Some kind of religious group -- possibly Islamic -- thinks Oswego, NY, is encouraging hatred toward Muslims by a word on a monument.
Their monument says the Islamic terrorists carried out the 9/11/2001 attacks on the United States, and memorializes those first responders who sacrificed their lives for the sake of others.
I'm a simple guy, and this complaint raises questions. On December 29, 1890, elements of the United States Seventh Cavalry surrounded an encampment of Sioux Indians at a place called Wounded Knee. Through misunderstandng, fear, ignorance and/or hatred, between 150 and 300 of the Sioux, mostly women and children, were killed, along with 25 white soldiers. Should the memorials to Wounded Knee not mention the specifics of who was involved in that massacre?
The Catholic Church had a lot of bad press because of a number of Catholic priests who took advantage of their positions and molested children. Should we not say those were Catholic priests? Should we call them confirmed bachelors who serve wine and bread?
My opinion is that those pedophiles be identified with the priesthood and the Catholic Church, not because I think all Christians or all Catholics or all priests are perverts, but because Christianity in general and the Catholic Church in particular bears some blame for those evil actions. It is a call for us to be aware and on guard against such evil. It is our responsibility to denounce it and make sure it never happens again.
The same is true of the atrocity carried out by U.S. government troops at Wounded Knee. We take responsibility and do our best to prevent such events from ever occurring again.
Not Islam, though. Islam wants to deny that Muslims who commit horrific acts of violence are really Muslims. I understand. I don't think a pedophile priest is a Christian. I don't think he really grasps what his so-called faith is supposed to do. But I do accept that he claimed to be a Christian, and I do know that, regardless of his standing in the Church or even before God, what he did was wicked and sinful.
As a Christian and an American, I am never going to suggest that history be whitewashed to avoid offending me. The facts are the facts. The men who got on board those planes were Muslims. I recognize that some in Islam will say they were not "good" Muslims, that they were perverting their faith, or that they couldn't have been true Muslims at all.
Yet, strangely enough, people who identify as Muslim continue to commit vile and despicable acts on a regular, if not daily basis, around the world.
Like an addict, Islam cannot fix its problem until it admits it has a problem, until it faces up to the fact that, as a religion, it is mainly a political system, that it is rife with corrupted beliefs and harboring within its pale a blood-thirsty cult of those who would happily extend Islam and its call for submission by any means including violence and terror. This cult is, effectively, a criminal enterprise.
Muslims have to face that cult. Muslims have to confront that mind-set. And Muslims have to fix it. Until they do, we are not going to be able to get along.
Their monument says the Islamic terrorists carried out the 9/11/2001 attacks on the United States, and memorializes those first responders who sacrificed their lives for the sake of others.
I'm a simple guy, and this complaint raises questions. On December 29, 1890, elements of the United States Seventh Cavalry surrounded an encampment of Sioux Indians at a place called Wounded Knee. Through misunderstandng, fear, ignorance and/or hatred, between 150 and 300 of the Sioux, mostly women and children, were killed, along with 25 white soldiers. Should the memorials to Wounded Knee not mention the specifics of who was involved in that massacre?
The Catholic Church had a lot of bad press because of a number of Catholic priests who took advantage of their positions and molested children. Should we not say those were Catholic priests? Should we call them confirmed bachelors who serve wine and bread?
My opinion is that those pedophiles be identified with the priesthood and the Catholic Church, not because I think all Christians or all Catholics or all priests are perverts, but because Christianity in general and the Catholic Church in particular bears some blame for those evil actions. It is a call for us to be aware and on guard against such evil. It is our responsibility to denounce it and make sure it never happens again.
The same is true of the atrocity carried out by U.S. government troops at Wounded Knee. We take responsibility and do our best to prevent such events from ever occurring again.
Not Islam, though. Islam wants to deny that Muslims who commit horrific acts of violence are really Muslims. I understand. I don't think a pedophile priest is a Christian. I don't think he really grasps what his so-called faith is supposed to do. But I do accept that he claimed to be a Christian, and I do know that, regardless of his standing in the Church or even before God, what he did was wicked and sinful.
As a Christian and an American, I am never going to suggest that history be whitewashed to avoid offending me. The facts are the facts. The men who got on board those planes were Muslims. I recognize that some in Islam will say they were not "good" Muslims, that they were perverting their faith, or that they couldn't have been true Muslims at all.
Yet, strangely enough, people who identify as Muslim continue to commit vile and despicable acts on a regular, if not daily basis, around the world.
Like an addict, Islam cannot fix its problem until it admits it has a problem, until it faces up to the fact that, as a religion, it is mainly a political system, that it is rife with corrupted beliefs and harboring within its pale a blood-thirsty cult of those who would happily extend Islam and its call for submission by any means including violence and terror. This cult is, effectively, a criminal enterprise.
Muslims have to face that cult. Muslims have to confront that mind-set. And Muslims have to fix it. Until they do, we are not going to be able to get along.
Hi Mushroom
ReplyDeleteVery clear - thank you.
In the end we have to stand with truth, regardless of how uncomfortable it makes us feel, be it that we are Christian or Muslim, or someone of no faith. Atheism produced it's own body count in the 20th century after all.
Perhaps we should also add 'humility' to the list of desirable attributes in humanity. Humility to admit 'our team' got it wrong, made mistakes and let us (and God) down. Only then can we hope to move forward.
Yes, humility is the virtue that makes the rest possible, just as pride is the foundational sin.
ReplyDeleteI feel as you do; that people who claimed, used, and hid behind religion to carry out such acts, be labeled properly. Hide history and you make generations to come ignorant, gullible, and susceptible.
ReplyDelete