I stepped into Hademe’s office. He had an aerial view of Vatican City on his computer screen. His fascination stems from the bestselling book, The DaVinci Code, which he has read four times. Hademe is married to a conservative Muslim woman. He himself has nothing to do with religion, but he defends Islam stoutly whenever I imply that it has some shortcomings.

As we looked at the Vatican, he said, “let me teach you a Turkish word: Palavra. It means grand lie.” He was referring to the Papacy.
It was a perfect setup for me to test my new witnessing strategy I had written about just four days before (see last month’s article). I said, “While visiting a Catholic country this summer, I realized how many lies the people are bound up in. I am convinced that there are five big lies every Catholic must forsake. Hademe’s eyes gleamed with interest.

“Idolatry is a sin,” I began. (Of course, any Muslim knows this.) I told how the Catholic Church had altered the Ten Commandments, wholly deleting the second one. This was news to Hademe. He received it gleefully, cheering in defense of the Commandments, though he’d never read them himself. “I went to one cathedral,” I told him, “and saw a statue of Moses holding the Ten Commandments, and the second one was missing!” Hademe nodded in amazed indignation.

Then I unloaded bomb number one on my friend of seven months: “People’s failure to see this lie is exactly what you’d expect since they don’t read the Bible. It’s a classic Palavra. These Catholic people need help!” A look of shocked reflection crossed Hademe’s face. Muslims don’t read the Bible either, and that fact had pierced his heart.

Bomb one had been a bull’s-eye, and Hademe seemed to have an appetite for more, so I unloaded bomb two. “Catholics need to know that human priests cannot forgive sins.” Hademe agreed again, and then began to describe the scales on the Day of Judgment and how no one would really know whether they were forgiven until then.

“Hademe, this is where you and I differ a bit,” I said carefully. “I believe the holy scriptures teach that heaven’s reward is a gift of God. I can be sure of the gift today. I can’t get to heaven because I’m good; only because God is good. Really, we are all so bad that we all deserve to be destroyed.” I could see that Hademe absorbed this thought deeply. He has done some bad things, and deep down, he knows he will never make it by Islamic standards.

I saved bombs three, four, and five for another day. Our conversation ended after Hademe lapped up several illustrations of grace. Nervous at the sensibility of truth, and protecting his worldly man, Hademe then changed the subject. “You know, there is an Anthony Quinn movie called, “Mohammed—Prophet of God.” I’ll see if I can get it for you . . .”

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