A Muslim America?
Empires, which absorb peoples of varied traditions, have a tendency towards religious syncretism. Differing beliefs are considered equal and are tolerated as long as they do not come into conflict with the worship of the supreme state. This seems to have been the case with religion under the Roman and Japanese emperors. In such a situation traditional faiths become optional and even interchangeable, while the power of the state grows and it becomes more and more the center of devotion and veneration.
There is no reason to think that our current American Empire is immune to these tendencies. Indeed, there are many signs to confirm that we are headed in that direction. President George W. Bush has again and again in public statements, far beyond what mere polite inclusiveness requires, insisted that all religions are equally American. He has gone out of his way to welcome adherents of the major Asiatic religions, and has relentlessly affirmed the compatibility of Islam with the American way. Islam has now been incorporated into the previous American formula of “Protestant, Catholic, and Jew.” Some polls indicated that Americans’ opinion of Muslims actually became more favourable after the September 11 attacks.
Christianity is preeminently an anti-imperial religion. Its predominant stance has always been for a separation of power between secular and religious authority. “Render unto Caesar . . ." Among all faiths it is the most oriented toward a relationship between the individual person and his Maker, makes less of worship as a group or societal obligation. Further, Christianity rests upon a balance of reason and imagination, full employment of both sides of the human brain. It flourishes best in a culture that is led by mature, well-integrated personalities such as were predominant in the American past.
Immigration has already given the United States the multiple faiths of an empire, not even considering the far-flung projections of state power across the world. The simple affirmation that America is a Christian (or indeed a Western) society is increasingly denied in the highest circles. Islam is increasing its power in the United States—not only from immigration but from conversion of natives and immigrants of other faiths. (Its increasing recruitment of Hispanics has been observed.)
Perhaps equally relevant is that the level of intelligence in the United States has been going down, at least since the 1960s. This is bound to increase the strength of Islam, which is preeminently the faith of the slow-witted and literal-minded. Its appeal, which should not be under-estimated, is in its simplicity. It claims to be universal and requires belief in a simple dogma. Islam provides a veneer of dignity and order for primitive people—an increasing portion of the American population.
George Bush has stated repeatedly that all faiths worship the same God—i.e., they are identical. He is not a Christian at all but a Unitarian/Universalist—an emperor for all tastes. His theology, and that of many of our countrymen, is identical with his politics—a conflation of God and America. Americanism claims to be universal and it requires only a belief in a simple dogma—global democracy. And it increasingly venerates the Presidency as the supreme source of right and truth.
One of the tenets of the Americanist faith is that all traditional faiths are subordinate to and equally respected by the Empire. Bush has proudly announced that the Muslim rite of iftar is observed at the "American" White House, presumably along with the usual "Christian" prayer breakfasts. While Bush holds out his arms to Islam his supporters beat the drum for war against "Islamofascism." Is this not a contradiction? Not really, for imperialists naturally try to subsume the enthusiasm of both sides in a conflict between subject peoples. Not that George Bush is intelligent enough to understand or plan this. He is merely following the path of immediate expediency and of least resistance. Since their religion is Americanism and not Christianity, it would not be surprising if the Republicanised political preachers of the "Religious Right" segue into the universal imperial religion. They are, after all, theologically ignorant, poltroonish opportunists, and lickspittles of power.
Islam may well turn out to be the convenient faith for such a society as the United States is becoming. It is the most compatible of the major faiths with empire. Indeed George Bush seems already to think of himself less as a constitutional official than as the occupant of the supreme Caliphate. One can even imagine, without too much of a stretch, a post-Presidential Bush ensconced in the palatial fortress of the Green Zone in Baghdad as the new leader of the imperial religion.
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"... Islam has now been incorporated into the previous American formula of “Protestant, Catholic, and Jew.” ..."
If this idiotic "formula" (wherever you dug it out) includes Jews, then why can it not include Muslims too? (Besides, Jews are as much Semites, and hence non-white, as Arabs, the majority of Muslims with whom we are dealing, are.) "Formulas" ought not exclude basic logic.
"... Some polls indicated that Americans’ opinion of Muslims actually became more favo[u]rable after the September 11 attacks. ..."
