Study & Discussion Guide

Should Christians Try to Stop a Mosque?

A three-session study on religious liberty, the three God-given spheres, wise civic engagement — and the church's most neglected calling.

A mosque expansion in McKinney, Texas turned a city-council meeting into national news, and left a lot of Christians asking a genuinely hard question: should we try, legally, to stop it? The easy answers come from both sides — "of course not, we're religious-liberty people" and "of course we should, it's false worship." This episode refuses both easy answers and sits in the tension. The hosts are candid that they're still working it out — so read it that way, with an open Bible, and land where the text and a clear conscience take you.

The Question & the Two Ditches

Evangelism and the Common Good

▶ approx. 0:00 – 12:00 · 36:00 – 51:00

Before any policy question, the episode names a discipleship problem: Christians tend to collapse into one of two ditches. The way out is learning to think in categories — or as the hosts put it, "sphere sovereignty."

Key points

• Start with posture. Some Christians at that meeting "did not conduct themselves like disciples of Jesus." Whatever your convictions, Scripture is not optional here: "correct opponents with gentleness and respect" (2 Timothy 2:24–25), as people "of power and love and self-control." A right cause pursued in a hard, angry spirit still isn't Team Jesus.
• Three God-given spheres. God established three institutions, each with its own lane: the family, the church, and the state. When each stays in its lane, society flourishes. The church's primary job is the Great Commission — share Christ, love people, send missionaries (Matthew 28:18–20). The state's job (Romans 13:1–4) is to reward good and restrain evil — with God, not us, defining good and evil.
• Ditch #1 — "only evangelism." Some Christians think the church's only concern is evangelism, and they despise anyone worried about culture. But maturity means also asking, wisely, "what is the role of the state?" (Paul: stop thinking like children — 1 Corinthians 14:20.)
• Ditch #2 — "only politics." Others think only about immigration, the First Amendment, and Islamification — and "never develop the heart of Jesus Christ for the salvation of Muslim people. They become crusty, angry, hard." That's just as broken.
• The both/and. "I can both ask how do I slow the Islamification of my society, and try to make disciples of Muslims. It's not either/or — it can't be." Consider Paul in Athens: his spirit was "provoked" — literally angered — by a city full of idols (Acts 17:16). His response? He reasoned in the synagogue and the marketplace and preached Christ. Anger's right flinch is the gospel.

Wise as Serpents

The Legal & Civic Question

▶ approx. 10:00 – 35:00 · 43:00 – 68:00

Here the episode gets into the weeds — American history, the First Amendment, and how a Christian might act with integrity. Weigh the historical and legal claims for yourself; the principle the hosts keep returning to is Jesus': "wise as serpents and innocent as doves" (Matthew 10:16).

Key points

• "What's legal" isn't the only question. Slavery and abortion were once legal; Christians rightly opposed them. As Dr. King wrote from the Birmingham jail, a human law is just only insofar as it squares with the law of God. So Christians ask two questions: what is legal, and what is right?
• A history worth checking (the hosts' claims). They argue the First Amendment was not originally read as "treat all religions equally" — pointing to state churches in most of the original colonies, Sabbath and blasphemy laws, and older court language — and that a 1947 Supreme Court case (Everson v. Board of Education) reinterpreted it and applied it to states and cities. This is contested history; don't take their word or anyone's — go read it.
• Where Josh lands. A Christian can in good conscience legally oppose a mosque — but only on legitimate, honest grounds (zoning, traffic, drainage, parking). What you cannot do is ask a council to refuse it because it is a mosque — that's unlawful now, and you'll just "lose in a blaze of glory" (as happened in Broken Arrow, OK, which drew a federal investigation). Integrity matters: only file on grounds you can honestly stand behind.
• Play fair, because they can play back. Paul Cunningham's honest checks: Would I oppose a Jehovah's Witness hall's zoning too? If not, is my rule consistent? And: secular cities already use "zoning issues" to block church plants — "if we're going to play that game, we've got to know they may play it back with us." Keep the both/and; keep the tension.
• Salt of the earth, not salt of the church. Jesus sent disciples to be salt and light in the world, not to keep it in the shaker (Matthew 5:13–16). Where the early church "couldn't" shape policy (120 believers in an empire), later Christians could — and today every citizen carries real civic influence through the vote. How you vote is part of how you follow Jesus. The most durable work is often local: school boards and city councils, not just national elections.

The Part Everyone Skips

The Bigger Problem Is Us

▶ approx. 66:00 – 71:00

Whatever you conclude about zoning and law, the hosts end on the note they say matters most — and it turns the spotlight around.

Key points

• Love the people, not just the debate. The first item on Josh's own list of "what a Christian should do" is to share Christ with Muslims — "you worshiping a demon, I want you to worship Jesus… I want to see you in heaven forever." The concern about a false religion never gets to erase Christ's heart for the person in it.
• A convert's gut-punch. Shariq Khan, who came to Christ out of Islam, works in McKinney and gave the episode its closing word: "The biggest problem isn't that Muslims and Hindus are moving here. It's that the church is largely absent… we've outsourced our evangelism to a single morning where we storm a meeting and get loud for five hours. Where were the other 364 days?"
• The verdict on the whole conversation. A church that only shows up for the political fight — and never for the neighbor — has misread its own assignment. The mosque is not the church's biggest problem; the church's absence is.
• Don't just study this — do it. Josh closes on James: "do not merely be hearers of the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says" (James 1:22). This guide, and this whole question, fails if it ends in an argument instead of a changed life.