No Worse Friend, No Better Enemy
The day before a number of bombs were detonated in Nigerian churches on Christmas day, Mark Steyn wrote that the West seemed studiously oblivious to one of the great ethnic cleansings of the instant: the destruction of Christians across the world by Islamists.
On this Christmas Eve, one of the great unreported stories throughout what we used to call Christendom is the persecution of Christians around the world. In Egypt, the “Arab Spring” is going so swimmingly that Copts are already fleeing Egypt and, for those Christians that remain, Midnight Mass has to be held in the daylight for security reasons. In Iraq, midnight services have been canceled entirely for fear of bloodshed, part of the remorseless de-Christianizing that has been going on, quite shamefully, under an American imperium.
Not merely the media but Christian leaders in the west seem to be embarrassed by behavior that doesn’t conform to their dimwitted sappiness about “Facebook Revolutions”. It took a Jew to deliver this line:
When Lord Sacks, chief rabbi in England, rose in the House of Lords to speak about the persecution of Christians, he quoted Martin Luther King. “In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.”
Lord Sacks is mostly right. But it is the “friend” part he has gotten wrong. It is not Christianity’s “friends” who are silent because they are not friends. The Boko Haram and Al-Qaeda are, whatever their faults, entirely candid about what they are. It is the “caring West” that is treacherous. Save for the convenience of being able to misrepresent itself as “Christian” and thereby apologize on behalf of the victims to the perpetrators, the cultural leadership of the West has long stopped being anything but the Marxists to which they converted decades ago.
The Ottawa Citizen notes that with such ‘friends’ who needs enemies?:
Fraser Nelson asked all the pertinent questions about the indifference displayed by the British Foreign Office to the persecution of Christians (along with other minorities) in Iraq, Iran, Turkey, Egypt, Algeria; indeed, throughout the Middle East. Why do our diplomats refuse even to raise the issue with their counterparts in these countries?
The same could be asked of most western foreign ministries. Germany is an exception, and apparently Angela Merkel has, to her credit, interceded discreetly but forcefully to get some restrictions lifted on Catholics in Turkey. If Canada is doing something, it is even more discreet.
But of course, formal restrictions on Christian life and worship in Muslim countries – which would be considered outrageous if they were applied to Muslims in any western country – are endemic. They vary not so much in content, as in enforcement, and as a rule, become heavier when any society is in convulsion, lighter when it is not. In other words, Christians, formerly Jews (before their general exodus, when Israel was founded), and other minorities such as Shia Muslims in Sunni lands, are accustomed to becoming scapegoats when things having nothing to do with them go wrong.
Frankly, Western Marxism has entered into an alliance with Islamism everywhere. Under the banner of multiculturalism, under the cover of “hate speech”, under the constant apologia of political correctness, it hopes to use Islam as a battering ram to destroy the last remnants of its domestic opposition. They are in a “united front” with Islam to destroy the Near Enemy.
In this calculus, the Far Friends — if friends they be — count for little. Middle Eastern and African Christians are collateral damage. Not just Christians, one might add, but animists and Buddhists and Hindus, and Jains — you name it — as well.
Boko Haram, is a Muslim sect in Nigeria that seeks the strict implementation of Islamic law across the country. …The term “Boko Haram” comes from the Hausa word boko meaning “Animist, western or otherwise non-Islamic education” and the Arabic word haram figuratively meaning “sin” (literally, “forbidden”). … Boko Haram opposes not only Western education, but Western culture and modern science as well. The group also forbids the wearing of shirts and pants and the act of voting in elections. In its view, the Nigerian state is run by non-believers.
It makes a good deal of tactical sense from the Marxist viewpoint to regard the “enemy of the enemy is my friend”. But there is no advantage whatsoever among those in the crosshairs of Marxism not to recognize this. The “I am caring” routine just suppresses the gag reaction to the poisoned Kool-Aid. Through this process of speaking on your behalf the caring and concerned they smoothed the way for a Victory Mosque at Manhattan’s Ground Zero; turned an Islamist attack on soldiers at Fort Hood into a “workplace” incident; how they have made it a hate speech crime everywhere to offend certain cultural sensitivities. They did it in the name of being friend to “Christian” and the advocate of caring beliefs.
And while people may have no choice about getting it rammed down their throats by main force they owe it to themselves to recognize it for the scam that it is. Just the latest version of Jim Jones’ magic potion.
Will there be “Western” governments which will match Israel’s dispatch of medical teams to Nigeria? Or would there be more which would denounce the act as inflammatory, divisive and a slander on a great creed of peace?
There are likely to be those who will argue that Israel is sending relief for their own political ends. Doubtless it is, but it is because they perceive it as being in their own interest to help the Nigerian Christians, something which many Western politicans cannot say about themselves.
And that is a shame. For there are many nonviolent and peaceful ways in which the evil which killed people across Nigeria on Christmas Day may be fought. One of them is using words to name it. The other is sending material relief to its victims. Still another is to open the doors to those it persecutes. None of these partake of war. None of these harm a hair on the head of al-Qaeda or Boko Haram.
How likely is it that any of these will be done by those who profess to be Christianity’s friends? Very little likelihood because in the end, the Left would finish up naming itself. But the remaining Christians probably would not mind an open declaration of hostility. If the Left is going to do the deed, they might have the decency to do it face to face rather than from behind.
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Not only are the west’s national administrations blind in one eye and unseeing in the other when it comes to Islam’s murder and persecution of native Christians, but here in the US one of our top GOP presidential candidates sees nothing wrong with it, and indeed seems to blame the Copts for fostering the conditions under which they are being martyred. Once again confirming Mrs. Gump’s sagacity.
Christians must be driven underground, for truth will be worse to bear then the lie, evil (selfishness, greed, lust, etc) will be the seed in every earthly man’s heart.
Will it be Ron Paul or Obama that ushers in the beginning of the New World! Anyone of age knows Ron Paul’s real thoughts and beginnings, Ron is a Bigot and one may even go as far as saying a racist, Obama is his brother in the opposite color in nearly every level.
Now follows the inevitable feature articles and op-eds about Muslims fearing a backlash and how one must prevent an addition to “the cycle of violence”. A cynic might say that the opposite is actually hoped for; that there is a “cycle of violence” so that the pundits can smugly conclude — “see, everyone is guilty!”. Of course the best way to actually spare Muslims from a backlash, which innocents among them rightly fear, and to break the cycle of violence, is for diplomats and states to actually lean on the all these radical maddrassas and so called “Islamic missionaries”. Then most would be content to stand back and let the authorities do their thing.
When people have confidence in the King’s Justice — when the system works to protect them — the impetus for vigilante action is correspondingly reduced. But when the King does nothing; when he abdicates fair justice then the cycle of violence is given impetus because it is every man and every creed for himself. If Western governments truly acted in an even-handed way even the tension with Muslims would probably decrease and Joe Abdul would also benefit. But because this thing has been allowed to fester under the cover of political correctness for so long it is bound to reach a regrettable breaking point.
W is spot on. Lackey’s of the Lame Stream Media are even now rushing from their homes, hailing cabs and climbing ivory towers to author blistering analyses on the victimization of Muslims. They wet themselves in eagerness to please imagined “peers”. The publication countdown has begun: …..5,…4, …3, …2, ….
I’m still trying to stay in happy mode.
Back to bombings, genocide, jihad, politics, epic failures, gloom and doom, … tomorrow. Y’all try not to solve anything major before then.