If indeed so, it just might be due to a sudden realization that, as someone commented on this site, "Muslims are here because we are over there", murdering and maiming millions of their families on behest of our Judaic masters. An uncommon blip of common sense amongst the U.S. indigens...
"Its appeal, which should not be under-estimated, is in its simplicity. It claims to be universal and requires belief in a simple dogma. Islam provides a veneer of dignity and order for primitive people—an increasing portion of the American population." ... end quote
christianity made the west possible because as Dr. Wilson astutely points out above, it's an approximate balance or a living balance (thus dynamic) between reason and imagination engaging and employing both sides of the human brain. Paradoxically on either side of christianity is judaism which imbalances irrationally/imaginatively in the direction of "chosen"/supremacism/master-people. And on christianity's other flank is islam which imbalances irrationally/imaginatively in the direction of allah/god/the will to power made supra-natural, or dominance through subjugation to the godhead.
as christianity folds up its tent (as its enemies know) so folds up the west. soon we'll probably have another 'moses' story on our hands.
"Among all faiths it is the most oriented toward a relationship between the individual person and his Maker, makes less of worship as a group or societal obligation. Further, Christianity rests upon a balance of reason and imagination, full employment of both sides of the human brain."
I have also come to this conclusion. The strength (and weakness) of Christianity is that it really offers a combination of reason and religion. Although, reason tends to turn against religion.
Although, I am not of the Christian faith --- though, I sympathise heavily with Christianity --- I also believe it is the sole civilizing force of the West. I do not know if Islam appeals to the less smart peoples of mankind. One has to admit that Islam is not contributing much to the world, nor am I taken away by its phenomenal achievements.
Quite the contrary, everywhere Islam places its footprint, war, chaos, disorder and repression step in too. Many critics of Islam argue that Islam is incompatible with democracy, I beg to differ. Islam and democracy go together quite well.
Ahum.. For the time being, that is.
Somehow, I do think the West will maneuver itself out of the choice between PC Brave New World and the imperial Muslim caliphate.
- The US and Europe must reallign again. And I'm not talking about a war & company enterprise as in Iraq.
- Legal immigration must be restricted, illegal immigration must be stopped, natural increase must become fashionable again. Immigrants in the West should be given a fair chance to become fellow citizens.
- Sovereign powers belong to nation-states and states, not to EU, UN or NAU enterprises.
- Old social order elements, which have deteriorated since the Boomers took over in '68, like family, raising children, marriage, church, work ethic, discipline, schooling should be reinstated.
- And more, of the same, common sense, etc, etc.
PS Very good column.
The fact that the U.S. Muslim population will grow at an accelerated rate seems likely. President Bush has brought more Muslims to the U.S. than any other president, and this trend likely will continue.
Furthermore, a phenomenon rarely discussed is the conversion of Hispanics to Islam. Christian Science Monitor ("More US Hispanics Drawn to Islam") estimates that over 200,000 Hispanics in the U.S. have recently converted to Islam.
We are also witnessing the rise of Islam in South and Central America. Guyana already is 10% Muslim (CIA World Factbook), and Islam is the fastest growing religion in this country.
"Although, reason tends to turn against religion." - end quote...
Excellent point Jimmy (perfect) - perfect for here in our World...our imperfect world.
Reason turns inevitably 'against' religion or can and does in most souls/people, often enough - when they don't realize the innate limits also of 'reason' itself. So they imbalance in that direction, misguidedly, as if it's a god... Or in despair (if they're smart enough to realize reason's limits too) they lean sometimes fall over tumble in the direction of the experience of 'nothingness,' another illusion but a very real human experience. There's no such a thing as nothing - it's just another imaginary (irrationally imbalanced) concept, like the concept of zero which has its useful purpose in mathematics.
And possibly as a human 'experience' has a useful purpose in directing us back toward approximate balance of perspective - And so again embracing as well - the possibility of the mysterious, the mysterious because designed herein in our World our imperfect world to be unknowable per se...from this side of the equation, or what would be the need for faith? In Fact if it were otherwise there would be no such a word as 'faith'...since it would have no actual meaning, in spiritual terms.
