Post by Said1 on Sept 25, 2005 20:49:40 GMT -5
Excellent article, from the Toronto Sun no less. ;D
torontosun.canoe.ca/News/Columnists/Coren_Michael/2005/09/24/1233070.html
Just when it seems that some organizations have reached their pinnacles of absurdity, along comes another example of the funny and fatuous to make our day. And few are as silly or give us as many laughs as the Anglican Church.
Let me stress that there are numerous Anglicans who are sensible, gracious and devout -- and my heart goes out to these good people. But so many of their leaders, particularly in Canada, tend to be experts in the art of the ridiculous.
A group of them in Britain, led by four senior bishops, have issued a 101-page document entitled "Countering Terrorism." The self-appointed experts in geopolitics have called for a public meeting at which a "mainly Muslim" audience would hear Christian leaders apologize for the "wrong done by the West."
First, these well-meaning but misguided individuals seem to confuse the church with the West. In fact, Christianity is a product of the very Middle East where Muslims now predominate. And they predominate because they invaded the region and imposed their religion and their government on Christians.
Not, of course, Anglican Christians. Nobody was drinking tea or eating cucumber sandwiches. These were the real thing -- the early church, believing the full truth of Christ's teachings.
Second, Christians have already apologized for certain wrongs. The last Pope spoke at length about The Crusades, even though few Muslim leaders have yet apologized for their initiation of those wars of religion in the region.
Muslims frequently refer to The Crusades as some open wound for which every real or imagined opponent should have to admit responsibility. But as ugly as aspects of The Crusades most certainly were, they were merely a European reaction to Islamic expansion into the Christian heartland.
It really would be helpful if the bishops and their friends would get their history straight. The West has certainly exploited the Muslim world, just as it has the non-Muslim developing world. The major imperialists who oppressed Muslims, however, were other Muslims.
It was the Ottoman Turks who occupied and tormented Islamic communities in two continents, as well as raping, murdering and forcibly converting Christians.
Which might just lead us to think that a few apologies could be made by Muslims to Christians. Apologies for the current persecution of Christians in Egypt, Sudan, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Iran and other parts of the Islamic world.
The Anglican statement is indicative of a deeply troubling neurosis in our culture: The inability to see past one's immediate experience and the transitory, popular causes of the day.
The impetus for the statement is the war in Iraq, a war I happen to oppose. But one war does not suddenly expunge history.
Why are these alleged Christian leaders not standing shoulder to shoulder with their brothers and sisters in Muslim lands? Why are they not defending Christians in the town where Christ was born? Remember, Bethlehem was once 80% Christian but is now more than 80% Muslim. Apologies are all very well, but they have to be based on timeless truth, not a fashionable whim.
Then again, the Anglican Church began because of a whim. A compulsive English king was infatuated with a woman other than his wife and was prepared to murder, destroy and torture to have his way.
Apologies all round, please, from various Anglican bishops to the Roman Catholic Church, the descendants of the Catholic martyrs and to anyone who dares to question nonsense and wooly thinking. Sorry.
Let me stress that there are numerous Anglicans who are sensible, gracious and devout -- and my heart goes out to these good people. But so many of their leaders, particularly in Canada, tend to be experts in the art of the ridiculous.
A group of them in Britain, led by four senior bishops, have issued a 101-page document entitled "Countering Terrorism." The self-appointed experts in geopolitics have called for a public meeting at which a "mainly Muslim" audience would hear Christian leaders apologize for the "wrong done by the West."
First, these well-meaning but misguided individuals seem to confuse the church with the West. In fact, Christianity is a product of the very Middle East where Muslims now predominate. And they predominate because they invaded the region and imposed their religion and their government on Christians.
Not, of course, Anglican Christians. Nobody was drinking tea or eating cucumber sandwiches. These were the real thing -- the early church, believing the full truth of Christ's teachings.
Second, Christians have already apologized for certain wrongs. The last Pope spoke at length about The Crusades, even though few Muslim leaders have yet apologized for their initiation of those wars of religion in the region.
Muslims frequently refer to The Crusades as some open wound for which every real or imagined opponent should have to admit responsibility. But as ugly as aspects of The Crusades most certainly were, they were merely a European reaction to Islamic expansion into the Christian heartland.
It really would be helpful if the bishops and their friends would get their history straight. The West has certainly exploited the Muslim world, just as it has the non-Muslim developing world. The major imperialists who oppressed Muslims, however, were other Muslims.
It was the Ottoman Turks who occupied and tormented Islamic communities in two continents, as well as raping, murdering and forcibly converting Christians.
Which might just lead us to think that a few apologies could be made by Muslims to Christians. Apologies for the current persecution of Christians in Egypt, Sudan, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Iran and other parts of the Islamic world.
The Anglican statement is indicative of a deeply troubling neurosis in our culture: The inability to see past one's immediate experience and the transitory, popular causes of the day.
The impetus for the statement is the war in Iraq, a war I happen to oppose. But one war does not suddenly expunge history.
Why are these alleged Christian leaders not standing shoulder to shoulder with their brothers and sisters in Muslim lands? Why are they not defending Christians in the town where Christ was born? Remember, Bethlehem was once 80% Christian but is now more than 80% Muslim. Apologies are all very well, but they have to be based on timeless truth, not a fashionable whim.
Then again, the Anglican Church began because of a whim. A compulsive English king was infatuated with a woman other than his wife and was prepared to murder, destroy and torture to have his way.
Apologies all round, please, from various Anglican bishops to the Roman Catholic Church, the descendants of the Catholic martyrs and to anyone who dares to question nonsense and wooly thinking. Sorry.
torontosun.canoe.ca/News/Columnists/Coren_Michael/2005/09/24/1233070.html