Back to bombings, genocide, jihad, politics, epic failures, gloom and doom, … tomorrow
Josh is right. One of the reasons why the Boko Haram attacked on Christmas Day is precisely to spoil any joy or festiveness that the Nigerians planned on having that day. To give them no peace; not even the solace of Christmas.
It is just like the 2000 holiday season bombings in the Philippines, whose lasting image in my mind were the toys and children’s shoes scattered on a commuter train which had been blown up by Islamic terrorists. Their particular satisfaction was to see the momentary happiness of those impoverished people ground up in a paste of mud and blood.
In a way, they want you to hate; to be just like them. They want your face screwed up in a perpetual grimace, angry at the world; constipated by reality and resentful at everything. As they are. That’s the reason the Boko Haram struck just when it did and where it did.
In a way it is like the movie Seven. The devil comes, not for your body, but for your soul. They want you to take up the machete, the blow up the mosque, to burn the Muslim children’s school. To be just like them.
And when you are done, panting with your bloodstained knife in your hand, then some hideously garbed man will hobble up to you and soothingly say, “I see you have at last seen the truth. No longer can you attend the Christmas Mass and prate on about the Prince of Peace. That door is closed to you now. You have become as one of us. Come my brother. Come to prayer. Come to Islam.”
And that is all the more reason why we have to reform the King’s justice and to bring those faithless servants of the realm to electoral account. Because we want to emerge from this whole. Not like like the Left. Nor the other either.
A shame Chris Hitchens isn’t here to opine. At least he’d have been honest about it.
And the ratchet clicks once more…
Pro 8:35 For whoso findeth me findeth life, and shall obtain favour of the LORD.
Pro 8:36 But he that sinneth against me wrongeth his own soul: all they that hate me love death.
Make no mistake, I would love to serve up death to those who profess to love it! Killing them is doing the LORDS work.
Christ whispered in my ear:”I didn’t go through hell to be subdued.”
And then he screamed,”WHERE MY DOGZ AT!“
The answer is not to kill the children of the Muslims, although when they hide behind women and children then those deaths will be on their account, but to destroy the adult bigots and then take charge of reeducating the children. Treat Islam as a political ideology. Those who advocate socialism are allowed to promote their beliefs and come to America but those who are members of totalitarian parties fascist or communist that advocate the violent overthrow of constitutional government and the suppression of others rights were barred from entering the country. Advocating a strict monotheism that references a book in Arabic should be no crime but advocating the killing of an apostate should be grounds to deny entry and expel anyone here on a visa.
Let me be first out of the gate with a Godwin here. Those who think that they can use and control the Islamists are as stupid and dangerous as the German conservatives who thought that they could use and then dispose of Hitler.
The disaster in Nigeria has been growing ever since the West allowed the southern Christian Ibo who sought independence as Biafra to be destroyed by the Muslim Hausa to preserve the colonial borders that send the oil wealth to subsidize the unproductive north. One of the peculiarities of Islamic oil wealth is that most of the wealth is diverted to ruling groups, often minorities, who are not native to the oil producing regions. For example in KSA the oil mostly comes from the Eastern Province, a formerly Nestorian Christian region now populated by Shi’a. In Iran the main oil producing district is not the home of Iranians but is called Arabistan.
This is what I think we should do about Muslim groups. If they are not violent then ostentatiously treat them well.
If they threaten others then do two things.
1. Cut them off from any form of extracted mineral wealth such as oil.
2. Kill their fighters and take their children for raising in another faith to be chosen from a pool including Christians, Zoroastrians, Jews, Hindus, and Buddhists.
My expectation is that this would quickly result in Islam becoming less of a nuisance than it was 100 years ago.
6. Josh
I like the word (phrase?) y’all. Up here we are told that the plural of “y’all” is “y’all y’all”. Which brings me to my point. When as wretchard says, the King’s Justice no longer prevails what should we, the great unwashed “y’all y’all” do?
Setting vigilante stuff aside as offering no remedy at all; I guess each one of us has to find a way to replace the King’s Justice through speaking and talking about what has been lost in civil society. I guess we each have to be a Royal pain in the neck to those who have helped to create the mess we are in. It would be good to know how to provide an antidote to PC dopeyness without becoming a pariah. Last week I had an experience where even small doses of antidote were too severe for progressives. The problem with pariah-hood is that nobody listens.
So my point/question is – how does one replace the King’s Justice on a personal level?
One of the best ways to fight against aggressive Jihadism is at the level of institutions. We need to drill for oil and thereby free the Western political class from its dangerous dependency on Middle Eastern money.
Then we need to treat such Islamists in the way that the PC crowd treated apartheid or as left intends to treat Israel. Everyone who has a chair in an Ivy league university that is remotely in league with these thugs should get the tar and feathers.
Any country which supports for this brand of radical Islam, by funding schools or preachers or groiups should have its ambassador sent home. Period. If the OIC bloc in the UN is too strong and puts up a fight, leave the UN. They can talk to each other
Where Muslims treat others in ways consistent with equality, they should be treated with extraordinary grace. The contrast between those who merely want to pursue their Muslim religion and those who wish to conquer others should be emphasized. We can be good friends with the one, but never with the other. No better friend, no worse enemy.
This is the same as undermining the rogue state support for terrorism. You can’t defeat terrorism yet leave their organized support base alone. By a combination of these largely peaceful methods groups like Boko Haram will wither and less, rather than more force will have to be employed overall.
The key thing to remember is that they have powerful allies in the West. And it is with them that the principal quarrel must lie; long before one ventures forth to use force against the Boko Haram, the case for waging legal, memetic struggle against their abetters in the West will have been made plain. The best way to help Nigerian Christians is to expose the Western groups which tacitly support this aggressive ideology.
I’m still pushing my “Y” plan. Mangle the Y chromosome of Every Male Muslim. That way they will only produce female children. What will they mullahs do once there are only females?
Since no people die, there will be no line for Genocide or Chemical warfare crossed. We can destroy a Religion without killing a soul. It won’t be quick, but it will be effective.
Wretchard 13, you are so right. There is nothing as nauseating as seeing OPEC royalty cavorting around playgrounds like Geneva, hanging at the Ritz Carlton with their limos and sports cars. Trying spending a summer in Riyadh instead, Ahmed. There are way too many Westerners who have been corrupted by catering to their filthy wealth. Let’s continue to work on reducing our dependence on Arab oil and either drain the swamp or let someone else police it.
I’ll use up my fourth and last comment to re-emphasize the point I’m not making very clearly (my mind is in lazy mode). The Islamist problem is a “near” problem. It is not a “far” problem. The solution is not “over there” but right here. Winston Churchill understood this well. We all know this quote:
It is plain he regards the best the defense against Islam to be not the slaughter or conversion of Muslims but the maintenance of the West’s self confidence and grounding in the principles of the scientific revolution.
We will never be successful at converting Muslims short of becoming like them. But the West can keep radical Islam at bay by being more like itself — not the shabby, ersatz version — but the as it should be rooted.
Thus, the real keys to the radical Muslim problem lie in our public institutions; in our schools and cultural institutions. Any country that is willing to allow a trophy Mosque at Ground Zero or call the Fort Hood massacre a workplace incident has a deep internal problem whose weakness gives rise to outrages like abroad.
“…no worse enemy”
Unleash the hounds. Let Israel fight her enemies without restraint.
Just my opinion.
When Jesus Christ still walked the earth, he told his disciples that there would be no further prophets to follow Him.
