BY DON WILDMON | AFA Founder/Chairman

Did you ever play the "what if" game? Of course you did. Let’s play it again. Perhaps this time it will mean more to us.

What if, instead of this country having been founded by Christians who came from Europe looking for religious freedom, instead we were founded by explorers from a Muslim country?

Wrap your mind around that possibility for a moment. Never thought much about it, you say? Maybe you should. Maybe by doing so, we would appreciate and try harder to preserve what we have.

Take the area of politics. What if, instead of a country founded on a Christian worldview, we had been a Muslim country? What would our country be like?

Arnold Toynbee, the historian, once said that if you want to study comparative religions, don’t buy a book but buy a ticket. There is a lot of wisdom in that statement. A textbook may tell you one thing, but a personal visit will give you reality.

Those who have visited other countries where Islam is the majority religion will find a different political system. Wahhabi, a branch within Islam and the official state religion of Saudi Arabia, condemns democracy as un-Islamic. Anyone remember the last time there was a political election in Saudi Arabia?

There is no democratic country that is under the rule of Islam. Turkey is the closest thing to it. You don’t elect a president and members of Congress in Syria, or Iran, or Kuwait. Why? Because their political system is different.

Take education. What kind of educational system would we have in this country if we had based our worldview on Islamic law? Think the students would be free to explore the wide range of variables in search of truth?

Take the family. What if our country were Islamic? How would our families look? One man and one woman? Maybe. Or one man and two, three, even four wives? And would boys and girls have the same opportunities? What would be the status of women if we had been established as a Muslim nation?

Some people put an extremely low value on religion, saying in essence that any religion or no religion will get you to the same place. If you believe that, I suggest you buy a ticket and take a long journey to see if what you say is true.

When you go to bed tonight, and when you wake up tomorrow, thank God –not only that you live in this country – but thank Him also for those who founded it.

Thank God it was founded on a Christian worldview.