The possibility of the spiritual is a part of being human whether or not one puts any faith in it whatsoever. It's here or 'there' and is why we discuss it.
Why not go to a layman and bard ol'W.S. We could do worse:
"Came there for cure, and this by that I prove:
Love's fire heats water, water cools not love."
Although I personally believe - God is [also] love ... Surely St. John's quote "God is love" isn't too far off the truth?!
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The long Bush family association with the Saudi Islamo-Kleptocracy and our dependence on Islamic countries as allies in the "War on Terror" likely has something to do with George W.'s attitude.
yes thus bush couldn't be a 'christian.' bush is a blah-blah-blah and emperor of the yaddah, yaddah that puts money in his pocket. but i'd bet he yet clings to his being an xian and doesn't see himself at all - thus is also a philistine. a woman chose him - laura - what is she?
"In such a situation traditional faiths become optional and even interchangeable, while the power of the state grows and it becomes more and more the center of devotion and venerati"
This is an execellent article by Dr. Wilson.
We must constantly update our concept of America and power as it is changing rapidly before our eyes. Those involved in this new order of loyalties and power try to distort the changing reality by offering us outdated concepts of who we are, concepts that might reflect the way, lets say Reagan spoke of America, a place of small towns, Christian churches, local industry, home town banks, functional high schools, and Congressmen and Senators that still cared about those they represented.
As long as this myth of America is perpetuated , the reality of the new world order will not be noticed until it is far too late.
Dr. Wilson's article helps to remind us where we are heading.
There is one term that is used in the article, that I see as descrptive of the old order and not the emerging order. That is the term "the power of the state". Power is becoming concentrated but globalized. A more accurate term needs to be used. I do not have a precise term in mind, but power is certainly no longer residing solely in "the state" as in the US Federal Government. Maybe a term like , the global/managerial elite can be used. Washington's managers of power are at best sharing with the globalist, if not simply beholden to them.
Also, it is becoming less accurate to speak of an American Empire, in the sense that these ruling, managerial elite are no longer American in any traditional use of the term. They are internationalist. To steadily withdraw the capital from the U.S. and transfer it to Asia in the form of 'Reinvestment", to sell off majority shares of once mostly US owned corporations and banks to foreign investors (Citbank now has Arabs as majority shareholders), demonstrates a loyalty to a Global empire of some sort, not an American. The dumbed down masses are worshipping a corporate/state benefactor that is coming to us from an elite not just residing in the "state".
When this kind of power structure is kept in mind it is easier to understand mass immigration and increased Muslim acceptance among the ruling classes.
An increasingly important question in regards to power, is what happens to the nature of the US military in this shifting of loyalties. On one hand the "state' as in the commander in chief and the funding Congress still have this massive source of raw force under its command, but in another sense the procurement of parts,software and technology is intertwined with this globalist/corpoarte elite. The military officer/managers have been the last of the US management elite to be transformed into internationalist but this is changing. Keep an eye on the curriculum at West Point or Annapolis and the "diversity" of the student body, as the old traditions change. Who will be the first Muslim on the Joints Chef of Staffs?
I fear Dr. Wilson is right. As America becomes more Imperial, it will become more susceptible to Islam. It is a religion of power: its arbitrary notions allow the powerful to justify their ways, while the powerless can *feel* but not *be* powerful. The reason there is no separation of church and state in Islam is that Islam *is* both church and state - it's not just a belief system, it's an all-encompassing way of life. Look at who all has expressed admiration for Islam throughout history, and you will find a collection of scoundrels, tyrants, and mass murderers.
ditto - Nebojsa Malic ... directly above and including inevitably the exceptions to the rule (always) which prove it. In our culture and faith, Christianity - probably sometimes in quest of forgiveness (too much-?-don't judge us by our 'leaders' at the moment?) we take it all case by case. Christians, the real ones are no strangers to 'delayed gratification' or appropriate sublimation in behalf of the kind space civilization requires and the soul needs in its own journey.
christianity via forgiveness in tandem with prudent judgements when inevitably required opens up space for living in its civilization. If it is too kind, makes mistakes, and that is choked it must readjust.