I don’t know exactly where that leaves Saul/Paul of Damascus, as he claimed to be an advocate for Jesus, or Joseph Smith and the Mormons, as they claim to be the church of Latter Day Saints of Jesus Christ.
But it calls into question the whole legitimacy of Islam. And it should really call into question leaders of any sect of a Christian Church that looks to all this PC ecumenicalism with Islam. Don’t they subscribe to their own beliefs?
There are doubtless good people who subscribe to the Koran, and read the best parts and try to live a virtuous life, as measured by any moral system. But by its militant nature, the Religion of Submission is hermetically sealed against reform or reformation, which occurred in the western Catholic Church starting 600 years ago. There is no simple or direct way out of this box. They will not reform themselves.
The moral cowards of Western government and religion have already avowed their reluctance to take this on by the horns. The Left would as soon see every Christian church burned if Islam could help bring the day closer when an Authoritarian Leftist government would bring us all into the darkness and bind us.
The Left in (former) Great Britain has accelerated their own culture of submission by importing and encouraging the retro-colonization of their own nation by “Southwest Asians” to dilute any proto-nationalism from re-asserting itself. It will take a lot longer here, because the critical mass to change the US is much larger, but the momentum of such a change is already fierce and hard to stop.
VDH wrote a column the other day on the acceleration of the retrograde culture that is occurring in and around Fresno, California. It is not by accident and not some odd cultural coincidence.
December 25, 2011 – 2:34 pm Link to this Comment | Reply 15. Mr. X
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With all due respect to the other commenters (on Claudia Rosett’s post), I wouldn’t say the protesters in Moscow are risking their lives, or even their livelihoods — witness New Jersey Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov joining the crowd. As a near 7 footer he can’t exactly blend in even without the Maybach and body guards. And the only Russian journalist to be fired for covering the protests was actually fired for posting an obscenity.
“If Putin is successful in this latest attempt to rule by cult of personality, then he will just be the latest in a very long line of such Russian rulers going back to Ivan the Terrible.” Unfortunately there’s a lot of laziness and hackneyed ideas left over about Russia. I would have to agree with at least one true thing that Mikhail Khodorkovsky wrote from his (deserved) prison cell in Siberia 10 miles from the Chinese border — Putin has governed more liberally than a majority of the Russian population, particularly with respect to the West (you may have noticed Alexey Navalny has only achieved his popularity as an opposition politician by attacking NATO from time to time). The trouble with Putin is that he’s decided to stay too long, and he did in a way that seemed clumsily stage managed if not insulting to the urban upper middle class and those who aspire to such in Russia. In the regions, I still expect United Russia to do quite well — think of the Red vs. Blue split in the U.S. and then apply it to the map of Russia with the ‘liberal’ Blue areas in major urban centers i.e. mostly St. Petersburg and Moscow, analogous to New York and L.A. in the U.S. Except that Moscow by itself has a larger share of the RF population than NYC and LA combined.
I’ll make one more point about PJM’s recent wave of Ron Paul hate/hysteria, and spare Wretchard’s readers any further on that topic: PJM recently carried what appeared to be a paid advertorial from Porter Stansberry of Stansberry Research. They denounce Mr. Paul for appearing on the Alex Jones Show and associating with alleged crackpots, but guess who’s the Christmas guest of honor on Infowars today? None other than PJM advertiser Porter Stansberry! You can’t make this stuff up folks. And Alex despite his ravings about fluoride, chemtrails and killer globalist bioweapons to wipe out all of humanity while merging with the Singularity or some such does have good guests like George Noury and Peter Schiff. I never listened to him before he had people of that caliber on the air.
If Newt is so incompetent and poorly organized that he can’t get 10,000 signatures from his neighbors in the most affluent on average suburbs in the country in northern VA, then he no amount of shilling for him here at PJM will maintain his crumbling facade. And no don’t tell me about Newt’s whining that it’s just soooooo hard, four also-ran candidates including Huckabee, Romney and two others got on the VA ballot for Super Tuesday 2008 before bowing out to Senator McCain.
C’mon PJM (not our esteemed host Wretchard), stop making fools of yourselves. At least pretend to be slightly nuetral or detached for a little while yet until the dreadfully inevitable Mitt Romney becomes the choice of Fox News and the GOP corporatist apparat. And attack Ron Paul on ideas, not personally. If you really think Iran is going to go ballistic and nuke us and or Israel off the map and turn 80 million Persians who mostly despise their regime into suicide bombers, then just say so. Admit to yourselves that the country is just sick and tired of endless fighting all along the periphery and inside Islamdom and mainline neocons offer no end in sight to any of this, nor a realistic solution other than eliminating all entitlements for maintaining the trillion a year the U.S. spends on ‘defense’ and ‘intelligence’ while borrowing/printing a roughly equal amount. Nor have the likes of TNR, NR, Weekly Standard, Fox et al explained how one frail 76-year-old man — even in the extremely unlikely event he’s allowed to win the GOP nomination — would simulatenously get all of Congress, what’s left of the MSM, or the military industrial/Wall Street complex to go along rather than viciously attempt to destroy him by all means possible.
“It is plain he regards the best the defense against Islam to be not the slaughter or conversion of Muslims but the maintenance of the West’s self confidence and grounding in the principles of the scientific revolution.” Yes or as brother Ron would put it, the secret to our greatness is not our military power but in our liberty — something many fake conservatives forgot a long time ago.
Sorry that previous comment got too long. Look, all Senor Equis is trying to say is that Ron Paul may eventually lose to Romney, but a movement, a more than modest fundraising machine (even if Obama raises a billion his ads are likely to prove far less effective), and a son will all still be there to pick up the pieces when the mainline, ridiculous Establishment GOP led by the likes of John Boehner cracks up. And crack up it will. To put it in Belmont Club-ese, there is no ‘stash’, not for the Left, and not for the perpetual war Right.
I close out my thread with just two comments.
Not only are the west’s national administrations blind in one eye and unseeing in the other when it comes to Islam’s murder and persecution of native Christians, but here in the US one of our top GOP presidential candidates sees nothing wrong with it, and indeed seems to blame the Copts for fostering the conditions under which they are being martyred.
Which candidate are you referring to?
Jules…
One hint: RP.
Wretchard makes an important point.
The New Testament does not glorify hatred and revenge as the Old Testament did, nor is it directed at just one ethic/tribal group.
We need to reaffirm the basis of Christian Civilization and the fact that Western Civilization = Western Civilization.
Christian/western Civilization needs to clean house
–the Telegraph article today shows how it has been corrupted in the UK–
” Hewlett Johnson became the Dean of Canterbury in 1931, when he was already getting on for 60, and clung on to the post, despite numerous attempts to get him out, until 1964.
Over those 33 years, Johnson devoted the bulk of his astonishing energy to proving that Soviet Communism, especially as practised by Stalin, was heaven on earth:
“While we’re waiting for God, Russia is doing it.”
In his bestseller The Socialist Sixth of the World, which was published not long after Stalin’s most extensive programme of mass murder, he wrote:
“Nothing strikes the visitor to the Soviet Union more forcibly than the complete absence of fear.”—
For his unusual views, Johnson suffered nothing worse than a few cross letters from the Archbishop and semi-successful attempts to dislodge him from various Canterbury positions (“Ominously, the governors began to plot Johnson’s removal as Chairman of the Governing Body”).
