tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9695096.post7518929940489165168..comments2024-02-14T03:56:12.027-08:00Comments on La Salette Journey: "...that the Mohammedans will come again.."Paul Anthony Melansonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08455719838570381999noreply@blogger.comBlogger13125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9695096.post-36839053480560841052009-06-04T05:18:30.498-07:002009-06-04T05:18:30.498-07:00While Dianne Williamson labels pro-lifers as "...While Dianne Williamson labels pro-lifers as "terrorists," she doesn't seem too concerned over radical Islam. This article by Ann Coulter puts it all into perspective:<br /><br />49 Million to Five <br />by Ann Coulter <br />Human Events <br />06/03/2009 <br /><br />"In the wake of the shooting of late-term abortionist George Tiller, President Barack Obama sent out a welcome message that this nation would not tolerate attacks on pro-lifers or any other Americans because of their religion or beliefs. <br /><br />Ha ha! Just kidding. That was the lead sentence -- with minor edits -- of a New York Times editorial warning about theoretical hate crimes against Muslims published eight months after 9/11. Can pro-lifers get a hate crimes bill passed and oceans of ink devoted to assuring Americans that "most pro-lifers are peaceful"? <br /><br />For years, we've had to hear about the grave threat that Americans might overreact to a terrorist attack committed by 19 Muslims shouting "Allahu akbar" as they flew commercial jets into American skyscrapers. That would be the equivalent of 19 pro-lifers shouting "Abortion kills a beating heart!" as they gunned down thousands of innocent citizens in Wichita, Kan. <br /><br /><br />Why aren't liberals rushing to assure us this time that "most pro-lifers are peaceful"? Unlike Muslims, pro-lifers actually are peaceful. <br /><br />According to recent polling, a majority of Americans oppose abortion -- which is consistent with liberals' hysterical refusal to allow us to vote on the subject. In a country with approximately 150 million pro-lifers, five abortionists have been killed since Roe v. Wade. <br /><br />In that same 36 years, more than 49 million babies have been killed by abortionists. Let's recap that halftime score, sports fans: 49 million to five. <br /><br />Meanwhile, fewer than 2 million Muslims live in America and, while Muslims are less murderous than abortionists, I'm fairly certain they've killed more than five people in the United States in the last 36 years. For some reason, the number "3,000" keeps popping into my head. <br /><br />So in a country that is more than 50 percent pro-life -- and 80 percent opposed to the late-term abortions of the sort performed by Tiller -- only five abortionists have been killed. And in a country that is less than 0.5 percent Muslim, several dozen Muslims have killed thousands of Americans. <br /><br />But the killing of about one abortionist per decade leads liberals to condemn the entire pro-life movement as "domestic terrorists." At least liberals have finally found some terrorists they'd like to send to Guantanamo. <br /><br />Tiller bragged about performing 60,000 abortions, including abortions of viable babies, able to survive outside the mother's womb. He made millions of dollars performing late-term abortions so gruesome that only two other abortionists -- not a squeamish bunch -- in the entire country would perform them...." <br /><br />Read the rest of the article at Human Events online.Ted Loiseaunoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9695096.post-43301277017064191822009-06-03T10:12:33.826-07:002009-06-03T10:12:33.826-07:00Anne Catherine Emmerich, 1842 AD:
"In the ce...Anne Catherine Emmerich, 1842 AD:<br /><br />"In the center of Hell I saw a dark and horrible looking abyss, and into this Lucifer was cast, after being first strongly secured with chains. This occurred when Lucifer (Satan) and his fallen angels were thrown out of Heaven and condemned to Hell for eternity. Thick clouds of sulfurous black smoke arose from it's fearful depths and enveloped his fearful form in the dismal folds, thus effectually concealing him from every beholder. God Himself had decreed this, and I was likewise told that he will be unchained for a time fifty or sixty years before the year of Christ 2000. A certain number of demons are to be let loose much earlier than Lucifer, in order to tempt men, and to serve as instruments to prepare the way for Antichrist." <br /><br />That preparation is being made now.Elizabethnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9695096.post-43751202036579023832009-06-03T09:02:25.473-07:002009-06-03T09:02:25.473-07:00Pope Benedict XVI warns that, "..even Islam, ...Pope Benedict XVI warns