Delayed gratification, ok - but subjugation to that which is barbarous, be it via judaism or islam - No!
i'm quoting shakespeare too much-?-but here i go again:
"And thou in this shall find thy monument
When tyrants' crests and tombs of brass are spent."
but i'm using him herein to indicate no civilization that wishes as our christian civilization does to endure - can afford to wait that long - when the TRYRANTS are here at home, doing us in.
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G.I.A, I understand what you have to say about globalism. However, I think it is still proper to speak of an American Empire because the primary instruments of the global elite are the wealth, blood, and ignorance of the American populace. Thus making the U.S. federal government the chief enforcer of globalism around the world and over the American people.
Reading this excellent, prophetic and ultimately sad article almost made me regret my decision to decline Italian citizenship and remain solely American. Last year I found Milan and Rome very Western, Christian and recognizable compared to my American home. Sure, Catholicism has waned, but it's cultural influence is stronger than Protestantism's here. There is no question among people there of whether Italy is a "Western" nation. It's home to the Vatican and Sistine Chapel after all. There are only three state-recognized mosques and public hospitals have crucifixes over every bed.
What kind of a man would I be if I accepted her offer?
Dr. Wilson,
Is not the shift toward internationalism, at least in its American context, to be traced back to FDR? Wilson, in my understanding, and I could be wrong, was still, despite his "making the world safe for democracy" and his advocacy for the League of Nations an America oriented ideologue. However, if my understandings are correct, FDR and those around him were truly internationalists. The League of Nations was to be, although it failed, a meeting place or Congress of sovereign nations. The United Nations was and is a subsumer of sovereigns. Nevertheless and paradoxically, the general government of the United States is still the power behind the U.N., the WTO, the World Bank, NATO and other such organs and organizations. These organizations serve as the catspaw for the international agenda and interests of those who control Washington.
"What kind of a man would I be if I accepted her offer?" end quote of SC
a better man dodo
reapply.
what are you nuts? ... life is brief, not boxerShorts
Questions?
(humor - but seriously... go for it dope!) sorry don't mean to be disparaging... on another level, it's complimentary - right on!
_
p.s. before she wakesUp - and it's like switzerland... moron. sorry didn't mean to be disparaging.
...it would not be surprising if the Republicanised political preachers of the “Religious Right” segue into the universal imperial religion. They are, after all, theologically ignorant, poltroonish opportunists, and lickspittles of power.
Recalling what Sapphire's Mama would say when telling off the Kingfish:
AND DEM'S YO GOOD POINTS!
1. Islam and the description of it here as appealing to dimwits doesn’t see all that different from lots of Christian churches in my home town, from Dispensationalists to holy rollers to Megachurches to Whiskey-palians with sodomite leaders to a lot of post Vatican II Catholics. Frankly, I’ll take Islam any day to Nouvelle Droite neo-pagans, Green Peace Celtic Full Moon worship, Wiccans, Jonestown, Jim & Tammy, and Nurse Ratched Clinton (United Methodist) with her sacrament of child-killing. Fortunately, those aren’t the only choices.
Which means that one truth needs to be said, a truth that I heard from the lips of a wise professor of American history a few years back in Greensboro, NC: Islam feeds off a decadent society. I add: Those who join Islam at least recognize decadence for what it is. Remove the decadence, and you’ll remove Islam.
2. The State is indeed worshiped as a god. Countries that seem the most atheist – France, Britain, Scandinavia, Taxachoosits – are in fact the most religious. Our leaders haven’t quite adopted the canonization of Lenin (the uncorruptable saint’s body), the iconography of Uncle Joe (a former seminarian), the gesticulation of the Duce, the pageantry of ‘Dolf (the inventor of son et lumière), or the architecture of Speer – but we’re close. Our ancestors knew better. I was astonished to see how small the US Capitol really is compared to the Royal Palace at Caserta – the latter the first building built for the bureaucratic faith. Europeans tell me how astonished they are to see how small Mt. Vernon and Montecello really are. Then came the Federal Triangle.
3. I thank Jay for quoting me.
read: "doesn't seem all that different"
A fascinating and original piece by Dr. Wilson, elegant & sober, & a frank & funny discussion too.