By contrast, the victims of the man he worshiped died in their tens of millions.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/columnists/charlesmoore/8660471/The-priest-who-thought-Stalin-was-a-saint.html
This weeks Gallup poll shows that 95% of Americans of Faith are Christians.
We are a Christian Nation and we need to make that crystal clear.
Christians do not promote hatred or revenge–and they have and will fight to defend.
- Americans will put American fundamental interests first
“Peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations — entangling alliances with none.”
~ Thomas Jefferson
I lost great-uncle earlier this year, aged 90. He will be buried in Arlington National Cemetery next month, and as it’s still Christmas I was talking to various family members today, and many are planning to make the trip to VA for his burial.
One Christmas story in our family was when our great uncles 1 and 2 (brothers) were serving in WWII, Uncle 1 in the Navy and Uncle 2 in the Army, senior officers arranged a meeting for the two brothers somewhere in the Southwest Pacific on or about Christmas Day 1944. They were in their early twenties and had not seen each other since enlisting in ’42.
I never knew the exact details, and never will now, but I’m looking through clippings, and Uncle 2 (the recently deceased) was with the 503rd Parachute Regimental Combat Team, 3rd battalion. He was injured in the battle of Noemfoor in 1944 and went on mission to recapture Corregidor in early 1945. The Navy was part of this operation, which may explain the proximity of the two that Christmas.
There have been a lot of war vets in this family and they’re all alike in one respect – they’d rather not tell you anything if they can help it.
And this is why I snort at people who blow up churches and consider themselves some kind of army or force of change. The effing nerve. Islam needs structural help, victimology, special protections in order to exist in this society, and often the adherents are struck dumb by various personal freedoms upon arrival anyway and their five pillars melt like popsicles. I ask you. Fight what, and why?
I can’t wait for the backlash.
When the Jews of the former Soviet Union were in jeopardy, Israel and the Jewish communities around the world campaigned for them. When the Jews of Ethiopia and Yemen needed to be airlifted, Israel did so with help from the Jews of the diaspora.
I never understood why the Christian community has been so passive regarding their co-religionists in Muslim countries or in the former Soviet Union. Perhaps it is because Jewish identity is so communal while for Christians it is the individual’s private relationship with the deity that matters most. Or perhaps it is because actions matter more in Jewish theology while faith matters more in Christian theology.
In any event, Israel gets precious little credit for its good deeds in Haiti or Nigeria or anywhere else, so I continue to believe it is the deep value system more than the the non-existant publicity or acclaim that motivates them.
Happy Chanukah and Merry Christmas to all. May the most commendable values of our traditions survive and prosper.
The Islamists are just doing what the Left wishes it had the courage to do itself. How could they complain, when they can barely stop themselves from cheering so loudly?
Tipping point coming.
Mr. X, can you buy a road map of Russia in any gas station? Can you get in your car and drive anywhere you want? Can you even buy a car without government permission? What sort of bribe is required to get that permission?
Western Christians are more concern about the shallow feelings of Tim Tebow than the sufferings of our Christians sisters and brothers around the world!
“A shame Chris Hitchens isn’t here to opine. At least he’d have been honest about it.”
You want honesty? I’ll give you honesty.
If the attitudes expressed by the commentariat here are any indication, then Western Civilization has very little hope that I can discern. What I see thus far is nothing but the tenets of Whig History and Classical Liberalism swallowed hook, line, and sinker. You fools—where do you think the weakness of the West comes from?
When no less an eminence than Our Esteemed Host is quoting Winston Churchill—the lifelong atheist who died in despair, bemoaning the pointlessness and futility of life, but only after bringing down the very British Empire which he is strangely credited with saving—to the effect that Christian civilization was only preserved by the science that it vainly resisted; and furthermore upholding this as an example of that Great Western Fortitude which needs to be studied an emulated if we are to have any chance of survival, then one can only conclude that the general understanding of the civilizational problem is, to use words recently uttered by a Chinese finance minister, “totally out of whack” And if such are the attitudes that prevail among the West’s soi dissant defenders, then what real hope does she have?
Wretchard did much better with this observation: “Frankly, Western Marxism has entered into an alliance with Islamism everywhere.”
That is because Muslims and Marxists are both pirates. Nothing in their respective creeds is really meant to be believed with the assent of faith nor grasped with the intellect that seeks the principles wherewith to analyze and interpret objective reality. Islam is not a real, metaphysical religion. It is, for all its grandiose pretenses, nothing but a sort of “pirate code” which lays down the rules for aboard-ship discipline, while declaring the rest of the world to be per se an open bounty. Marxism is a more sophisticated elaboration of the same basic premise. It had to be sneaky given the tactical situation: it was not trying to assail civilization from the outside but overthrow it from within. That sneakiness is now inherent in the Left. Were the Left ever to declare themselves openly, they would be seen as mere pirates who, except in unessentials, differ nothing from Islam.
The truth of the matter is this. Only the Roman Catholic Church has had the clarity to declare both Muslims and Marxists infidels, and only She has had the guts to fight them off and defend the Christian Civilization which she nurtured. There was no need to “reform” the Church, no need to do away with evil, repressive Catholic monarchialism and backwardness, so that the now Enlightened West could enunciate its cherished principles of individual liberty and use these to “convert” Muslims to its new religion of cosmopolitanism and urbanity.
I assure you that pirates understand “individual liberty” much better than you do. The Muslims have already carried the ideals of the Enlightenment to their logical conclusion, and they did so centuries before you were born. You won’t be making any converts there. The idea that the Enlightenment is helping us to deal with the Islamic problem is absurd. That is Whiggery, and it is wrong.
I’ve got to run to work now. I may have more to say tomorrow (if I’m not banned).
@ 22. bert:
Bingo!
@ 30. Teresa:
One supposes it might depend on your definition of “Western Christians”, Teresa, but this is one evangelical westerner who refutes your generalization and does not confuse game players with life changers. Nor do my brothers and sisters in our local congregation. Is it possible you’ve presumed the applicability of the label based on cultural and secular commonalities, rather than beliefs? There seems to be quite a bit of that going on.
In a nutshell, the Great Divide of religions, of ideologies, of cultures, of civilizations is declared in Deuteronomy 30:19.
(Alas, to “choose life,” on occasion, one must be prepared to make some extremely tough decisions.)
File under: Simplicity can be complicated.
31. Matt
Once upon a time all human societies were rooted in changeless acceptance of things as they are. It is mainly because of European ideas and institutions that societies came to believe that things could be improved. It is overly simplistic to name these ideas and institutions as “The Enlightenment”. For example the Church came to be the same thing as European society during the Middle Ages. By 1500 A.D. Christianity had come to define Europe’s purpose and to give its life a transcendent goal. Christianity was the reason why Europeans first became conscious of themselves as members of a particular society.
European Christianity was the birthplace of new European ideas and institutions. Here were the great schisms and heresies in the 14th and 15th centuries. Wyclif and Hus were both reformers whose ideas were created from these schisms. No medieval state was national in our modern sense but by 1500 the subjects of the French and English kings might think of themselves as different from those who were not their fellow subjects.
By 1500 some crucial navigational developments had also taken place. Europe was now clearly recognizable as the centre of a new civilization. The Church had suffered as the central institution but it was still the custodian of culture and the teacher of men. The Church created another institution, the University. There was a large importation of knowledge and ideas from Islam ( I guess that’s partly your point) like mathematics and a general reintegration of classical and Christian scholarship. Churchmen like Aquinas and Erasmus were central figures in these developments. This re-birth of lost classical traditions was the Renaissance. It was not a radical break with medieval Christian civilization. The great changes in Christian civilization that happened from the 12th century onwards made the Renaissance possible.
