaching and example of their master.

When Jesus died, he prayed: “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34). When Mohammed died, he cursed the Jews and the Christians. To cast Mohammed as the savior of the Jews, and Christians as villains, is patently wrong and extremely offensive to Christians who love Israel.

It is not helpful to slander your best friends, whose commitment to the well-being of Israel is not based on the shifting sands of politics, but on a profoundly deep religious belief in the God of the Bible. ROBERT GRIMSHAW Syracuse, Indiana