Note too that "Americanism" as used by Dr. Wilson is now becoming close to the outright heresy of Americanism in Catholic papal teaching. Leo XIII wrote a letter to Cardinal Gibbons on what he coined as the Americanist heresy in response to American prelates' tendancy to put matters theological to the sway of the general custom of the times, a show of hands at whatever particular moment (Testem Benevolentiae, January 22, 1899). Some time passes, and then we have the meltdown from the other direction (what passes for American political theory): Milton Friedman's "free to choose" philosophy which posits every time you buy a Hershey bar instead of a Mars bar as some sort of precious "choice" we ought to be breathlessly ecstatic to find in our concept of liberty. The two species of meltdown meet; exchange candy bars for gasoline, look out your car window at rush hour and you see the direction of this--we've already "voted"!! (Don't worry, be happy).
Interesting development at this precise moment of American history, after a few generations' worth of mandatory public schooling with its militant secularism and now unmasked atheism, and the result now seen blossoming in our bookstores and best sellers' lists. Power abhors a vacuum.
But bigger fish eats smaller fish, if fish you choose to be. The decadent amoralism of current general opinion, "cowboy" style, evident in a presumptive Clinton-Guiliani contest -- as compared to same in the quasi-religious "Mr. Rogers neighborhood" style of a potential Huckabee vs Obama and/or Edwards race (and/or all the Lilliputions in between) is in any event an inevitable choice of a non-president, in any meaningful sense, and further slouch toward media-anointed imamism -- "image is everything.")
Nor is this far-fetched at all. Does anybody remember the chant, "Gorby, Gorby, Gorby!"--? Actually, we already have a perfect fit for the role envisioned by Dr. Wilson -- the "Terminator." Talk about a "vote" already taken--
I had similar thoughts about Islam before.
"Look at who all has expressed admiration for Islam throughout history, and you will find a collection of scoundrels, tyrants, and mass murderers."
Yes, and the main admirable men who were Muslims, such as Kemal Ataturk, would be considered 'bad Muslims' by todays generation.
Was it not the late Emporer Aurelian who worshipped all the gods of his Empire,including Christ and Abraham? There was no Allah ,not yet.
His theology, and that of many of our countrymen, is identical with his politics—a conflation of God and America."
GWB's theology isn't "Americanism", it's straight political correctness, and he doesn't even really believe in that, it's just that PC is the theology of the Nomenklatura in America and he is happy to go along as long as it furthers his career (to hell with the country). "Americanism" is an old term and I don't think its past definitions would fit around what GWB believes and does. . The problem with Bush is that he really doesn't live in America, he lives in Rich Land. The rich live in a different country from their erstwhile compatriots, and the interests of their country are not the same as the interests of our country. He can spout all his crap about family values not stopping at the borders and how Ahmed will make a wonderful American because he won't ever see his neighborhood become a barrio or banlieue.
"George Bush has stated repeatedly that all faiths worship the same God—i.e., they are identical. He is not a Christian at all but a Unitarian/Universalist—an emperor for all tastes."
My sentiments, exactly.
It was G.K. Chesterton who wrote, 'In a world littered with failed civilizations, can you tell me what is particularly immortal about yours?'
Mr Schmidt,
Aurelian (270-275) was a follower of the (originally Persian)
sungod Mithras and tried during his reign to establish the worship of the sun as the supreme god of Rome.
It's told that emperor Alexander Severus (222-235) had statues of Christ and Abraham in his bedroom and adored them (as he did with lots of pagan idols ( see http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Catholic_Encyclopedia_%281913%29/Alexander_Severus)) .
Aurelian was a follower of Mithras, the guy
Bravo ,I stand corrected.
Dr. Wilson makes the brilliant point: "Thus making the U.S. federal government the chief enforcer of globalism around the world and over the American people."
As long as the U.S. and its global elite allies are capable of maintaining the current U.S. military/industrial complex apparatus, then the the thus constituted empire will continue to prosper. It is maintained by the many secular global financial/political/corporate elites that survive and flourish inside the "American Empire" and its bureaucracy. Who can tell how long this arrangement can continue.
When the American elites lose their global support then the U.S. will collapse just as the Soviet Union collapsed. The Russian military collapsed with the collapse of the Soviet Union as will the U.S. military and then, as we have seen, Islam moves closer and closer.