This is a comment not an essay so I’ll shorten her up a bit. All this stuff went into the building of early modern Europe after 1500. It happened at different speeds in different countries, but by 1800 Europe was a new kind of society and the great changes that had taken place started within the Church back in the 12th century. The Enlightenment, like the Renaissance happened slowly. It brought new ideas about commerce. It brought the Reformation and a truckload of other things.
I don’t blame the Enlightenment for our troubles today. I blame the decay of the new confident European civilization – the decay that began around 1918. My opinion is that all our secular and religious institutions have contributed to that decay. Consequently I personally would not separate the Catholic Church as a shining exemplar. Neither would I think it contributed to the decay any more or less than the other religious institutions. I understand that is not your opinion. I can only say that it’s my opinion.
Apologies for the long response but your comment was intriguing partly it was heart felt.
@ 29. stoicheion
“can you buy a road map of Russia in any gas station?”
Yes.
“Can you get in your car and drive anywhere you want?”
Yes.
“Can you even buy a car without government permission?”
Yes.
“What sort of bribe is required to get that permission?”
None, of course. Russia is #1 car market in Europe – larger than Germany. That’s why all major international car manufacturers have production sites in Russia.
My Russian relatives are upper middle class – two cars in a family, two apartments and a dacha (summer house) with 500 sq.m. plot.
Islamist extremism is clearly an enemy far, while the enemies near are on the verge of achieving thier Alinsky/Cloward/Piven collapse. The US is broke. No more foreign vacations (foreign wars). Get the troops home while it is still possible, and don’t embarass yourselves by leaving valuable equipment behind that will just have to be repurchased later from the MIC with more printed money.
I understand the long term importance of maintaining our christian culture, but that is a multi-generational struggle. We are facing a complete collapse into fascist corporatism and end of any constitutional pretenses for how the US is governed. They have prepared NDAA and FEMA camps in order to be ready for martial law if required. Ron Paul is the only one by far that provides any hope of some kind of constitional restoration and it is why it is so important that BC’ers at least admit the soundness of his arguments about foreign policy and military bases. Constitutionally, only Congress can declare war, and Ron Paul would follow the laws enacted by Congress. How many of the hundreds of overseas military bases and interventions can be constitutionally justified? Any other position is a continutation of the more than a century long rape of the contstitution by the executive branch (among others). All of the other Republicans candidates are merely chomping at the bits in order to get thier hands on the reins of all those extra-constitutional powers.
Ron Paul’s Foreign Policy Explained
“Sell your cloak and buy a sword.” – JC
I’d also suggest Psalm 146:3 as being relevant to our discussion.
“Sell your cloak and buy a sword.” – JC
I’d also suggest psalm 146:3.
Matt, are you referring to the Catholic Church of 600 or the Catholic Church of today. If the latter, then we are lost: it iis wholly turned over to a Marxist interpretation of its prerogatives in America. Its allegiance is not to preserving but condemning our strengths and values–the lynchpin of immigration policies is driving it into the arms of those who would destroy America. Even the liturgically and bureaucratically conservative among them behave this way. They choose small battles and keep their heads down. I don’t know if post-scandal shame accelerated this process or if it was merely inevitable, but don’t count on the American Church to do anything but get in line with those claiming persecution, demanding reparation, and enforcing multicultism. And considering their size and historical role providing the opposite, we are in deep trouble if American Catholics fail to remark on this politicization of the institution.
I l ive in an area with both staunchly anti-communist Cuban Catholics and many, many illegal Mexican immigrants. The regional Church authorities run some of the most corrupt social service agencies in the region, so badly double-dipping and refusing to record their use of the largesse granted to them by the people by American taxpayers that they have actually been censured, an almost unheard-of happening where the ethical bar is set very low. The people in the pews know little or nothing of this and have been taught to not ask questions. Though some of the Cuban ones speak out, knowing the real risks.
At the highest levels, the Catholic Bishops have chosen to disregard American law. In doing so, they are actually driving divisions between people they are supposed to unite, love, and serve. By entering the political arena, and also by being dishonest about the degree and character of thieir involvement, they have abandoned their role as religious leaders in America. And having been well-schooled in the uses of current persecution narratives, they will resort to accusations of anti-Catholic bias whenever they are called upon to justify their political choices.
“One Stone to rule them all, One Stone to find them,
One Stone to bring them all and in the darkness bind them
In the Land of Saudi where the Shadows lie.”
Sorry for the bastardisation of Tolkein. In LOTR, the Ring could only be destroyed by exposure to the lava of Mt. Doom. To deal with the Stone, the West has access to somewhat higher temperatures.
Matt (#31) Good case, lot of Heart and much truth but me thinks your ending with Catholicism as the savior is too much Credit, The Catholic Church has worked both sides of the fence in its long history (and what organization of man hasn’t) again the Catholic Church as a whole has been fairly constant on mission thru the centuries but has had many of mans failings intertwined thus it like man is not perfect, the fact is as soon as Christianity became a “Roman” church by Constantine a path was cleave away from our savior and became a church of Man. I completely agree Islam is a set of rules for Pirates and jungle beast, Communism is just a uppity class variation, there is but one way to deal with Islam and the Old and New Testament speaks clearly of how to deal with such evil and it will be the farthest thought of today’s 95% Christians, Jesus did not say they could not stone the Adulteress, the Law was not being fulfilled when she was brought before Jesus so she could not be stoned or it would have been an abomination to the law, most the crowd knew that both the Adulterer and Adulteress must be judged at the same time but only she was brought before Jesus, Jesus did not ask the Money changers to “Please pickup and leave the temple” Jesus in one of his most violent moments “Whipped and Chased” them, No PEACE, No LOVE and no silly “turn the other cheek” as so often put forth by Christians as to why they “won’t harm” someone else, Jesus as we all know (I hope) spoke on nearly every level (Physical, Mental, Spiritual, etc) with nearly every word spoken, Our lord and Saviors action where also for digestion, Jesus wants us to use love where it can be a force for change but our Christ did not want us to be FOOLS for evils work.
The Christians in Syria support Bashir al-Assad, and after that dictator falls, people will wonder why the Sunnis are persecuting them.
Teresita (#42) your anti Christian hatred is showing… Really! can you explain if you were a Christian in Syria right now and you had to choose, which would it be? Sunni (Murder all Kafar/Infidel) Islam or Tyrant dictator Assad!
43. CharlesWhite:
Teresita (#42) your anti Christian hatred is showing… Really! can you explain if you were a Christian in Syria right now and you had to choose, which would it be? Sunni (Murder all Kafar/Infidel) Islam or Tyrant dictator Assad!
Because that’s what Christianity is all about, maximizing one’s personal and ethnic-group safety rather than the good of the people as a whole, even if it means supporting a dictator who sends snipers against innocent protesters. And if you disagree, you have “Christian hatred”.
A Christian in Syria, like Christians through the Mideast, are really damned if they do, and damned if they don’t, aren’t they, CW?
As for me, it would be great to see the Catholic Church speaking out against the bombings in Nigeria, and what is happening to the Copts, and even what is happening in Italy re: the Muslims.
It would be great, indeed, to see the Crusader orders either re-established or (the Knights of Malta) reinvigorated into some more “Church Militant” format.
It would have been great to see the wise and learned Pope Benedict reassert his points after the Regensburg address in 20. And continue to argue them to today, and also set up and encourage Catholic evangelization among Muslims.