that, "..even Islam, with all the greatness it represents [here he is speaking of its positive elements; he recognizes more than anyone its flaws] is always in danger of losing balance, letting violence have a place and letting religion slide away into mere outward observance and ritualism.." (Truth and Tolerance, p. 204).Marie Tremblaynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9695096.post-56459600693101292292009-06-03T08:18:53.882-07:002009-06-03T08:18:53.882-07:00Belloc on the Islamic Heresy---Fr. Schall (conclud...Belloc on the Islamic Heresy---Fr. Schall (concluded)<br /><br />It still converts pagan savages wholesale. It even attracts from <br />time to time some European eccentric, who joins its body. But the <br />Mohammedan never becomes a Catholic. No fragment of Islam ever <br />abandons its sacred book, its code of morals, its organized system of <br />prayer, its simple doctrine. In view of this, anyone with a knowledge <br />of history is bound to ask himself whether we shall not see in the <br />future a rival of Mohammedan political power, and the renewal of the <br />old pressure of Islam on Christendom (130). <br /><br />These words are strong and historically true. They also today strike <br />us as prophetic. Few paid much attention to Belloc in his time. No <br />Muslims are converted. No one ever abandons the book or its ritual. <br /><br />In the end, I cannot help but have a gratefulness to <br />the "apparently unconvertible" religion, to radical Islam for waking <br />us up. We could make the case that all our studies, all our concern <br />with western ideology and power may have been misplaced. What we <br />should have been paying attention to are our souls and what is the <br />best explanation of our existence and destiny. Islam has another soul <br />and another destiny which it seeks to spread, by its own proven means, <br />to the ends of the earth, an idea that it probably got, ironically, <br />from the end of the Gospel of Matthew.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9695096.post-69149881225377696192009-06-03T08:16:57.882-07:002009-06-03T08:16:57.882-07:00Belloc on the Islamic Heresy---Fr. Schall (continu...Belloc on the Islamic Heresy---Fr. Schall (continued)<br /><br />What Belloc was most conscious of, however, was <br />that, unlike Islam, that Christianity did not retain its inner <br />coherence, its faith. "Christian Europe is and should be by nature <br />one; but it has forgotten its nature in forgetting its religion" <br />(116). Belloc connected this loss of inner coherence in the West to <br />the opportunity for Islam to rise again. It is partly the downplaying <br />of the importance of religion in the West that it has been unable or <br />unwilling to understand the attraction of Islam in its own inner <br />coherence. "It has always seemed t me possible, and even probable," <br />Belloc wrote, <br /><br />that there would be a resurrection of Islam and that our sons or our <br />grandsons would see the renewal of that tremendous struggle between <br />the Christian culture and what has been for more than a thousand years <br />its greatest opponent.... The future always comes as a surprise but <br />political wisdom consists in attempting at least some partial judgment <br />of what that surprise may be. And for my part I cannot but believe <br />that a main unexpected thing of the future is the return of Islam. <br />Since religion is at the root of all political movements and changes <br />and since we have here a very great religion physically paralysed but <br />morally intensely alive, we are in the presence of an unstable <br />equilibrium which cannot remain permanently unstable (127-28). <br /><br />It is interesting that even with the return of Islam to the forefront <br />of our consciousness, we do not want to see this return as a religious <br />thing explained in terms of Islam itself. <br /><br />How are we to assess these potent reflections of <br />Belloc? Stretched half-way across the world, Islam is divided up into <br />many "nations," though that concept of nationalism is not an Islamic <br />idea. The central organs of the Church seem to be against doing <br />anything radical about any Islamic threat, preferring diplomacy and <br />not forcefully noting the widespread attacks on Christians throughout <br />the world. It is interesting that several Vatican officials give as a <br />reason for not using force is the fear of the rising up of Islam and <br />the potential terror it can cause everywhere in the world. They are <br />right, the danger is real. Normally, this view would be an argument <br />for doing something about the problem when we can, before something <br />more terrible happens, particularly if the problem