Tavis Smiley needs to get a clue
PBS's Tavis Smiley is almost a poster child for mindless politically correctness. But when he goes ballistic because a Christian author "idealizes" Christianity and turns people away from Islam, he's being mindless even for the politically correct set.
Christianity and Islam are two different religions which- the sentimental, brain-dead insistence of the unthoughtful and ill-informed to the contrary- worship entirely different deities (I have yet to meet or hear of a Muslim who worships the Holy Trinity, or who does not consider the entire concept of this foundational tenet of Christianity to be blasphemous at best). They do agree that there is only one god; they disagree entirely, however as to his identity, his nature, his character- and absolutely as to the basis upon which he may be approached.
In short, the truth claims of Christianity and Islam are absolutely irreconcilable and mutually exclusive. Christianity has as its foundation its assertion of Christ's divinity; Islam not only denies Christ's divinity, but regards its assertion as a fundamental sacrilege. Christianity has as its constitutive proclaimation Christ's atoning death for the sins of the world; Islam not only denies that His death redeemed the world, but it denies that He ever died! If one were to construct a mirror image of Pauline Christianity, Islam- the religion of works par excellence- comes pretty close to what you would come up with.
True, Christians have often acted badly down through the ages. That is exactly what the Christian dogma of original sin would predict. Of course, in some cases- the Crusades and Martin Luther's alleged Hitler connection come to mind- that ill behavior has fallen considerably short of what the propagandists of a dogmatic secularism claim. Even the Inquisition was not at all times and in all places the unmitigated horror we are told it was, and- despite the proclivity of Lisa Miller and other religious Leftists, agnostics, and atheists for mischaractrizing the relationship between the Bible and slavery- it would be hard to find an impact on history which Islam itself (as opposed to Islamic culture) as positive as Christianity's role in slavery's eventual abolition, its contribution to the Civil Rights movement, and- to make a long story short- its responsibility for just about every cultural reform in Western history over the past 2,000 years. However reactionary one may regard the attitude of some branches of conservative Christianity toward women as being, when was the last time you saw a Baptist woman wearing a burka? Next to what prevails in the Middle East, the fashions in vogue among Amish women are positively daring, and the freedom enjoyed even by Fundamentalist Christian females is something of which Iranian and Afghan women can only dream.
And it's been a long time since Christians have flown airplanes into any skyscrapers, bombed any subway systems or trains, or beheaded people on videotape while reciting the Apostles' Creed. That's what makes Tavis Smiley's bizarre assertion that Christians have blown up more buildings than Moslems so odd, as well as so malicious.
And then, there's Logic 101. To be a Christian is to regard one's faith as true, and Islam as untrue- and vice versa. Christ is either God, or He is not. If He is not, then Christianity is false. And if He is, then Islam is false.
Love your enemy? Avenge yourself against your enemy? Tavis Smiley may not have noticed, but these are very different concepts. And yes, there is a difference in the ethical merit of these two injunctions.
Hate to be the one who breaks it to you, Tavis, but a person who believes that his is the true religion (and if he doesn't, he doesn't believe in that religion, and it therefore isn't his) by definition believes that: 1)it is preferable to other religions whose truth claims are irreconcilable with its truth claims; and 2) that those religions, precisely because his own is true, must of necessity be false. A Christian by definition "idealizes" Christianity, and a Muslim "idealizes" Islam- because by definition a Christian believes that Christianity is true, and a Muslim believes that Islam is true, and that the other religion- which must be false if his religion is true- is something from which people should be "turned away."
This is simply another way of saying that it's his religion.
Tavis.... get a clue, eh? The hostility of PBS toward "sectarian" (i.e., substantial) religion is well-established. But even hostility need not be quite so intellectually vapid.
HT: Ida Flo
ADDENDUM: Kathy Shaidel of the David Horowitz blog reports that the PBS ombudsman has smacked Mr. Smiley's wrist over his bizarre comments, which included the assertion that more Christians than Moslems blow up buildings.
Yes, that's what he said.
Christianity and Islam are two different religions which- the sentimental, brain-dead insistence of the unthoughtful and ill-informed to the contrary- worship entirely different deities (I have yet to meet or hear of a Muslim who worships the Holy Trinity, or who does not consider the entire concept of this foundational tenet of Christianity to be blasphemous at best). They do agree that there is only one god; they disagree entirely, however as to his identity, his nature, his character- and absolutely as to the basis upon which he may be approached.
In short, the truth claims of Christianity and Islam are absolutely irreconcilable and mutually exclusive. Christianity has as its foundation its assertion of Christ's divinity; Islam not only denies Christ's divinity, but regards its assertion as a fundamental sacrilege. Christianity has as its constitutive proclaimation Christ's atoning death for the sins of the world; Islam not only denies that His death redeemed the world, but it denies that He ever died! If one were to construct a mirror image of Pauline Christianity, Islam- the religion of works par excellence- comes pretty close to what you would come up with.