It would be great, but it isn’t happening, is it?
In fact, according to Wiki (for what that is worth) he apologized:
“In his lecture, the pope, speaking in German, quoted an unfavorable remark about Islam made at the end of the 14th century by Manuel II Palaiologos, the Byzantine emperor. As the English translation of the pope’s lecture was disseminated across the world, many Islamic politicians and religious leaders protested against what they saw as an insulting mischaracterization of Islam.
“Mass street protests were mounted in many Islamic countries, the Majlis-e-Shoora (Pakistani parliament) unanimously called on the Pope to retract “this objectionable statement”. The pope maintained that the comment he had quoted did not reflect his own views, and he offered an apology to Muslims.”
Wonderful.
I, myself, am a VERY poor Christian of the Catholic variety, but I do read the NT and Jesus said if your brother sins and you don’t correct him, you’ll be held accountable for it.” Now, I can imagine I’ve got a lot on my spiritual plate re: not speaking up, in season or out of season. Thomas More I am not.
But surely Jesus’ saying applies not just to miserable me, but to the whole Church? What the Hell are we letting these Pirates (that whole section of Matt’s comment is excellent!) perpetuate all this horrible nonsense.
As for the Enlightenment, it was partly an outgrowth of Protestant Christianity’s stress on the individual, partly an outgrowth of Catholicism’s stress on our innate value and worth (as opposed to the classical Protestant “I’m a dung heap/wretch of a sinner, totally worthless” understanding of the human condition, but mostly the Enlightenment–as manifested in Europe, as opposed to the U.S., which was founded on John Locke and Adam Smith–meant enlightenment in the atheistic sense. After all, the two centuries preceding the 18th were roiled by incredibly barbaric religious wars. So the philosophes of Paris wanted nothing to do with God. Darwin, in that sense, was the crowning achievement of the Enlightenment.
It didn’t last long. World War I convinced Western intellectuals that the West wasn’t worth saving. World War II seemed to prove it to them. But as they had no Faith to begin with, that is hardly surprising.
I’m not actually doing nothing, though. I’m giving a talk in my parish about the new (mostly German) research into origins of Islam, and how this suggests it was founded in the Abbasid dynasty at the end of the 8th century, how it makes a case that Muhammad didn’t exist–how the name means “The Praised One” and was a Semitic Christian reference to Jesus, all that.
All of us interested in this issue of Islam against the world should be up on all this research, and what it shows. Whether it is even allowed to continue, let alone be taught generally in Western higher ed, is a BIG question. But I give the Germans (Merkel, obviously, from Wretchard’s reference above) and the scholars credit for standing up to Islam’s tiresome propaganda. (That situation in Germany is complicated. For example, Turkish-German soccer hero won Germanic kudos for refusing to play for the Turkish team in the World Cup, but then, he made his girlfriend convert to Islam to marry her.)
One final point: there are Christians who say look, Christianity is all about suffering, taking up the Cross, and being hated. That is very true. But we as adult Christians have a responsibility to our kids not to let them be raped and put into a harem, even if we ourselves feel the need to be (actual, lion-in-the-arena) martyrs.
The Crusades, remember, were forced on us. Islam has been at our throats since its beginning. As the Emperor Manuel II Palaiologos said, “Show me just what Muhammad brought that was new and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached.”
Right-on, Emperor.
An Préachán
Matt
Your description of Islam as a “pirate code” which lays down the rules for aboard-ship discipline is well put and is as honest and accurate a description of Islam as any I’ve seen.
Benedict’s Regensberg speech was a good start at naming toxic Islam but that was 5 years ago and very little has been done since. If anything, the Catholic Church has walked back from 2006 with its ecunemical outreach BS. The potential is there but doubtful it will ever be realized.
Back to our old friend Nietzsche. God is dead. We killed him, and good luck from here boys because you’re going to need it.
Teresita, Like I said your ANTI CHRISTIAN HATERED shows, just as your biased mindset does too. I will vote in 2012, there is no perfect “Christian” to vote for come November, I will chose the lesser of two evils! Just as the Syrians in their homes must chose a lesser of evils, really, what choice do they really have!
For some reason, I regard the Archbishop of Canterbury’s Christmas sermon as downright hilarious. He said, “The most pressing question we now face, we might well say, is who and where we are as a society. Bonds have been broken, trust abused and lost.”
Dr. Williams says bonds have been broken. He would know. He broke them.
David @ 18: “Don’t they subscribe to their own beliefs?”
Not really. They are caught up in something that elevates them in man’s eyes and they enjoy it. Power or the illusion of it. The presiding bishop of the US Episcopal church sold a church at a discount to a muslim outfit to make a mosque rather than to the existing congregation because she didnt regard the islams as competitors.
The rot in the episcopal church is well advanced as it is in most of the mainline protestant denominations.
Gramisci designed a march through the institutions. It has killed the well organized protestant churches; it is well advanced in the schools and colleges; it pervades the media; large corporations are infected.
The march is designed to obtain the discounting of any power that cannot be controlled by men. I prefer the term fascism. It invokes the worship of the all-knowing all-providing State. It can operate without state ownership of capital.
Islam is a perfect tool for fascism since it has no theology or hierarchy and requires a suspension of Reason and defers all decisions to allah. So if the state does you wrong, allah ordained it. Allah designed the state, so it must be perfect.
wc @ 34: defending the enlightenment again …
The West always maintained separate secular and religious authorities, I suppose even the Romans did, Caesar’s godhood being more honorary or poetic, and much of the empire elite being Jewish for centuries before it was Christian anyway.
You were asking about The King’s Justice, not God’s. If men enforce it, I daresay it *is* the King’s justice, and I reject ANY claim that it is God’s, God will have His way alright, but later. And that, folks, is *an* element of The Enlightenment, a minor clarification of a long-established tradition in the west, going back to Judaism that there be a WRITTEN LAW, no matter the source, and human judges enforcing it. The objectivity of the written law was the trick, and its universal applicability, that impressed even the pagan Romans.
Yet any human agency is going to be imperfect, and situations arise which are not explicitly addressed by the law, or worse, mishandled. These valid issues are the source of differences in interpretation by even well-meaning, intelligent, educated progressives and conservatives.
–
Islam? Yeah, well, Sharia law does NOT separate secular and religious law, and if you want opinions on THAT, read all of the chapter heading pseudo-references by Frank Herbert in Dune! … or the real Islamic sources those might be taken from, though I have no pointers for that. The historical Arab and thus even modern and scriptural Islamic ideal is the local sheik who rules by “divine” right and whatever wisdom or whim he may have, and there’s your devolution of authority, folks.
–
So, anyone who wants to appeal to religion or God as a source for ethics, morality, law, or government – be careful, be very very careful, for almost all the traditions and examples are against you, and it was not the priesthood of ancient Israel that the Romans respected, nor that survived.
–
Finally regarding the bombings in Nigeria and ethnic cleansing of Christians from dar al-Islam, well, they came for the Jews sixty years ago, … but is it the duty of the USA as national, secular policy to defend Christians in Nigeria? I doubt it. Do you really want Hillary Clinton as the spokesperson for such a defense? I mean, really. But say whoever wants to defend Christianity, is it best done by playing defense at the local level, or by finding a strategic target in Islam to attack instead? Well, I know what my intuition says, although I do not claim to know what is better policy in the long run.