lies in Islam <br />itself and its inability to accept the normal peaceful structures of <br />society. Almost all the minor wars today have some Islamic component. <br />Within Islam, there are various schools of interpretation from the <br />well-financed Wahhabi extremists in Saudi Arabia to the more mild <br />versions of the Shiites. <br /><br />Geo-politicians and theologians alike argue that, <br />since we really have no common philosophy, we must seek ways to <br />reinterpret Islam within itself, using its own texts and traditions to <br />mollify the extremists who now see an opportunity to establish Muslim <br />dominance all over the world. At first sight, this seems <br />preposterous. But as Belloc said, surprising things happen, like the <br />rise of Islam, or Christianity, or Judaism in the first place. It <br />makes us wonder whether there is not something objective to be said <br />for the reality of salvation history after all. <br /><br />For Catholics in particular, Belloc's estimate was <br />sobering. He lived before "ecumenism," but he certainly wondered <br />about its effectiveness in the case of Islam, however politically wise <br />it might be to proceed as the Muslim philosophers and not mention any <br />truths outside the Koran. "Missionary effort has had no appreciable <br />effect on it (Islam)," Belloc concluded. <br />(continued below)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9695096.post-7664622149272968292009-06-03T08:15:04.829-07:002009-06-03T08:15:04.829-07:00Belloc on the Islamic Heresy---Fr. Schall (continu...Belloc on the Islamic Heresy---Fr. Schall (continued)<br /><br />Usually, Belloc thought, heresies make an initial <br />impact then they decline and disappear. Islam did not do this <br />(94-95). When Islam was defeated, it remained strong in numbers and <br />in convictions (95-96). How then is Islam different? Some westerners <br />say it is because it is simple and founded on justice and improves on <br />Christianity. Belloc did not think that this reason works because <br />every heresy maintains the same thing but they still fade, not Islam <br />(98). Historically, Islam constantly gained new recruits: the Turk, <br />the Mongol. "The causes of this vitality (of Islam) are very <br />difficult to explore, and perhaps cannot be reached. For myself I <br />should ascribe it in some part to the fact that Mohammedanism being a <br />thing from outside, a heresy that did not arise within the body of the <br />Christian community but beyond its frontiers, has always possessed a <br />reservoir of men, newcomers pouring in to revivify its energies. But <br />this cannot be the full explanation" (129) Today, I suspect, they <br />gain new recruits largely from their own population growth which <br />expands to fill the vacuum left by the low birth rates in the West. <br />The Crusades did not split Islam geographically. Belloc held that if <br />the Crusades (1095-1200) had cut Africa from Asia, Islam may have <br />declined (103). It is interesting how many of the advocates of <br />occupation of Iraq today use this theory of the need to split Islam <br />and hence reduce its geopolitical power. <br /><br />Yet, Belloc maintained that, though based on the <br />army, Islam did have a cultural force. `The success of Mohammedanism <br />had not been due to its offering something more satisfactory in the <br />way of philosophy and morals, but, as I have said, to the opportunity <br />it afforded of freedom to the slave and debtor, and an extreme <br />simplicity which pleased the unintelligent masses who were perplexed <br />by the mysteries inseparable from the profound intellectual life of <br />Catholicism, and from its radical doctrine of the Incarnation" (103). <br />This position is not unlike that of Eric Voegelin, who argued that <br />the susceptibility of western Christians to modern ideology was due to <br />the practical disbelief of many Christians in the ultimate <br />transcendent goal of the faith.7 <br /><br />Belloc, in fact, saw a relation between the failure <br />of the Crusades and the rise of modern Europe which at first turned in <br />on itself before finding the technological means of bypassing Islamic <br />lands with the discoveries of America and the sea route to Asia. <br />Belloc even held that the success of the Reformation in part was due <br />to the defeat of Catholic and papal policies in the Crusades (107-09). <br />Belloc's book on The Crusades remains one of the most poignant <br />accounts of a failed enterprise. "Had the crusaders' remaining force <br />at the end of the first Crusading march been a little more numerous, <br />had they taken Damascus and the string of towns on the fringe of the <br />desert, the whole history of the world would have been changed. The <br />world of Islam would have been cut in two, with the East unable to <br />approach the West."