Islam is a threat to freedom. Christianity allowed freedom to flourish, and as it is further diminished in the world, freedom will slip away for all mankind and Islam will march in to take its place.
American Christians need to wake up and start really making a difference. We need to stop worshipping the state and to reaffirm our faith in Christ.
Jimmy said: "reason tends to turn against religion."
Only a corrupt reason turns against Christianity.
Men like Bush are corrupt, which is why they need Christ. The man whose reason turns against Christ is the man who needs him most, but only by grace will the corrupt man have him.
The more corrupt a man is, the less aware he is of his corruptness.
The corrupt man is self-absorbed, which blinds him both to the reality around him and to an objective wit of himself.
The corrupt man lives in a bubble where he thinks his own reason is supreme.
America is an internal empire, not an external one. We've become the colony of the world, and the war in Iraq is just a dog and pony show to take brain dead white Republican voter's minds off that fact and the Republican Party's part in bringing it about.
"Yet, even as various political leaders and public figures told us to shut up, sit down, and prepare for our forthcoming servitude calmly, neither the government nor the experts for the most part emitted the least discomfort with official immigration policies or the vast hordes of immigrants, many from Arabic lands, that fluttered across the nation. As I noted in a previous column, as far as the American Ruling Class is concerned, the Constitution is expendable, but immigration and the multicultural and multiracial checkerboard it creates remain sacrosanct, unquestionable, and untouchable." Samuel Francis
Any American with a shred of historical awareness knows our history is not all that multicultural. How many Founding Fathers were Muslim?
Were culture ephemeral this would be insignificant. However you are quite right that Jesus' explicit call for a separation of God and Cesaer and the Protestant emphasis on literacy and self-scrutiny were key to our success. Countries without this background have not led to first world democracies. Muhammed was a political and religious leader. Their region has never sprouted egalitarianism and fredom of conscience.
Yes Bush confuses America and the world continuously. He thinks he is the president of everywhere and as such does not care for our sovereignty.
Culturism holds that culture is not metaphysical. It exists in people who need land to survive. Everytime we import a muslim, every muslim household is a space which we have given up. Land is a reliable measure of sustainablity. No land, no cultural continuance. Our culture does not inhabit much of the West coast or Michigan or New Jersey.
Dr. Wilson is so correct. When we fail to distinguish our cultural heritage and its singularity we are confused, ripe for empire and supplanting.
http://www.culturism.us
GLA , enjoyed your comment. Well said.
A thorough perusal of the site thereligionofpeace.com provides a lot of excellent statistics and counterarguments to the usual PC nonsense about Islam.
For example, did you know that the most recent estimates of the number of deaths from several centuries of the Inquisition is 4000? By contrast, in the last 6 years alone, since after 9/11/01, there have been around the globe over 10,000 jihad attacks with many tens of thousands of civilian deaths resulting. In Thailand alone since 2004, there have been over 2000 civilian deaths resulting from Jihad attacks in the name of Islam. In October of 2007 alone, there were jihad attacks in 19 nations with over 1200 deaths and over 2000 critical injuries. Between 30 percent and 40 percent of the victims of jihad attacks worldwide have been in Iraq and Afghanistan since the wars started in those nations. The overwhelming majority of victims have been civilians. Every single day deadly jihad attacks in the name of Islam are reported through some news outlet somewhere on the globe. Glen Reinsford over at thereligionofpeace.com has archived all of the attacks reported in the press for the last six years. It's a superb site for getting a synoptic overview of Islam and if you scroll down once there you will find sections giving excellent responses to any trite Islamic apologetics you might run into.
In regard to Muslims, what do you sirs think of this list of serious "Muslim" inventions? Though it appears that they developed in spite or despite of Islam, as Dr. Trifkovic would say:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inventions_in_the_Muslim_world
Many hilarious responses to a thoroughly lazy article. First, let me say as an avid reader of this website for a number of years, I usually shrug off these hysterical anti-Islamic tirades since there is so much of real value otherwise presented. This is just too too much. First, this logic that since Islam= simplicity= it's appeal to primitive types inevitably leads us to the conclusion that Mr. Wilson and his sophisticated commentators ought to thoroughly embrace Hinduism with it's million and a half idols, prostrating themselves before cows and a little blue man and it's currently unemployed god of syphilis. It is clearly more sophisticated, if division and multiplication of the Godhead is our measure, significantly more "mysterious".
