“Fortunately, we have Karen Armstrong, a former Roman Catholic nun and an Oxford-trained religious scholar whose writings I have cribbed for much of this column...”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karen_Armstrong
A former Catholic nun, she asserts that, “All the great traditions are saying the same thing in much the same way, despite their surface differences.”
(sounds like a unitarian or polytheist, or agnostic. Note too that this is Obama’s stated religious philosophy)
“I say that religion isn’t about believing things. It’s about what you do. It’s ethical alchemy. It’s about behaving in a way that changes you, that gives you intimations of holiness and sacredness.”
She points out that religious fundamentalism is not just a response to but, paradoxically, a product of contemporary culture. “We need to create a new narrative, get out of the rat-run of hatred, chauvinism and defensiveness; and make the authentic voice of religion a power in the world that is conducive to peace.”
(so what is she doing to CHANGE Fundamentalist Islam?!!)
In an interview with Bill Moyers, Armstrong compared Christianity to Islam, stating that “Islam is a religion of success. Unlike Christianity, which has as its main image, in the west at least, a man dying in a devastating, disgraceful, helpless death...Mohammed was not an apparent failure. He was a dazzling success, politically as well as spiritually, and Islam went from strength to strength to strength.”
Armstrong has also argued that “Until the 20th century, Islam was a far more tolerant and peaceful faith than Christianity.”
Nuff said. Liberalism is a mental disorder.
In her bio, I’m not seeing much ra-ra for Hinduism, Buddhism, Christianity, Judaism, Paganism, etc. Just a whole lot of “Islam is so marvey!”
Thank you for that expose of Armstrong.
She's a full-on flaming idiot! Where oh where did this tolerance and peacefulness take place?