(114) North Africa, the old Roman lands, was not <br />recovered. "They failed ... but they made modern Europe" (115). The <br />Reformation was due to the weakness at the Center (115). <br />(continued below)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9695096.post-56051458577652030152009-06-03T08:11:36.533-07:002009-06-03T08:11:36.533-07:00Belloc on the Islamic Heresy---Fr. Schall (continu...Belloc on the Islamic Heresy---Fr. Schall (continued)<br /><br />Belloc thought that Islam expanded rapidly for the <br />very good reason that "it won battles." (81). This success should <br />give modern pacifists pause, but it usually does not. Yet, to call <br />Islam a religion of "simplicity" is, in Belloc's terms, rather a <br />compliment. He notes that it freed many people from the complicated <br />clutch of usury, from the lawyers. It freed slaves if they converted <br />and made them <br /><br />brothers within the system (81-82). The brotherhood of faith trumps <br />other relationships. Belloc distinguished between the character of <br />the spread of Islam initially in the near East and that expansion into <br />Persian and Mongol lands – the area from Mesopotamia to India and <br />the Eastern Roman empire (85). "The uniformity of temper which is the <br />mark of Asiatic society, responded at once to this new idea of one <br />very simple, personal form of government, sanctified by religion, and <br />ruling with a power theoretically absolute from one center" (86). It <br />was from these conquests that Islam learned of Greek philosophy and <br />other cultures and was the origin of much of its science and art. <br />"Islam was the one heresy," Belloc wrote, "that nearly destroyed <br />Christendom through its early material and intellectual superiority" (88). <br /><br />Much has been made of the "tolerance" in Islam, <br />especially for religions of the book. This tolerance was often merely <br />the inability to change large conquered populations in a short time. <br />Belloc thought that "the Mohammedan temper was not tolerant. It was, <br />on the contrary, fanatical and bloodthirsty. It felt no respect for, <br />nor even curiosity about, those from whom it differed. It was <br />absurdly vain of itself, regarding with contempt the high Christian <br />culture about it. It still so regards it even today" (90). The <br />practical compromise in this situation was to allow the Christians to <br />remain but within very confined areas and occupations. They had to <br />pay a tribute. Many were gradually absorbed into Islam (91). <br /><br />This record of Islam's own consistency, its closed <br />nature, its remaining itself had to be reconsidered in some detail, <br />Belloc thought. It has been "the most formidable of the heresies" <br />(92). The question is now why has it survived? "Millions of modern <br />people of the white civilization – that is, the civilization of <br />Europe and America – have forgotten all about Islam" (92). This <br />could be written in 1938, but not in 2003. The questions must now be <br />asked not merely "why has it survived?" but "why has it flourished?" <br />Belloc can only be said to have foreseen the problem: "It is, in <br />fact, the most formidable and persistent enemy which our civilization <br />has had, and may at any moment become as large a menace in the future <br />as it has been in the past" (93). Neither our modern culture or the <br />modern Church allows us this frankness. <br />(continued below)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9695096.post-86650711152238845152009-06-03T08:06:04.420-07:002009-06-03T08:06:04.420-07:00Belloc on the Islamic Heresy---Fr. Schall (continu...Belloc on the Islamic Heresy---Fr. Schall (continued)<br /><br />Moreover, we have the parallel phenomenon of the <br />Muslim martyr, the man who kills in the name of Allah, whether it be <br />in a suicidal attack in a church in the Philippines, French Trappist <br />monks whose throats were slit in Algeria on Christmas eve, or the <br />pilots who flew into the World Trade Center. In some basic sense, <br />these killers are pictured as martyrs. Nor is the notion of "holy <br />war" unknown in Islam. However much the Church tries to argue that <br />such actions cannot be considered to be justified, still within at <br />least some branches of Muslim opinion, they are considered to be <br />genuine martyrs seeking to defend or propagate the religion and <br />therefore worthy of Allah. When we try to oppose this position on say <br />natural law terms, we find that our mode of discourse is itself alien <br />to what much