Catholic Ping - please freepmail me if you want on/off this list
Posted on 11/12/2004 1:46:18 PM PST by NYer
Catholic Ping - please freepmail me if you want on/off this list
Your thoughts?
The only problem is that all the majority parties in the UK are under the impression that the secularism is the way forward... Considering the current political situation in the UK, it may take ages before this sentiment seeps through to the mainstream politics.
And on the seventh day Tony Blair created...
Tony Blair knows it is one of the most delicate of subjects. When asked about it he squirms and tries to change to a more comfortable line of inquiry. But quietly the Prime Minister is putting religion at the centre of the New Labour project, reflecting his own deeply felt beliefs that answers to most questions can be found in the Bible.
The Observer can reveal that Blair is to allow Christian organisations and other 'faith groups' a central role in policy-making in a decisive break with British traditions that religion and government should not mix.
The Prime Minister, who this weekend becomes the longest continually serving Labour Prime Minister in history, has set up a ministerial working group in the Home Office charged with injecting religious ideas 'across Whitehall'. One expert on the relationship between politics and religion described the move as a 'blow to secularism'.
Blair's move is believed to have the strong support of the two other leading Christian members of the Cabinet, David Blunkett, the Home Secretary, and Paul Boateng, Chief Secretary of the Treasury.
The working group will be chaired by the Home Office Minister with responsibility for what is called 'civic renewal', Fiona Mactaggart. The members will include Estelle Morris, the former Education Secretary who is now the Arts Minister, and Christian organisations including the Evangelical Alliance. Known as the Faith Community Liaison Group, it will have an input into controversial policy areas such as faith schools, which are allowed to select their pupils on the basis of their beliefs, and religious discrimination.
Blair, a committed Christian who keeps the Bible by his bed, knows he is taking a risk by revealing the importance he places on religion in informing his politics. He also knows that many of his key officials feel uncomfortable about the central role that God plays in his life. There were furrowed brows of consternation when Blair, asked who he would answer to for the deaths of British soldiers, replied: 'My Maker'.
Alastair Campbell, Blair's communications director, said 'We don't do God' when the Prime Minister was questioned in a recent interview with Vanity Fair about his religious beliefs. When Blair wanted to end his televised address to the nation at the start of the war in Iraq with 'God bless you', he was advised against it...
[Click link above to read the rest of the article]
We should all keep Prime Minister Blair in our prayers.
It's interesting that abortion is the litmus test, just as it is here. Interesting too that the question is whether there is any measure of human worth other than market value. It sounds to me as if the Brits are very much on the right track.
The three shouldn't be grouped together. The bastard child of the pagans has entirely different goals than the other two do.
Beautiful, huh? The author lumps together people who are pro-life or pro-family with the islamic nutjob who gunned down Van Gogh.
What the hell, they’re all “religious.”
Britain is blessed to have a man like Tony as their P.M.
I'm not going to concentrate on the arguments focusing around what "swept" G.W. to power nor statements about Islam in this article.
I am going to state I believe this increased focus on values, on Faith, on country etc.. I find to be beneficial. If that focus sweeps Europe it'll be to their benefit.
Europe has a culture of Death. If we are to survive the threat of terrorism we have to have a strong culture of Life. We have to desire Life or else we have no reason to resist these murderers. The world is long overdue for an awakening. It would seem G.W.'s election may have started a domino effect that has potential to grow.
Maybe tactical alliances with Muslims on some moral issues makes sense, but Christians should definitely reject any appeal to violence similar to Muslim doctrine on jihad.
Trying to build a coalition with Muslims is just foolish. They don't want a decent, moral society, they want a Sharia-governed hell.
Please tell me that most Brits hate this rag.
Well, as impassioned as you are about the matter, he is not a servant of the anti-Christ.
He is one man standing up to prevent his entire country from being destroyed over terrorism under tremendous opposition from all corners.
If you choose to ignore the good done by this man, that is your choice. I will take the opposite view, thank you.
If I were designing a campaign in England, I'd concentrate on law and order issues rather than broader moral questions. I'd appeal to the fear of street crime and home invasion. Stir in a little anti-French nationalism, and build from there.
Thank you! President George "Dubya" has been given an additional 4 years to correct the problems infiltrating our society from the moral irrelantists. For those watching the elections from the outside, Bush's victory must have resonated. "His" values are "their" values. Such encouragement gives rise to hope. With hope, comes prayer. With prayer, comes victory. God willing, these adherents of moral principle in Great Britain may one day overcome the tremendous shift towards secularism, in Great Britain.
If voters in Australia-of all places-can elect a pro-family, pro-faith member of congress, then I'm sure that the UK can replicate that accomplishment on a much broader scale.
All it will take is a little time and effort.
There is no way one can refute the fact that we as Christians share a common enemy with Islam in the secular PC left. We are constantly complaining about the demise of our value system which made this nation at the hands of the liberals, and it is this same PC ideology that motivates the Jihadists to declare their fatwas against the west.
Remember, Jesus is a prophet in Islam - and history is replete with instances of Muslims defending Christian sites of religious significance. The monastery at the foot of Mt Sinai comes to mind - Mohammed himself declared that no Muslim would allow any harm to come to that place, even during the Crusades - and his personal guard kept watch over the monastery. Muslims put people of faith above those without, regardless of what that faith is. Yes, they still want to kill us all, but they'd kill the secularists first.
It isn't too large a stretch to imagine that if the west were to actually live up to its' religious values instead of what we are seeing today that OBL's movement would wither away and die. They see the west as being "Godless", can you blame them for that? We see them as barbarians due to their lack of placing any value upon human life and their seventh century way of living. There's a lot of educating that needs to be done on both sides about the other.
Once that happens, both sides will see who the true enemy is. The Left.
"Christians share a common enemy with Islam in the secular PC left."
Essentially correct, but at the moment both are tactically allied. In Holland there are first fissures in that alliance but I'm sceptic.
Should the Christian Conservative build alliances (at least tactical) with the religious Islam? I think that's very difficult since there is no unity in Islam, there are no contact persons (like the pope for the catholics) although I also believe that most of them share very respectable values with us. Never in the life can we join forces with the life-detesting extremists, the sympathizers of terrorism which are bred in the slums of European metropoles (I guess supported by government welfare).
The impossibility of alliances with Islamic powers does not mean that their forces remain unused against the Left. I'm just waiting for Turkey joining the European Union (a project of the Left): How would the Commies dictate their "values" to the Turks. A gay pride parade in East-Anatolia? Too funny! I predict nothing else as the end of the European Union as we know it, a free trade zone is enough.
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