Motives

The Obama administration’s revealing comment that terror groups such as ISIS would be stymied if their members had jobs is not only naive, though it is that. It betrays a blinkered, materialistic perspective common in the West today–that people really care only about and are motivated by material things.

This very Marxist interpretation of human behavior not only fails to do justice to the motives and worldview of the Islamic State. At a more basic level it fails to grasp the incurable religious impulse at the heart of most of human history. Perhaps one reason the president is so loath to name the religious motives of ISIS is because, as a basically secular man, he has lost the ability to comprehend them.

About Stan Guthrie

Stan Guthrie is an editor at large for Christianity Today magazine and for the Chuck Colson Center for Christian Worldview. His latest book is God's Story in 66 Verses. He also is author of All that Jesus Asks: How His Questions Can Teach and Transform Us, Missions in the Third Millennium: 21 Key Trends for the 21st Century, and A Concise Guide to Bible Prophecy. He is co-author of The Sacrament of Evangelism. Besides authoring, writing, and editing books, Stan is a literary agent, bringing together good authors, good books, and good publishers. Stan writes the monthly Priorities colum for BreakPoint.org. He has appeared on National Public Radio's €œTell Me More,€ WGN's Milt Rosenberg program, and many Christian shows, including The Eric Metaxas Show and Moody Radio'€™s €œNew Day Florida.€ A licensed minister and an inspirational speaker, he served as moderator for the Christian Book Expo panel discussion, Does the God of Christianity Exist, and What Difference Does It Make?
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