of Islam conceives itself to be. The basis of our <br />arguments are not admitted to be valid. <br /><br />Belloc thought that Islam began as a heresy and <br />became a new religion culturally when it had to account and explain <br />its successes on the field of battle. The stunning successes on the <br />field of battle had to be administered. "Mohammedanism was a heresy: <br />that is the essential point to grasp before going any further. It <br />began as a heresy, not as a new religion. It was not a pagan contrast <br />with the Church: it was not an alien enemy. It was a perversion of <br />Christian doctrine. Its vitality and endurance soon gave it the <br />appearance of a new religion, but those who were contemporary with its <br />rise saw it for what it was – not a denial, but an adaptation and <br />misuse, of the Christian thing" (76-77). As most scholars recognize, <br />the main parts of what Islam took from revelation are from Judaism <br />rather than Christianity. Islam kept much of what Christianity has in <br />common with Judaism – the transcendence of Yahweh, creation, divine <br />justice and punishment, the devotion of the people to God. <br /><br />But Islam was itself not like Arianism and other <br />early heresies. It arose from without the old ancient Christian <br />world. For it, Christ was not God but rather a human prophet. This <br />is the explicit denial of the root principle of Christianity. "With <br />the denial of the Incarnation went the whole sacramental structure. <br />He (the Muslim) refused to know anything of the Eucharist, with its <br />Real Presence; he stopped the sacrifice of Mass, and therefore the <br />institution of a special priesthood. In other words, he, like so many <br />other lesser heresiarchs, founded his heresy on simplicity" (79). <br />Though it is not often attended to, saying Mass itself is forbidden in <br />Saudi Arabia, even in private, and, even when permitted in other <br />lands, it is restricted and constantly hemmed in by various formal and <br />informal practices. "Freedom of religion" is not a concept that rises <br />naturally in Muslim theory but it is a Western idea, even largely a <br />modern Western idea. In Islam, the very practice of freedom of <br />religion is thought to be a species of not giving submission to Allah, <br />even where some non-Muslim churches are permitted. <br />(continued below)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9695096.post-70236095615896705602009-06-03T08:03:29.791-07:002009-06-03T08:03:29.791-07:00Belloc on the Islamic Heresy---Fr. Schall (continu...Belloc on the Islamic Heresy---Fr. Schall (continued)<br /><br />Unlike Stanley Jaki, Belloc did not think that there <br />was something in Islamic theology that militated against Islam's ever <br />becoming a major industrial or military-technological power by itself. <br />(133). The fact that it never accomplished this transformation was <br />for Belloc merely an accident, whereas for Jaki it was rooted in the <br />relation of an absolute notion of divine will to its consequent denial <br />of stable secondary causes. Jaki sees much of the rage in modern <br />Islam to be due to its failure or inability to modernize itself by its <br />own powers.6 Most of the weapons and equipment found in Muslim states <br />are still foreign made, usually inferior, and paid for with oil money. <br /><br />The "new" weapon that Islam has displayed with <br />September 11, 2001, is a kind of fanatic willingness to use any method <br />of terror even if it costs the lives of individuals who are often <br />popularly considered to be "martyrs" for killing Infidels. This <br />method needs little technology. The West has minimum moral equipment <br />with which to respond to such tactics. Indeed, as both Aristotle and <br />Machiavelli saw, that if someone does not fear for his own life, it is <br />very difficult to stop him. But neither of them thought of the idea <br />of sacrificing one's life specifically for this purpose. Indeed, in <br />the history of the West, Islam has always sent a kind of terror <br />through the hearts of those on its borders who were about to be <br />attacked or in the hearts of those who had to live under its control. <br />Belloc alludes to this phenomenon: <br /><br />These things being so, the recrudescence of Islam, the possibility of <br />that terror under which we lived for centuries reappearing, and of our <br />civilization again fighting for its life against what was its chief <br />enemy for a thousand years, seems fantastic. Who in the Mohammedan <br />world today can manufacture and maintain complicated machinery whereby <br />the religion of Islam can play an equal part in the modern world? (131). <br /><br />The