I have been showing my (Protestant) sister the articles on the Pope’s speech and the Muslim response. She takes issue with the Pope’s words that violence is against God’s nature, that violence is unreasonable and therefore not Godly behavior. She points out that God, in the Old Tetsament, was a God of wrath – frequently, and therefore violence IS in His nature.
I really don’t know how to respond to that, and I would like her to come to respect our Catholic faith and this Pope.
What about the Pope’s words, then?
First, pray for the Holy Spirit to guide you and give you the words.
Then ask her to read the Pope’s entire speech. It’s a long-ish magazine article in length. If that’s out of the question, then nothing she says or thinks about the subject should be taken seriously, because anything she says can’t reflect anything but her personal prejudice.
If she tries the “it’s both of them together causing the problem” straw-man argument, you can tell her that’s nonsense becuause she refuses to read the quotation within its context, so she’s refusing to allow fairness. Most Anti-Catholics are just okey-dokey with that, which of course is based on prejudice… but they are usually embarassed to be caught red-handed.
In fact if she expresses any opinion at all without reading the entire speech first, you can point out she’s expressing nothing but an opinion that has no clue what it’s talking about.
However.
Once al Qaeda published its plans to kill the Pope and destroy Rome, they polarized the entire world, whether the world wants to be polarized or not.
Ask her if she supports al Quaeda, the people who brought her 9/11.
If the answer is no, ask if she who she would agree with more:
• The Pope, for showing that religious murder has been called evil for at least 600 years or
• al Quaeda’s plans to murder the Pope as a repayment for calling religious murders evil.
If she goes into the “well not all religions agree on what ‘evil’ means, and they have their own way of doing things over there” dodge you can refer her to the ten commandments. Muslims are to obey the ten commandments. Refer her to the one that covers “murder.” You could also refer her to the part of the Koran that all the self-described “moderate” Muslims are repeating like a mantra “There is no compulsion in religion.” Then you might want to refer her to the myriad parts of Islam that make certain Muslims decide crashing planes into buildings is justified.
If she is Christian, you might want to remind her that Truth is no concept nor abstract, but is in fact a person named Jesus, the Christ, because Jesus is the Messiah. Ask her if she believes that or not. If she doesn’t, maybe she’s Muslim, which could explain the anger.
Ask her who she would rather ask for help with something: OBL or BXVI?
With those answers, you can tell who she agrees with:
The Pope or al Qaeda.
Because al Qaeda and apparently Turkey are threatening to finish the job Mehmet Ali Agca started in 1981, since May the most popular best-seller novel in Turkey has been a novel about a Papal assassination, 2005’s Turkish sell-out favourite was “Mein Kampf” and media are molding public attention against BXVI, showing their Pro-al Qaeda bias over this incident. This is it’s a matter of as grave a concern as anything else al Qaeda threatens.
Jesus said: “You are either with Me or against Me” so there is no sitting on the fence.
Congratulate her on taking her stand.
And if she tries the “well you HAVE to support the Pope, you’re Catholic” stunt, tell her “Then by your idea of logic, YOU MUST support al Qaeda because you’re NOT Catholic.”
Al Qaeda, once again, has made supporting their murder plans a slam-dunk decision for everyone.
As of now, every person on this planet is either for the Pope or for al Qaeda. There is no Switzerland.
You’ve chosen a side and so has she.