–
Regarding more the previous thread, if anyone wants something to chew on this holiday week:
Contemporary Approaches to the Social Contract
As much of this as I could drag through, seems to suggest that the academy has “progressed” to thinking big thoughts, and not really wanting to ask individuals, who might not be ideally educated about their own enlightened (sic) self-interest. If you want the real background of where Obambus and his advisors get their stuff, this seems to be it.
Wretchard: We need to drill for oil.
We need to put Islam on a very short lease at a minimum, ASAP. The first step in that process logically would be to regain energy independence, which is long hand for : We need to drill for oil. Massively and quickly.
Once the Arab Islamic World’s oil weapon is defanged, they will be at our mercy. There will be then multiple easily achievable options to put the screws to Islam. The strategic important of this approach cannot be emphasized enough.
X: Please check out http://www.redstate.com/moe_lane/2011/12/26/did-the-va-gop-change-the-rules-on-primary-ballot-access-in-november-2011/
The ballot qualification rules were changed in November under questionable circumstances. Both Perry and Gingrich would have qualified for the ballot in Virginia easily under the pre-November rules.
Merry Christmas everyone and may the peace of Christ be with you!
I regard Islamism as an opportunistic infection; it’s like Kaposi’s Sarcoma. The virulence of Islamist depredation is not a function of its own strength, but rather of the perceived weakness of its foes.
The problem Marxism has had is that it does not bother to build a better tomorrow; if it had, that socialist paradise Marxists keep on talking about might have already happened. Instead, Marxists have sought to overthrow capitalism and then parcel out its spoils. Far from being truly “socialist”, the “vanguard of the proletariat” is simply another term for the “new feudal nobility” – it is not for nothing that Marxists tend to style themselves as aristocrats.
What Marxists don’t understand is that if capitalism were truly weak, all one would need to do is build an alternative economy of model societies in the hinterlands. They would then take over once the forces of capitalism have spent themselves. It is not for nothing that a successful network of cooperatives in Mondragon, Spain was built right under the nose of Franco. Or that kibbutzim were built under Ottoman and British rule.
Leftists run into problems whenever they imagine that government can promote their alternative form of economy. They would be better off trying to keep big government out of the economy so that large corporations cannot use governmental power to artificially bolster their position. For example, instead of bailing out Wall Street banks in 2008, the federal government could have simply let small conservative banks and credit unions become America’s principal sources of credit.
As a socialist Prime Minister, Tony Blair understood that the alternatives in fighting Islamists aren’t capitalism versus socialism, but rather civilization versus barbarism. No wise socialist would ever want to replace modern capitalism with Islamic feudalism – Islamic feudalism means no chance for post-capitalist socialism, while capitalism means there is always a chance for post-capitalist socialism to become victorious.
“Socialists” who align themselves with Islamic feudalism show themselves as rent seekers – feudal lords who wave the flag of socialist utopia. They may think they can control the Islamists, but they are mistaken. Islamists have had them figured out for over three decades, and the Left has not bothered to learn from its mistakes.
Josh
When you get around to it ask yourself where your “universality” comes from. The Moderns grappled with that same question and with whether or not Reason alone would be sufficient to sustain civil society. Kierkegaard was in many ways a soulmate of Nietzche but Kierkegaard fell on the Reason + Faith side of that argument even while excoriating the Danish Lutheran Church for its mindless rigidness.
The story is as old as Adam and Eve. If you want to be a human then don’t ever think that you can be a god.
I comment here very seldom, mostly in response to some argument I consider to be silly. I usually do not continue the discussion and WATCH the thread flow, usually in a good (my opinion) direction. I do not take any credit for changes. This thread is already making some very good turns. The reference to Benedict’s Regensberg speech marks a very good direction. Actually, the entire speech is a must read.
23. Victor
The New Testament does not glorify hatred and revenge as the Old Testament did, nor is it directed at just one ethic/tribal group.
This statement is similar to many by Teresita, probably a result of a very surficial reading of the Scriptures, and an intense desire to ‘prove’ a point. Victor (& Teresita), the hatred and revenge you see is probably a result of your not reading the Scripture as a whole. The destruction of any individual or group was a result of long-term actions/beliefs of that individual or group.
The Calling & offered Redemption is for all and is presented throughout the Scripture (Genesis-Revelation of John). The course our present society is careening down is signed by the well advertised sins. The solutions is simple, in definition, but can be quite laborious in daily practice.
A back to back reading of Hosea & Amos might be profitable.
pb @ 53: The story is as old as Adam and Eve. If you want to be a human then don’t ever think that you can be a god.
Excellent point, in that the issue goes back to the Beginning.
OTOH, exactly what the lesson is in the story, is I think still open to discussion. See the opening story in Harlan Ellison’s “Dangerous Visions”, “Evensong” by Lester del Rey.
alexis 48 Doctor Williams’s sermon is more pathetic than hilarious. Under his stewardship the Church of England has destroyed what little credability that it had left with the general parishoniers and as a result more and more is seen as a social club rather than a faith. If the Church of England is very lucky the African and Asian diocies will send missionaries to convert the English, otherwise look to there being a choice between the evangelicals and the Muslims for the future of the fath of England.
The New Testament does not glorify hatred and revenge as the Old Testament did…
The most wisdom I ever got from a Catholic cleric was that the OT, among other things, is a story about how an ancient tribal culture advanced from the self-centered barbarism of its age into a civil society that has endured, relatively unchanged, to the present day. The fact that it is the only culture that has endured intact from that age should tell you something more meaningful than a blurb about glofifying hatred and revenge.
Christianity, which is inseparable from the Old Testament (all of it), is more than the Sermon on the Mount. Perhaps a few less sermons on the platitudes and a few more on the ugly consequences of defying the revealed will of God would do us all a little good.
“29. stoicheion
Mr. X, can you buy a road map of Russia in any gas station? Can you get in your car and drive anywhere you want? Can you even buy a car without government permission? What sort of bribe is required to get that permission?”
I bought a car recently. wrote a check for it. I figured that was it- you write a check, you get a receipt, you drive off in your new car. Nope. You go nowhere till all your personal info is collected for the authorities. The salesman told me the form was for DHS.
This is in the USA.
As always, I wish to thank everyone for their thoughtful comments. I am very grateful for the opportunity to have this conversation with all of you. So many things merit commentary, but I wish to begin with one particularly urgent point.
Dear 39. Tina Trent,
You are largely right, of course (I have some analytical quibbles, but I’ll set those aside for now). The modern, postconciliar Catholic Church is an embarrassment on almost every level. It is a difficult position for me, being an outspoken proponent of the historic Roman Church, when the example of the current Roman Church is ever before everyone’s eyes. I must emphasize that I am a Traditional Roman Catholic, meaning that I attend only the Traditional Latin Mass, and I do not accept the liturgical and devotional changes which have been instituted in the name of the Second Vatican Council. I am always at pains to make clear that the illegal-immigrant-loving, Democratic-Party-supporting, social-welfare-state-endorsing Church of today, is not what I have in mind when I speak of Roman Catholicism. I would not give a fig for the entire American episcopate, and I have no doubt that the few remaining conscientious Catholics feel the same way. From the year 33 A.D. up until 1965, the Church had a clear and consistent social doctrine which no one in his or her senses could mistake for liberalism. This was so much the case that, as recently as 1886, a small book called “Liberalism is a Sin”* could be published with complete papal approval. It is well known that “Liberalism is a Virtue” or even “Liberalism is an Obligation” would be more to the liking of your average contemporary bishop.