question seems less rhetorical today because numbers, in the end, <br />count as does the willingness of people to die using modern machinery <br />like normal airplanes to carry our what is attested to be a religious <br />mission, however much we choose to identify it as simply "terrorism" <br />without a cause. What is also true is that this terrorism, or its <br />threat, is now everywhere. Thus far, at least, we see within Islam <br />itself little effort to control its own "terrorists" or to sympathize <br />with those who suffer from tem or who must defend themselves against them. <br /><br />The inconvertibility of Islam leads us to several <br />perhaps radical reflections. It is a common saying among Christians <br />that the blood of martyrs is the seed of the faith. There have been <br />many, many Christian martyrs by Islam over the centuries and <br />currently. As in the case of the slaughter of the Armenians by the <br />Turks, there will always appear some justification – the Christian <br />blasphemed Allah – in one sense. The very existence of Christianity <br />is a blasphemy in Muslim terms if we insist on the truth of the <br />Incarnation, that God became man. These historical martyrdoms have <br />had little or no effect in terms either of conversion or even <br />acknowledgment, even by ourselves often. <br />(continued below)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9695096.post-35740501738217385302009-06-03T07:58:55.949-07:002009-06-03T07:58:55.949-07:00Belloc on the Islamic Heresy---Fr. Schall (continu...Belloc on the Islamic Heresy---Fr. Schall (continued)<br /><br />Belloc recognized that Islam flourished because it did have some basic <br />truth about God, however that be interpreted. "Mohammedanism struck <br />permanent roots, developing a life of its own, and became at last <br />something like a new religion...," Belloc wrote in The Great Heresies. <br />"Like all heresies, Mohammedanism lived by the Catholic truths which <br />it had retained. Its insistence on personal immortality, on the Unity <br />and Infinite Majesty of God, on His Justice and Mercy, its insistence <br />on the equality of human souls in the sight of their Creator – these <br />were its strength" (128). Belloc saw the strength of Islam in its <br />virtues. <br /><br />It is for this reason alone, the impregnability of <br />Islam to Catholicism, however, that the Church needs to take more <br />cognizance of what is this growing force in the world. It is not <br />enough to condemn violence in the abstract. "Go forth and teach all <br />nations" is not possible if the nations will not allow themselves to <br />be preached to. The western theories of freedom of religion, whether <br />secular or religious, have made no headway in Islam, and only rarely <br />are they criticized for this lack. Those few who are Christians or <br />members of other religions, in most Muslim lands, in practice must be <br />content to remain second-class citizens and are constantly subject to <br />the pressure to convert to Islam. <br /><br />Belloc's thesis is that Islam began as a Christian <br />heresy which retained the Jewish side of the faith, the Oneness and <br />Omnipotence of God, but denied all the Christian aspects – the <br />Incarnation, the divinity of Christ, who, as a result, became just a <br />prophet. The denial of the church, the priesthood, and the sacraments <br />followed. Islam succeeded because, in its own terms, it was a simple <br />religion. It was easy to understand and follow its few doctrinal and <br />devotional points. The expansion of Islam was almost always by arms; <br />after each conquest, the Muslim Califs or Sultans ruled. They were <br />intolerant but they more or less accepted political submission in <br />return for tribute. At least twice in the history of the West, Islam <br />almost overran Europe, once at Poitiers in the 8th Century and once at <br />Vienna in the 17th Century. <br /><br />Interestingly, the Church since that period has <br />celebrated certain feast days precisely in memory of these victories, <br />the most notable is St. Pius V's establishment of the Feast the Holy <br />Rosary, on October 7, 1571. This feast commemorated the naval victory <br />at Lepanto. "The name of Lepanto should remain in the minds of all <br />men with a sense of history as one of the half dozen great names in <br />the history of the Christian world" (122). In these days of <br />apologizing for practically everything, one wonders if some pope <br />someday will not rescind this feast on grounds of good will. The <br />cynic might hope that we at least wait till Islam first apologizes for <br />the initial slaughter and conquest of Christian lands from Spain to <br />Africa and