If passions would not inflame the heart we might never seek God. That’s unnatural. Man’s ability to use rational and intelligent reason to control his passions throughout human history is legion for failure. That’s reality.
That’s an interesing point
Another reality is the small percentage of people and governments in the world who are so enlightened to the concept of true human equality despite whatever faith they proclaim as a group or individual. Even with God coming to Earth Himself we find it difficult or quickly act upon the truth we know. How long after Christ died did Paul ride to Damascus and Peter his dream to take the message beyond the Jews?
Alright
Even with that, to compare the conventional wisdom of 1000 AD to 2008 AD is almost as irrelevant as comparing China in 1776 and the US the same year. The Civil Rights Act by LBJ was less than 50 years ago so singling out American Indian abuses by the Manifest Destiny driven spirit of the New World explorers is a non-issue.
Yes and no, when someone brings up the atrocities commited by Muslim nations in the name of Islam it is perfectly fair to bring by atrocities by Christian nations in the name of religion, the point is not some “tit for tat” it is to deflate the exagerated threat posed by Islam and introduce a more mundane mindset, America politics led to the doctrin of mannifest destiney and the religious justifications, like many cases currently in the middle east, the point is that while there are alarming trends and movements in the middle east we have seen these movements, atrocities, and terroristic trends(the first car bomb attack, I beleive, was in America by a radical anarchist group) before, in the early 20th century it was anarchism and marxism, disturbing trends with plenty of blood shed by their violence, but profane, secular, and nothing that could not, when studied rationally, be calmly assesed and analysed and delt with.
When people elevate these disturbing Islamic trends in the middle east into hysterical, sensationalist, armagedon, end time battle between good and evil we loose sight of the simply reality of the situation, the cause of these movement are profane and often based on rather arbitrary things, like boredom(I’m not kidding in the least). Flying off into hysterics is only throwing gasoline on the fire, there are serious problems in the middle east, little girls were burnt alive in Saudi Arabia because the poloice would not allow them out of their school when it was burning because their heads were not covered, there are major, large scale, violent political movements.
All of these things must be taken seriously, however supernaturalising the problem and going off into hysterical accusations about Muslims(whome, according to a poster want to breed like “pigs” and take over Europe) is not going to solve anything, just like killing those two Italian anarchists after a shame trial didn’t do anything.
As a Catholic I would condemn any dehumanizing personal attack for any reason. When discussing ideologies the line drawn between respectfully questioning another’s intelligence with regard to faith and being disrespectful often disappears. The obvious difference between the Moslem reality and Catholic/Christian reality of equality is application.
Alright
In most predominately Christian countries but in America especially do the people through government try and redress past wrongs to the point of near stupidity that become hurtful to ourselves. Name another nation that millions of non-citizens sneak into for better than they have with little risk, or allow tax-exempt casinos to the ‘oppressed’ indigenous people. How many want to go to Saudi Arabia or any place conquered by the ideology of Mohammed, and be unable to gamble or have women drive a car or walk alone on the street, or practice a religion other than the state mandated one? What are the equivalent Moslem expressions to the Red Cross or Catholic Charities that give assistance to those in need regardless of faith or need?
Wait now, and this is what I’m talkign about, your going into retoric and mudding the watters.
Now, you claim that we attempt to redress past wrongs to the near point of stupidity. Now that is simply false, we do not dedicate ourselves to mending the problems caused by our colonialism in South America, South Pacific, Africa, or the Middle East, we do offer slight compensations, allowing a reservation to have a Casino after the people’s land was stolen from them, they were genocidialy eliminted and moved, and relegated to small strips of land which has ashtonishingly high alchoholism, unemployment and suacide rates is not bending over backwards to adress past wrong to the point of stupidity.
There is no flooding into middle eastern countries because they have a stagnant economey and hish unemployment, contrasted to Americas better social mobility and low unemployment, just like asian immigrats flodding into india, Eastern Europeans flooding into Western Europe, Middle Eastern peoples flooding into Europe or North Koreans excapeing to China.
The lack of movement into MIddle Eastern countries has little to nothing to do with Mohammed, he died 1300 years ago, saince then there have been numerous empires in the region, numerous wars and conquests, two world wars, European Colonialism, and reconstruction.
The “red cresent” there are numerous Muslin charaties, look them up.
When frustrated passions are expressed inappropriately it should be taken into context but not excused. Foul language may not help the message but it shouldn’t dismiss it either. Western Moslems, particularly the non-Sunni/Shiite can deny the significance of certain dogma that is largely practiced by the non-Western Moslems but it doesn’t make it true. Christianity does not have a dhimmi equivalent in either the religious or secular context while Islam has both.
I don’t know exactly what you mean here
Christianity is centered on God made man whose words are timeless and is the reason we recognize our faults and generally gives us the impetus to effect change for the better such as Women’s Suffrage, minority rights, and outlaws intolerance with respect to race, disability, and even at times intelligence. Only recently have we waged an offensive war much to our collective shame in my view. I think it violates the Christian ideology no matter the reason we have done it though it only goes to show we still have not fully accepted the truth we proclaim to know. However, the personal freedom given to humans by God is largely maintained in Western governments by documents such as our Constitution.
I don’t see how you can support such strong statements, certianly Christianity has healped reform programs, however it has also been inhibitive.
I
slam is centered on the actions of a 7th century man whose words are outdated and is the reason a unrepentant and un-admitted intolerance is pressed to be accpepted in the West by adherents of Mohammed largely maintained by documents such as the
Pact of Umar
. Sometimes it is difficult to be rational in the face of such irrationality. There is a real danger to the Christian ethic in Western society by even the tacit acceptance of Islam to go unchallenged because of its unyielding ideology and history and there are better ways to defend against it.
still all to bundled