When I wish to speak to others about what the Church really is, I find that it is almost futile to begin with the theological, philosophical, or historical modes of discourse. That is because most people today, even very learned people, know no theology or philosophy at all, and the history that they know (or rather think they know) is all Whig historiography which automatically sets the Catholic faith opposed to the forces of progress, and casts monarchy, hierarchy, and sacrementality in a bad light. It is very hard to separate the Whig from the modern Westerner; that is my constant complaint regarding the American Right.
So therefore I often ask people about their childhoods instead. I am trying to get them to recall a time when they actually yearned for triumph. I say to them, Didn’t you ever have heroes? Didn’t you ever want to be somebody? When you heard a story or watched a movie that inspired you, what was it that you actually felt? The story only works because there is an important human truth involved. Great fiction consists of stories that are “true,” not in the sense that they are factual, but in that they are a faithful representation of how a really virtuous man would behave under the given circumstances. The stories have a tutelary function: you’re supposed to want to be like that, supposed to do whatever it takes to be a hero and avoid being a coward or a creep.
Those human truths are like dim reflections of the one all-encompassing truth who is Christ. They are iron filings which are under the remote influence of His magnetic field. If people would only attune their compass and follow the noblest thing that they feel, they would eventually find themselves moving into orbit around Christ. The mass of beings who orbit around Him are his mystical body…that is Roman Catholicism.
I ask people to tell me their own dreams in order to be as gracious and condescending toward them as I possibly can. There is certainly much fallenness and nonsense inside them, but I bear with this at the beginning. I do not beat them with doctrine, but use their own selves to teach truth to them. They need me to go with them a mile, and I go with them two. If I can make them aware of the truth inside themselves, I can begin winning a soul for Christ. You’d think they would want to talk about it. Isn’t that what most of us really want anyway, somebody to listen knowingly to our dreams? And yet people hide themselves still, and give me all the swagger and subterfuge of ego, as if I don’t know how to see through that. The blank stares and diversions I get when I ask people to be real with me, are implacable barriers against their own salvation. I am trying to kindle some sense of the heroic in you. If you do not want to win, I cannot help you.
I was hoping perhaps the Peter Jackson’s recent Lord of the Rings films would set off a new wave of heroic dreams, since the films, despite being not entirely true to the book, nevertheless provided viewers with an ample stock of imagery that was easily applicable, by design, to Tolkien’s Catholic faith, but I seem to have been disappointed in that, too. Beholding the imagery is one thing; having the metaphysical intuition to grasp, behind the imagery, the import, is quite another. If only one could grasp it, then I could easily explain the True Faith to them. I could say….
…Do you know how it feels to walk with elves under the starlit, sylvan glades; to drink their transporting draughts and hear within their music a celestial mathematics that bespeaks of order within order, and from which you must turn away in pain, because it pierces your mortal frame with a beauty to brilliant to bear? That is Catholicism.
…Do you know what it’s like to mourn for Boromir, to forgive him all as he expires, to kiss his now untroubled brow, and to long with a yearning pure and not to be trespassed, that the same arrow had pierced both your hearts, because to die with him is scarcely an adequate expression of your love; but to know that you must carry on but for a little while longer, finishing his fight, and that what passed between you in this moment will remain in eternity, waiting for you, and there you will see him and know him as he is? That is Catholicism.
…Do you know what it is like to charge with the Rohirrim, to be caught up in the mighty, unstoppable host, knowing not the fear of death but rather daring it, mocking it, crushing foes with a battle-lust that issues from more than mere strength or ambition, but from righteousness, as if the hand of God himself were at your back? That is Catholicism.
Once the heroics are awakened, then we may proceed to the analytics of faith. Then it will be both possible and necessary to impose upon your pupil that the faith has an interior structure of its own that arises from the first principles of reason and revelation. It is not a mere sentiment which can be applied turn-about to now this process, now another. Rather it is prudence to guide you, wisdom to correct you. The faith cannot possibly be compatible with liberalism; of its very nature it is not so. Therefore those who profess to be liberal yet of the faith are liars deceiving themselves and wrecking others. This is the very beginning of faith-formed dialogue. It is only at this point that at last a real meeting of the minds can take place. Now all the theology and philosophy and history will finally be provided with a context; now we can begin to talk about what we ought to do. Let such understanding be taken as a groundwork for my other positions, which hopefully will not now seem so controversial.
*Liberalism is a Sin: http://www.ewtn.com/library/THEOLOGY/LIBSIN.HTM
3. CharlesWhite (said)
Miss Direction suggests Charles goto MAGIC HONDO :
http://www.hondomagic.com/html/a_little_magic.htm
——————
Charles I also suggest LGF for your conditioning.
Tee@24 – “senior officers arranged a meeting for the two brothers somewhere in the Southwest Pacific on or about Christmas Day 1944”
My brother’s ship, the USS Isle Royal, was called to Chu Lai to assist in the salvage of the USS Mahnomen Count in early January 1967. I was with the 3rd 8” Howitzer Battery, half way between Chul Lai and Tam Ky. I learned of the incident, grabbed a jeep and drove down to Chu Lai to see my brother.
I talked a sailor delivering mail to the Isle Royal into giving me a ride out the ship. The OD refused to allow my rifle aboard the ship, but the sailor in the Mike boat volunteered to keep it for me while I visited my brother. I’d been in Viet Nam almost ten months by then and never had my rifle been out of my immediate reach. I almost called off the visit.
I’m glad I didn’t; there is something surreal about visiting a brother who I had last seen when I bumped into him on a San Diego street corner 2 years earlier. I was skinny, burned to crisp and hard as nails with a wild look in my eyes according to my brother who said he probably wouldn’t have let me on the ship at all.
batman@26 – “I never understood why the Christian community has been so passive regarding their co-religionists in Muslim countries or in the former Soviet Union”
Could it be ‘an eye for an eye’ versus ‘turn the other cheek’?
Revolution is internecine war, actually.
So how is it acceptable for anti-war types to embrace revolution?
The modern left through all its Marxist variants only believe in war, total war. They will allay with their far enemies in order to defeat the near enemy, but after their common mission is accomplished, they inevitably soon identify another nearer enemy and seek to vanquish them. No doubt, this is deep in the heart of the left, this pattern has repeated itself historically ad nauseam since the French Revolution.
In the lexicon of the Left, Direct action is a counter argument that has a passive and active definition that is often blended in contemporary Leftist thought. Direct Action in the extreme is intentional violence. For some this term is confused inadvertently, and for others the confusion is purposeful. Ultimately, terms such as Direct Action and the like are euphemisms for war. Ultimately, there are only two kinds of war: wars for freedom and wars against freedom. Ultimately, this is the only relevant distinction.
Bonzo
Hehe, a good one, took me 5 minutes to figger it out. If I had a photographic memory… but I don’t.
Dennis #63: Ultimately, there are only two kinds of war: wars for freedom and wars against freedom. Ultimately, this is the only relevant distinction.
The distinction is between one of method and motive. The man cited in wretchard #7 who slaughters an entire village is made morally equivalent in the eyes of the demon who invites him to embrace islam only because the methods are the same. This is judging by outward appearance, looking at B, knowing A->B, thus assuming A as the motive. That’s a logical fallacy if there exists a C->B.
You have no basis to be as clueless as Yarnek, mistaking the outward appearance for the essentials.
6. Josh
Wow Josh, you’re too smart not to know how well that response fits the paoint.