Posted on 09/18/2006 3:25:10 PM PDT by Valin
bump
LOL! Maybe mine will come today. Seems to take forever for things to arrive in the mail.
Hear that sound??
Neither do I.
It's the sound of somebody within the Protestant confession standing up in support of what Benedict XVI said. Or saying anything of any gravitas in this debate. And who can blame them? Who needs a jihad delegation on your front veranda on a Sunday morning, right?
Ping your own leaders and point out the deficiencies in Benedict XVI's speech. They'll go into bat and set the Muslims straight with a "you're all going to hell" speech, for sure.
Not.
My problem was always with the Conservative Chronicle. I'd sometimes get three together. Now, if I actually thought my mail carrier was a conservative I might suspect him of keeping and reading it. But this was back in CA.
For a while there, it was paychecks I wasn't getting. Now, THAT was troubling!
Direct-deposit solves the paycheck problem :-).
I get "Human Events" on a very irregular basis. Of course it's not a good mailing format; I suppose they'd have to raise the price if they put it in a plastic wrap.
On the other hand, my local weekly, "The County Edge," comes without fail every Friday in the mail. Maybe the USPS just doesn't like "Human Events."
That was my other hypothesis. But in that case, I should not have expected to receive it at all.
Still it made for odd days, reading something, thinking, "hey, this is so way out of date" and then glancing at the date line.
Then again, most of that is now pinged here from Townhall, JewishWorldReview or WorldNetDaily, so I may let that sub lapse. It's kind of that I sort of feel like helping Joe Roth stay in business out there, but I dunno, maybe not.
I get that one also.
However, it strikes me (more often than not) as an occasion for erudite intellectuals to exhibit the breadth of their vocabulary. I could pare most columns down to one-fifth of their magnitude by excising unneccessary verbiage, and would still have not mutated an iota of the substrate nuances evoked.
(translated: They are windbags.)
You didn't need to translate; I read pirate just fine.
And yes, that's an accurate observation. But I like vocabulary, and it's educational for the Offspring, because they have to use the Unabridged Dictionary.
Just out of curiosity, do you find you've made a lot of converts with that approach? Among Muslims? Among anyone?
The Pope does not believe mohammed was a true prophet; the Church knows that the last of all revelation, and of all prophesy, has been revealed in the New Testament. Since the Second Vatican Council however, the Popes have tried, (to the dismay of many Catholics), to open up a dialogue with the Church's traditional enemies, believing that Christ's enemies will come to love Him "if they just understand us". This policy of appeasement and 'tolerance' is a failed liberal policy, a policy that is badly failing all of Western civilization. Islam is showing the Catholic Church, the West, Jews, all the world's Christians and "infidels" that the devil will not respect God.
I think this Pope is getting that message now, as most of his recent speeches that involved islam have been rather bold and critical. Pope Benedict even said recently that "islam and democracy will never mix unless islam decides to reinterpret the koran", (paraphrase). That pretty much says it all.
Actually the best response we get at our church for people turning to Christ is when the preacher preaches about hell and people realize that if they stay on the road they are on, the broad road, that they are headed for destruction. Islam is part of that broad road. We do the Muslims no eternal favor when we do as Neuhaus suggests and encourage Muslims to: "guide Muslim believers and train them in the Islamic faith."
The Islamic faith (as the Constantine Emperor suggested) "has produced only inhumanity and evil." Worse yet, those who embrace Islam and reject Christ are doomed to eternal torment. That my friend, is the facts of life. While from a political standpoint we should be free to engage in mutually beneficial dialouge with Muslims, from a religious viewpoint, Christians and Muslims have nothing in common and there is no common ground that can be acheived without compromising the gospel.
The approach you question is the same approach used by Jonah and John the Baptist. Were there ever any men who were more effective at bringing people to repentance and truth?
What Benedict said was brave and was something that needed to be said. Undoubtedly Muslims will attempt to kill him now and prove that Benedict was right. Benedict is a much braver and less compromising Pope than the last one (you know, the one who kissed the Koran?). Benedict will pay a great political price for his words, but he will reap great spiritual rewards.
Benedict appears to be a man of conviction and courage.
Happy?
"SANCTITY OF HUMAN LIFE
“…take not life, which God hath made sacred, except by way of justice and law: thus doth He command you, that ye may learn wisdom.” [Al-Qur’an 6:151]
“…if any one slew a person - unless it be for murder or for spreading mischief in the land - it would be as if he slew the whole people: and if any one saved a life, it would be as if he saved the life of the whole people.” [Al-Qur’an 5:32]"
YOU might want to do a bit more study yourself. As it turns out your "peaceful" verse, 5:32, in its entirety, teaches MURDER:
“That was why We laid it down for the Israelites that whoever killed a human being, except as a punishment for murder or other villainy in the land, shall be looked upon as though he had killed all mankind; and that whoever saved a human life shall be regarded as though he had saved all mankind. Our apostles brought them veritable proofs: yet it was not long before many of them committed great evils in the land. Those that make war against God and His apostle and spread disorder shall be put to death or crucified or have their hands and feet cut off on alternate sides, or be banished from the country.”
