Meanwhile, the old world keeps spinning in spite of efforts by hateful groups to stop it from doing so. We have the Boko Haram in Nigeria and elsewhere. ISIS in Syria and Iraq. The crazies in Pakistan who murdered school children and then more recently the Charlie Hebdo murders by another bunch of psychopathic killers. Who knew there were so many psychopathic killers out there in the world just waiting to join up with a group that would allow them to live out their dreams. Killing just because they can. It's a scary damn mess. I think I already may have mentioned somewhere in "Tweets..." that Steve and I had the good fortune to listen to Salman Rushdie speak to a huge audience here in Boise. In addressing a question about Islam he said that he felt that these groups identify themselves as Muslim, so they are Muslim. That view went contrary to the view I held up til then, that these groups were just hiding behind Islam. But his words made me change my mind. Who can speak better about this topic than a man who was living under hiding for years because the Ayatollah put a Fatwa on him. Rushdie said that Muslims must stand up to these groups and examine what it is in Islam that may be supporting or encouraging these acts of violence and hate. I have been encouraged and heartened by groups such as Gatestone Institute: Gatestone in Sunday's New York Times: "Beautifying Islam" . In this ad in the NYT last Sunday a group of prominent Muslims published their thoughts about taking back Islam from the strangle hold that a bunch of psychopaths have on it in our current world. I say "Amen" and about damn time. Of course as we all know, Christianity has not exactly been without it's tiny faults over the many centuries either. But at least, to my knowledge, there are no bands of raving lunatics calling themselves Christians running around killing school children. We do have the Westboro lunatics, but still...
I would so love to see a group of millions from all over the planet have a big old protest march of the type we saw in Paris last week about all of it. About Paris. About Nigeria. About Pakistan. About Syria and Iraq. I'd go. Where would we meet? Where would there be a big enough space to hold us all? I think there are millions who would go. We could join hands and chant, "Not on my watch, you sons of bitches" Would you go?
I am a bit awed by your comment of 'tiny faults' with regard to our current form of Christianity. Our Republicans are many, and dedicated Christians. Is it easier to kill a child, or deprive the poor of education, food, fair economy. As a nation, I agree with Stephen Colbert, who comments about all of the many Christians standing by and watching the desecration of many countries that we just decided, we would make war on. And how we tolerate the NRA with its advocacy of owning weapons of - in my opinion - mass destruction, that can be used against our police departments nationwide. It saddens me to write these thoughts, but they are true, as true as the drone strikes that go on weekly. On a people's whose main fault is that they sit on a lot of oil. The American Government put Saddam Hussein in office. And Anatola, and on and on. I believe that these are moral issues that go so far beyond a tiny fault of Christianity, that Christ would be appalled.
ReplyDeletePerhaps if we all read Rumi, and did a whirling dervish.
ReplyDeleteRumi is always a good idea. Just for clarification, when I used the word "tiny" I was using it the way Anne Lamott uses it, as in "I have a few tiny little flaws". I totally agree that there are not actually tiny faults in Christianity, but instead there are and have been big giant ones. I don't necessarily equate Christianity with the NRA or drone strikes or some of the other things you mentioned. The point I was trying to make was that there is something wrong in the Islamic world if groups like Boko Haram and ISIS can do their murdering while at the same time calling themselves not only Islamic, but acting for Islam. Just as there is something wrong in Christianity if the Ku Klux Klan can to their murdering while saying they are a Christian group acting on God's orders. I am not sure the Klan ever did that last part, but they did identify themselves as Christian and, after all, burned crosses on people's lawns. I also don't think that we invaded Iraq calling ourselves Christians, saying, in other words, we are are doing this because we are Christian and want to make the rest of the world Christian. That would have been a bigger lie than the one that was actually told. I don't think that our government acts in the name of a Christian God, even though our government is populated by people calling themselves Christian. There's a difference between the Republicans in Congress, who may identify with conservative Christianity, and ISIS. So far, as far as I know, none of them, even Mitch McConnell or Dick the dark lord Cheney actually has gone into a village and murdered everyone while waving the cross or beheaded people while singing Onward Christian Soldiers. Nor have they called for this kind of action. The U.S. Government is immoral often in it's actions, but I don't think that Christianity is the cause of it's immorality and violence. RE: the ayatollah, we put the shah in office maybe and that led to the Iranian Revolution. But we did not put the Ayatollah in office. Many of our governments actions have led to things turning out to be worse in the long run, no question. If we hadn't supported the Shah's repressive government, the Iranian Revolution may not have ever occurred. But I'm not even so sure of that. Radical Islam has been in the making for decades. We are tied up inexorably in the rise of radical Islam, no question. So it may have happened anyway. We seem to often be on the wrong side of the affairs of the world. But calling it Christian or saying that our government is Christian just because a bunch of Republicans call themselves Christian is just not an argument I can agree with.
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