True, Christians have often acted badly down through the ages. That is exactly what the Christian dogma of original sin would predict. Of course, in some cases- the Crusades and Martin Luther's alleged Hitler connection come to mind- that ill behavior has fallen considerably short of what the propagandists of a dogmatic secularism claim. Even the Inquisition was not at all times and in all places the unmitigated horror we are told it was, and- despite the proclivity of Lisa Miller and other religious Leftists, agnostics, and atheists for mischaractrizing the relationship between the Bible and slavery- it would be hard to find an impact on history which Islam itself (as opposed to Islamic culture) as positive as Christianity's role in slavery's eventual abolition, its contribution to the Civil Rights movement, and- to make a long story short- its responsibility for just about every cultural reform in Western history over the past 2,000 years. However reactionary one may regard the attitude of some branches of conservative Christianity toward women as being, when was the last time you saw a Baptist woman wearing a burka? Next to what prevails in the Middle East, the fashions in vogue among Amish women are positively daring, and the freedom enjoyed even by Fundamentalist Christian females is something of which Iranian and Afghan women can only dream.
And it's been a long time since Christians have flown airplanes into any skyscrapers, bombed any subway systems or trains, or beheaded people on videotape while reciting the Apostles' Creed. That's what makes Tavis Smiley's bizarre assertion that Christians have blown up more buildings than Moslems so odd, as well as so malicious.
And then, there's Logic 101. To be a Christian is to regard one's faith as true, and Islam as untrue- and vice versa. Christ is either God, or He is not. If He is not, then Christianity is false. And if He is, then Islam is false.
Love your enemy? Avenge yourself against your enemy? Tavis Smiley may not have noticed, but these are very different concepts. And yes, there is a difference in the ethical merit of these two injunctions.
Hate to be the one who breaks it to you, Tavis, but a person who believes that his is the true religion (and if he doesn't, he doesn't believe in that religion, and it therefore isn't his) by definition believes that: 1)it is preferable to other religions whose truth claims are irreconcilable with its truth claims; and 2) that those religions, precisely because his own is true, must of necessity be false. A Christian by definition "idealizes" Christianity, and a Muslim "idealizes" Islam- because by definition a Christian believes that Christianity is true, and a Muslim believes that Islam is true, and that the other religion- which must be false if his religion is true- is something from which people should be "turned away."
This is simply another way of saying that it's his religion.
Tavis.... get a clue, eh? The hostility of PBS toward "sectarian" (i.e., substantial) religion is well-established. But even hostility need not be quite so intellectually vapid.
HT: Ida Flo
ADDENDUM: Kathy Shaidel of the David Horowitz blog reports that the PBS ombudsman has smacked Mr. Smiley's wrist over his bizarre comments, which included the assertion that more Christians than Moslems blow up buildings.
Yes, that's what he said.
Comments
Being logically consistent (orderly), the orderly universe must mirror its Prime Cause / Singularity-Creator—Who must be Orderly; i.e. Perfect. Therefore, no intelligent person can ignore that our purpose and challenge in life is learning how we, as imperfect humans, may successfully relate to a Perfect Singularity-Creator without our co-mingling, which transcends the timespace of this dimensional physical universe, becoming an imperfection to the Perfect Singularity-Creator.
An orderly—"not capricious," as Einstein put it—Creator (also implying Just), therefore, necessarily had an Intelligent Purpose in creating this universe and us within it and, being Just and Orderly, necessarily placed an explanation, a "Life's Instruction Manual," within the reach of His subjects—humankind.
An orderly—"not capricious," as Einstein put it—Creator (also implying Just), therefore, necessarily had an Intelligent Purpose in creating this universe and us within it and, being Just and Orderly, necessarily placed an explanation, a "Life's Instruction Manual," within the reach of His subjects—humankind.
It defies the orderliness (logic / mathematics) of both the universe and Perfection of its Creator to assert that humanity was (contrary to His Tor•âh′ , see below) without any means of rapproachment until millennia after the first couple in recorded history as well as millennia after Abraham, Moses and the prophets. Therefore, the Creator's "Life's Instruction Manual" has been available to man at least since the beginning of recorded history. The only enduring document of this kind is the Tor•âh′ —which, interestingly, translates to "Instruction" (not "law" as popularly alleged). (Source and further reading of how to relate to the Creator: www.netzarim.co.il)
The fact that the Creator is perfect implies that He isn’t self-contradictory. Therefore any religion that contradicts Torah is the antithesis to the Creator. (quote Paqid Yirmeyahu [ha-Tzadiq] ben Dawid)
Learn more in www.netzarim.co.il
But only through faith in the Promise- both before and after its fulfilment in time- have human beings since the Fall ever been reconciled to God.
David says it well in Psalm 53:
1The fool says in his heart, "There is no God."
They are corrupt, doing abominable iniquity;
there is none who does good.
2God looks down from heaven
on the children of man
to see if there are any who understand,
who seek after God.
3They have all fallen away;
together they have become corrupt;
there is none who does good,
not even one.
The Torah is not enough without the Word made Flesh; the only righteousness that avails before ha Shem is that of the Righteous One, Who gave His life as a ransom for many.