Koran 2:191, "And slay them (infidels) wherever ye catch them" --
Sura (chapter) 47: "When you encounter the unbelievers on the battlefield, strike off their heads until you have crushed them completely;"
Sura 8:12: "I will cast dread (instill terror) into the hearts of the unbelievers. Strike off their heads, then, and strike off all of their fingertips."
"Sura IV.34: ”As for those [women] from whom you fear rebellion, admonish them and banish them to beds apart, and scourge [beat] them ”
verses 29 –35:
“Fight against such of those to whom the Scriptures were given as believe neither in God nor the Last Day, who do not forbid what God and His apostle have forbidden, and do not embrace the true faith, until they pay tribute out of hand and are utterly subdued.
“The Jews say Ezra is the son of God, while the Christians say the Messiah is the son of God. Such are their assertions, by which they imitate the infidels of old. God confound them! How perverse they are!
“They make of their clerics and their monks, and of the Messiah, the son of Mary, Lords besides God; though they were ordered to serve one God only. There is no god but Him. Exalted be He above those whom they deify besides Him!….
“It is He who has sent forth His apostle with guidance and the true Faith to make it triumphant over all religions, however much the idolaters may dislike it
“O you who believe ! Lo! Many of the Jewish rabbis and the Christian monks devour the wealth of mankind wantonly and debar men from the way of Allah; They who hoard up gold and silver and spend it not in the way of Allah, unto them give tidings of painful doom …”
islam is pure evil.
Yes, Jesus Christ, Who taugh a gospel of love mainly, sprinkled with warnings of hell, depending upon whom He was speaking to. In the case of the angry, belligerent, murderous muslims, the approach of "honey catches more flies than vinegar" is probably best. You get the leader of the Catholic Church condemning to hell 1.2 billion bearded barbarians, (pardon the alliteration), then you get in return the bloody murder of thousands of innocent Catholics and not a single conversion.
The Pope has a responsibility to the good people of the earth too, those who don't want to be slaughtered because of the imprudent words of the Pope. When the time is right the showdown between good and evil will come; but for now I am thrilled that we finally have a world leader somewhere who has the courage to speak the truth about islam. Right now is the time to come to his aid and stand beside him, rather than condemn him for not saying enough. What has President Bush or any Western leader had to say about islam in general lately, aside from praising it as "a religion of peace"?
I was not suggesting that this was a message the Pope needed to deliver. I was talking about Neuhaus and his approach to mutual understanding. The Pope is in both a religious and political position, so he needs to temper his words but he also needs to temper them without compromise. He has done that. That was courageous. One can only hope that this is a beginning.
Neuhaus went further and he has suggested (from a theological or religious viewpoint) that there is room for dialouge and compromise. From a religious standpoint there is no room for dialouge. Muslims are lost souls in need of the Gospel of Christ. We do them no favors by implying that they worship the same God as Christians. We do them no favors by encouraging them to "guide Muslim believers and train them in the Islamic faith."
The truth is that every Muslim who denies Christ is doomed to hell unless they turn and repent and embrace Jesus Christ. That is a message we cannot compromise. That message has triggered many a violent reaction in the past. It will trigger violent reactions in the future.
Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven. But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven. Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword. For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a man's foes shall be they of his own household. (Matthew 10:32-36 KJV)
Happier.
Except for this piece: Benedict is a much braver and less compromising Pope than the last one (you know, the one who kissed the Koran?).
The previous Pope was nothing if not courageous. In fact, I would go so far as to say "fearless". His kissing of the Koran should not be construed as an act of cowardice.
All three of the great theistic religions (Judaism, Islam and Christiaity) have certain beliefs in common, as well as certain differences. By attempting to build on those things held in common, the previous Pope had his own way of reaching out. Furthermore, he was conscious of the continued support of Islamic nations in the long-running battle with the UN over abortion and its enshrinement as a universal human right.
To construe his kissing of the Koran as an act of an intimidated man would be an error. His pontificate of 27 years exuded courage.
I figured as much. Alas, it was a public reply.
"The Church looks upon Muslims with respect. They worship the one God ....".
The phrase "the one God" implies that allah & Jehovah are one & the same. Nothing could be further from the truth. Just because mohammed cherry-picked Jewish & Christian doctrine to further his cause & fill in the blanks of his cult, does not mean muslims worship the same god as do Jews/Christians. Jehovah is no more allah than he is buddha.
Dear bornacatholic,
"*That is a true statement. Of course the Mulsim's understanding of God is deficient. However, they do worship one God."
Precisely.
They worship the true God falsely.
sitetest
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