Asia. <br /><br />These earlier popes, in any case, understood that <br />they had an enemy and that they were blessed not to have fallen under <br />Muslim army rulers. Urban II's call to the Crusades, though much <br />misunderstood, can largely be judged as a belated and mainly <br />unsuccessful effort of the European Christians to defend themselves <br />against Islam. Belloc, in fact, thought that the Crusaders were from <br />the beginning undermanned and rather poorly led, though often with <br />much heroism. Their final defeat at the hands of Saladin at Hattin in <br />1187, he considers to be one of the most significant battles in the <br />history of the world because it confirmed Muslim rule across a wide <br />stretch of the world, most of which it still controls. <br />(continued below)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9695096.post-30746657049124021192009-06-03T07:51:21.313-07:002009-06-03T07:51:21.313-07:00Belloc on the Islamic Heresy---Fr. Schall
Publish...Belloc on the Islamic Heresy---Fr. Schall <br />Published in Vital Speeches of the Day, LXIX (April 1, 2003), 375-82 <br />James V. Schall, S. J. <br /><br />BELLOC ON THE "APPARENTLY UNCONVERTIBLE" RELIGION <br /><br />"Islam is apparently unconvertible. The missionary <br />efforts made by great Catholic orders which have been occupied in <br />trying to turn Mohammedans into Christians for nearly 400 years have <br />everywhere wholly failed. We have in some places driven the <br />Mohammedan master out and freed his Christian subjects from Mohammedan <br />control, but we have had hardly any effect in converting individual <br />Mohammedans...." <br />– Hilaire <br />Belloc, The Great Heresies, 1938. <br /><br />... it may be of some merit to take a <br />further look at Belloc's discussions of the future of Islam made back <br />in the 1930's. What is remarkable about Belloc's comments on Islam, <br />as we read them today, is his ability to judge historical trends on <br />the basis of a spiritual force or power. Though he was a soldier and <br />a military historian who loved the knowledge of battles and <br />battlefields, generals and soldiers, Belloc never thought that it was <br />material power that ultimately determined what would happen among men <br />and civilizations. "Cultures spring from religions; ultimately the <br />vital force which maintains any culture is its philosophy, its <br />attitude toward the universe; the decay of a religion involves the <br />decay of the culture corresponding to it – we see that most clearly <br />in the breakdown of Christendom today"5 (132). He is aware that, for <br />some three hundred years after the Battle of Vienna on September 11, <br />1683, the Muslim lands had gradually dropped out of the modern <br />picture as serious threats. They were seen to be backward lands and <br />in fact were backward. In spite of the oil, the cause of whose value <br />they had little or nothing to do, this is still largely the case. <br /><br />Yet, Belloc was aware that Islam did not change in <br />spite of centuries of western influence. When it came to the <br />fundamentals, it was utterly unaffected by western occupation. As <br />Belloc wrote in Survivals and New Arrivals: <br /><br />we thought of its (Islam's) religion as a sort of fossilised thing <br />about which we need not trouble. That was almost certainly a mistake. <br />We shall almost certainly have to reckon with Islam in the near <br />future. Perhaps if we lose our Faith it will arise. For after this <br />subjugation of the Islamic culture by nominally Christian nations had <br />already been achieved, the political consequences of that culture <br />began to notice two disquieting features about it. The first was that <br />its spiritual foundation proved immovable; the second that its area <br />of occupation did not recede, but on the contrary slowly expanded (1929).. <br /><br />Suffice it to say, we are reckoning with Islam today. Europe and much <br />of America did largely lose the faith, as Belloc observed even before <br />World War II. The expansion of Islam is also into Europe and Africa, <br />as well as in Asia and even in North America. <br /><br />The solidity of Islam, its inner coherence, whatever <br />its cause and the methods by which it was kept, was something that <br />struck Belloc. As he wrote in the same book, <br /><br />Islam would not look at any Christian missionary effort. The <br />so-called Christian governments, in contact with it, it spiritually <br />despised. The ardent and sincere Christian missionaries were received <br />usually with courtesy, sometimes wit fierce attack, but were never <br />allowed to affect Islam. I think it true to say that Islam is the <br />only spiritual force on earth which Catholicism has found an <br />impregnable fortress. Its votaries are the one religious body <br />conversions from which are insignificant. <br />(continued below)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9695096.post-67608156552041793862009-06-03T07:16:16.863-07:002009-06-03T07:16:16.863-07:00Obama declares June 'LGBT Pride Month'
