tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34346296.post1574548796476986510..comments2023-12-25T23:40:17.701-05:00Comments on Confessions of a Carioca: Public NakednessDaniel Martinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15980949721733826978noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34346296.post-33064415117443726892007-11-13T10:16:00.000-05:002007-11-13T10:16:00.000-05:00Will a new war over Islam herald in a Reformation ...Will a new war over Islam herald in a Reformation with a post-modern appreciation of individual rights? <BR/><BR/>Can you say, "Projection"?<BR/><BR/>I knew you could.<BR/><BR/>Seriously, Islam has already provoked -- and endured -- a number of bloody religious wars. Meanwhile, our own reformed and secular Western societies have been no slackers in mass destruction. "Saul (confessional war) has killed his millions, but David (modern ideological war) has killed his hundreds of millions!" <BR/><BR/>I view it as folly to expect Islamic history to replicate our own. The present "reform" in that faith shows that radical/restorative theology is more attractive than any competitive "re-interpretation." Indeed, given the nature of the Qu'ran, it is not likely that those societies will follow a personalization path. When was the last national conversion to Sufism? <BR/><BR/>From a Christian, and particularly an Episcopalian perspective, the question I hear from Fr. Dan is whether "mission" and simple honesty (and the love of Christ) constrains us to be open about our own beliefs. And whether, in the public square, those beliefs affect our attitudes and actions. <BR/><BR/>It is easy to criticize the wars and the warriors of the past. Watching the Current Unpleasantness, one has to wonder if we are doing any better.<BR/><BR/>Please pass another log. Matt. 7:4.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34346296.post-67488968566361958432007-11-12T18:01:00.000-05:002007-11-12T18:01:00.000-05:00Matthew 6:6Matthew 6:6Judge373https://www.blogger.com/profile/13749134457209322067noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34346296.post-72839155728902898532007-11-12T15:10:00.000-05:002007-11-12T15:10:00.000-05:00I'm certainly not advocating the "establishment" o...I'm certainly not advocating the "establishment" of Christianity in the U.S. But I am troubled by the relegation of religion to the status of a "private" concern. Christianity, at any rate, is not a "private" religion. It is communal, and if it is true to itself, it is present in the public square. Those who want political candidates to keep their religion (or lack thereof) to themselves do not understand what they are asking.Daniel Martinshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15980949721733826978noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34346296.post-74449965447299983072007-11-12T10:06:00.000-05:002007-11-12T10:06:00.000-05:00Thanks for posting this. I don't often read T19. O...Thanks for posting this. I don't often read T19. <BR/><BR/>Our Constitution has gone a very different way from trends in the Islamic world where sharia law is being imposed in law and constitution. Western Democracy is fundamentally reliant on humanism. Everything that we do that is criticized by Islam is a result of allowing people to make their own religious choices (and allowing the choice to not be religious). These freedoms are imp0ortant to us and apparently are not at all important to the Moslem world. This is our fundamental conflict -- not a religious one.Unknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01005537995315440769noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34346296.post-60173838124747402042007-11-12T09:47:00.000-05:002007-11-12T09:47:00.000-05:00Dan,i think Tom Friedman of the NYT observed recen...Dan,<BR/><BR/>i think Tom Friedman of the NYT observed recently that we in the West had our religious wars and millions of people died in them, mostly because the state was entwined in religion. He noted that Islam is just now possibly beginning its own Reformation, and that it will bloody. Do we really want, as your friend suggests, religion "on the streets, chanted five times daily from minarets, enshrined in constitutions, party platforms and penal codes." <BR/><BR/>I don't.<BR/><BR/>RFSJRFSJhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15164772153139719659noreply@blogger.com