NEED WE SAY MORE? BRAVO for Kathleen
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/chi-0609200026sep20,1,129736.column?coll=chi-opinionfront-hed
Kathleen Parker
Translating the pope
Published September 20, 2006
In non-news today, Muslims are outraged. Also, the sun rose at its usual time, and the Earth continued to turn on its axis in the customary fashion.
As the sentient know, extremist Muslims have found another excuse to bloody the streets, this time over a quotation from a lecture Pope Benedict XVI delivered last week at the University of Regensburg in Germany. My guess is that not many of the outraged Muslims have actually read the lecture--it's not the sort of thing one lightly skims between effigy-burnings.
To understand what the pope actually said, one would have to stop and think, which is a colossal waste of time when there are infidels to kill. Thus far, people who claim to be fervent disciples of the religion of peace have demolished Christian holy sites in the West Bank and Gaza and may be responsible for the shooting of a missionary nun in Somalia.
All this just because the pope had the audacity to suggest that some Islamists tend to prefer violence to reason. Whatever gave him that idea?
The single line extracted from the pope's lecture to inflame the highly flammable is an excerpt from a 14th Century dialogue between the Byzantine emperor Manuel II Paleologus and "an educated Persian" about Christianity and Islam. Said the emperor:
"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."
This one-sentence quotation was part of a wide-ranging discussion about the intersection of faith and reason, as well as the contradictory nature of religion and violence. Pope Benedict's key point was that faith through violence is unreasonable and, therefore, incompatible with the nature of God.
"The decisive statement in this argument against violent conversion is this: not to act in accordance with reason is contrary to God's nature," he said.
Think fast: Who wants to spread faith with violence? Not missionary nuns in Somalia. Who wants to slit the throats of infidels? Not the Southern Baptist Convention.
Contrary to what fanatics have insisted, the pope was as critical of the West as of Islam, if not more so. While Islam suffers from faith without reason, he said that Western culture suffers from reason without faith.
His point was that the two cultures cannot enter into a productive dialogue unless they both recognize that faith and reason are inextricably bound. Islam has to drop its sword and the West has to make room for the divine.
Pope Benedict's view is that by ignoring faith, the West--but especially Europe--is ill-equipped to engage a culture that is so firmly entrenched in faith.
"A reason which is deaf to the divine and which relegates religion into the realm of subcultures is incapable of entering into the dialogue of cultures," he said. Likewise, a faith-based culture that abhors reason cannot engage in civilized discourse or advance the goal of harmony.
In a nutshell, those are the central points of the pope's lecture. How interesting that the emperor and the Persian could debate these issues several centuries ago, but 21st Century man is driven mad by ideas that challenge him.
Now, one can decide that the pope is full of business, or that he's lacking in diplomatic skills. Or, one could conclude that he is the bravest man on Earth.
By speaking truth to madness, he has invited the wrath of both worlds and--if Islamist jihadists are to be believed--placed his life on the line. Monday, the same chap who called for the murders of Danish cartoonists for drawing the Prophet Muhammad called for the pope's execution.
In Iraq, Al Qaeda warned Pope Benedict that its war on the West will continue until Islam takes over the world. Iran's supreme leader called for more protests. Egypt's religious affairs minister wrote in a newspaper column: "The pope's words have caused a deep wound in the hearts of Muslims that won't heal for a long time, and then only after a clear apology to Muslims."
Pope Benedict did apologize for offending Muslims, but he stopped short of apologizing for his message. He apparently said what he meant to say.
Thus far the Muslim world has responded only by proving the pope's point. Where is the educated Persian to debate him?
Kathleen Parker
Translating the pope
Published September 20, 2006
In non-news today, Muslims are outraged. Also, the sun rose at its usual time, and the Earth continued to turn on its axis in the customary fashion.
As the sentient know, extremist Muslims have found another excuse to bloody the streets, this time over a quotation from a lecture Pope Benedict XVI delivered last week at the University of Regensburg in Germany. My guess is that not many of the outraged Muslims have actually read the lecture--it's not the sort of thing one lightly skims between effigy-burnings.