Jod...Obama declares June 'LGBT Pride Month'<br />Jody Brown and Allie Martin - OneNewsNow - 6/2/2009 7:20:00 AM<br /><br />In a presidential proclamation on the White House website, Barack Obama has lauded what he calls "the determination and dedication" of the LGBT movement by proclaiming June as "Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Pride Month."<br /><br /><br />"The LGBT rights movement has achieved great progress," Obama states in the official proclamation, "but there is more to be done. LGBT youth should feel safe to learn without the fear of harassment, and LGBT families and seniors should be allowed to live their lives with dignity and respect."<br /> <br />The proclamation, released on Monday, credits the LGBT movement with being a factor in more Americans who ascribe to those groups "living their lives openly today than ever before."<br /> <br />The president also takes pride in being the first U.S. chief executive to appoint "openly LGBT" candidates to Senate-confirmed positions in the first 100 days of an administration.<br /> <br />He uses the proclamation to emphasize LGBT-related initiatives that he intends to pursue in the future -- both domestically and internationally.<br /> <br />"I have joined efforts at the United Nations to decriminalize homosexual around the world," he states. "Here at home, I continue to support measures to bring the full spectrum of equal rights to LGBT Americans."<br /> <br />Among those measures he lists "hate crimes" laws, civil unions, discrimination in the workplace, adoption rights, and ending the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy "in a way that strengthens our Armed Forces and our national security."<br /><br />Presidential pandering<br /><br />Pro-family activist says Peter LaBarbera it is sad, but not surprising, that President Obama has chosen to issue a proclamation celebrating homosexuality. The president of Americans for Truth About Homosexuality says Obama is pandering to homosexual political activists.<br /> <br />"Homosexuality is nothing to be proud of -- bottom line," says LaBarbera. "The fact is people have left the lifestyle, people have overcome homosexuality [with God's help] -- I think that's something to be proud of...."<br /> <br />LaBarbera warns of the repercussions of the president's pursuit of expanded rights for those who are confused about their sexual orientation.<br /> <br />"This proclamation talks about the entire radical homosexual agenda that Obama supports -- including homosexualizing the U.S. military [and] federal so-called 'rights' based on homosexuality, which will impinge on the religious freedoms and freedom of conscience of other Americans."<br /><br />Christians, he believes, must reach out to homosexuals with the message of the gospel.<br /><br />It seems that President Obama has respect for everyone except orthodox Christians.Duncannoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9695096.post-81604485946019761782009-06-03T06:55:07.664-07:002009-06-03T06:55:07.664-07:00From the Fox News website:
"Americans are st...From the Fox News website:<br /><br />"Americans are strongly opposed to shutting the doors of the prison camp at Guantanamo Bay and moving terrorism suspects to detention centers in the U.S., according to a recent poll.<br /><br />A USA TODAY/Gallup Poll released Tuesday found that those surveyed oppose the closing of Guantanamo by more than 2-1.<br /><br />By more than 3-1, respondents oppose moving the detainees to prisons within the U.S., according to the poll.<br /><br />Sixty-five percent of Americans polled said they do not support closing Guantanamo and sending its detainees to U.S. prisons while just 32 percent said they did support the idea. <br /><br />President Obama signed an executive order in January to close within a year the prison at Guantanamo -- widely perceived by many as a symbol of U.S. abuse and torture around the world.<br /><br />But critics charge that Obama has jeopardized U.S. national security by deciding to close Guantanamo by January 2010.<br /><br />And former Vice President Dick Cheney has publicly defended harsh interrogation techniques practiced at Guantanamo, claiming they helped obtain useful information.<br /><br />The poll surveyed 1,015 adults by phone from Friday through Sunday, and has a margin of error of 3 percentage points."Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com