Truth has no mysteries, as all real followers of Christ know. Y'all sound like a bunch of freemasons.
It is often demanded of Islam that it Reform itself, but what has Christianity gained in it's perpetual acquiesence to the dictates of the times? Tolerance, ad nauseum, but tolerance for WHAT? A multiplicity of beliefs, a more lax code of sexual conduct? NO, the wholesale acceptance of USURY not only by the Protestant churches but also Catholicism has led to our current predicament.
According to the Islamic position, which is not debateable, suicide (whether for personal, tactical, or political reasons) is forbidden. It is an abject lie to paint any such activities as somehow Islamic. REVOLUTION and TERROR are Western, post-enlightenment phenomena. It comes as no surprise that suicide bombing ONLY comes on the scene AFTER the wholesale rejection of Islam by Arab socialists (erm modernists) in this century. Ataturk an admirable man my ass!
Need i remind the otherwise intelligent readers of this site that the Ba'ath party was founded by Michel Aflak, a Lebonese CHRISTIAN, SOCIALIST? Ask ANY Muslim you meet on the street if they consider ANY act of so-called "Jihad" by wahhabis and their ilk legitimate and you will be met with a resounding laugh. It is exactly like expecting Christians to accept Dylan Klebold or the Omaha mall shooter as holy warriors in the name of Christ.
True Christians and Muslims ought to recognize their affinities and common enemies.
Usury is god and satan is his prophet.
I never cease to be surprised at the tangents that writebacks display. Several, especially "Celine," seem to miss the fact that my piece was NOT about Islam. It was about the degeneracy of the U.S.
This is an excellent and extremely important topic which is being ignored by far too many Americans. We are not just flattening all religions, it is growing apparent that Islam is becoming a privileged religion in our nation. Too many accommodations are being made in the name of "tolerance", and to avoid being tagged as 'Islamophobic".
Here's a similar take:
http://revkharma.wordpress.com/2007/12/13/islamaphobic-or-christophobic/#comments
Dr. Wilson stated “my piece was NOT about Islam. It was about the degeneracy of the U.S.”
Isn’t the reference to Islamization of the US somewhat allegorical, then?
After all, if, as you say, Islam “is preeminently the faith of the slow-witted and literal-minded,” the same is surely true of the dominant strain of contemporary Christianity: as you put it, “political preachers of the “Religious Right” … are, after all, theologically ignorant, poltroonish opportunists, and lickspittles of power.”
Indeed.
I’ve noticed in talking with Christian family and friends that very few are grappling with the intellectual intricacies of the Incarnation, Vicarious Atonement, etc. at even the level of, say, Lewis’ “Mere Christianity.” Only a few (mainly Catholics) seem to have any recollection of Christian just-war theory..
Isn’t the historically interesting, underlying issue the fact that the dominant intellectual elites in Western civilization for nearly three centuries have been non-Christians? From Newton, Voltaire, and Beethoven to Hawking, Rawls, and Barth, it is difficult to detect any strain of orthodox, Trinitarian Christianity. Surely, the intellectual vulgarization of popular Christianity has something to do with this strange, longstanding opposition between the beliefs of the elites and the beliefs of the masses.
Incidentally, I am, I suppose, a member of those elites myself: I have a Ph.D. in theoretical physics from Stanford, and, like most elite scientists, I don’t think God exists. (I do think I can claim that, unlike the dominant intellectuals of the last two centuries, I have not merely substituted some secular religion – Marxism, psychoanalysis, environmentalism, etc. – for Christianity.)
So, isn’t the death of serious Christianity as an influence on our civilization already complete, not something that will happen in the future? Isn’t Western civilization giving way to a new post-Western, post-Christian world civilization?
Frankly, I think that is a good thing. At least, our corrupt and decadent Western elites will find themselves destined for insignificance once Asia reasserts its traditional world dominance.
I’m homeschooling my kids, and they’re learning Chinese.
Dave Miller in Sacramento