To understand what the pope actually said, one would have to stop and think, which is a colossal waste of time when there are infidels to kill. Thus far, people who claim to be fervent disciples of the religion of peace have demolished Christian holy sites in the West Bank and Gaza and may be responsible for the shooting of a missionary nun in Somalia.
All this just because the pope had the audacity to suggest that some Islamists tend to prefer violence to reason. Whatever gave him that idea?
The single line extracted from the pope's lecture to inflame the highly flammable is an excerpt from a 14th Century dialogue between the Byzantine emperor Manuel II Paleologus and "an educated Persian" about Christianity and Islam. Said the emperor:
"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."
This one-sentence quotation was part of a wide-ranging discussion about the intersection of faith and reason, as well as the contradictory nature of religion and violence. Pope Benedict's key point was that faith through violence is unreasonable and, therefore, incompatible with the nature of God.
"The decisive statement in this argument against violent conversion is this: not to act in accordance with reason is contrary to God's nature," he said.
Think fast: Who wants to spread faith with violence? Not missionary nuns in Somalia. Who wants to slit the throats of infidels? Not the Southern Baptist Convention.
Contrary to what fanatics have insisted, the pope was as critical of the West as of Islam, if not more so. While Islam suffers from faith without reason, he said that Western culture suffers from reason without faith.
His point was that the two cultures cannot enter into a productive dialogue unless they both recognize that faith and reason are inextricably bound. Islam has to drop its sword and the West has to make room for the divine.
Pope Benedict's view is that by ignoring faith, the West--but especially Europe--is ill-equipped to engage a culture that is so firmly entrenched in faith.
"A reason which is deaf to the divine and which relegates religion into the realm of subcultures is incapable of entering into the dialogue of cultures," he said. Likewise, a faith-based culture that abhors reason cannot engage in civilized discourse or advance the goal of harmony.
In a nutshell, those are the central points of the pope's lecture. How interesting that the emperor and the Persian could debate these issues several centuries ago, but 21st Century man is driven mad by ideas that challenge him.
Now, one can decide that the pope is full of business, or that he's lacking in diplomatic skills. Or, one could conclude that he is the bravest man on Earth.
By speaking truth to madness, he has invited the wrath of both worlds and--if Islamist jihadists are to be believed--placed his life on the line. Monday, the same chap who called for the murders of Danish cartoonists for drawing the Prophet Muhammad called for the pope's execution.
In Iraq, Al Qaeda warned Pope Benedict that its war on the West will continue until Islam takes over the world. Iran's supreme leader called for more protests. Egypt's religious affairs minister wrote in a newspaper column: "The pope's words have caused a deep wound in the hearts of Muslims that won't heal for a long time, and then only after a clear apology to Muslims."
Pope Benedict did apologize for offending Muslims, but he stopped short of apologizing for his message. He apparently said what he meant to say.
Thus far the Muslim world has responded only by proving the pope's point. Where is the educated Persian to debate him?
posted by Dr. C at
2:38 PM
2 Comments:
No surprise the Pope's words inflamed the nut cases. Of course Fox News, CNN and all the rest of the amerikan media pontiffs do the same here everyday. Perhaps we would be better off if we quit pumping money into the Middle east and just let them butcher themselves the few steps back it will take them to be in the stone age again. Cut all the churches off from tax free status while we're at it. While we're mopping up we might want to put Dick Cheney back in his cave. Grrrr.
By
Onca, at September 20, 2006 9:54 PM
Believe it or not, I sent an email to Kathleen Parker and she actually replied. For that, she rises on my list of columnists. (Richard Cohen has yet to reply to my emails. I believe he even said, directly or indirectly, that he does not read emails except from addresses he recognizes.)
By
Dr. C, at September 21, 2006 1:14 PM
Post a Comment
<< Home