The forms in which Islam makes its challenges to our society in the West are variations on an old theme. The old ways of tackling them are not likely to work – if Afghanistan and Iraq show anything at all, it is that violence is welcomed by radical Islamists; they truly see that the blood of the martyrs is the seed of growth. However strange many of us find the various Youtube clips (to which I have no intention of linking) of young men in Syria rallying others to their ranks, if we are wise, we will recognise they have an appeal to others whose mindset we fail to grasp, and we will wonder how that might be met; we might, if we are very wise, wonder why it exists. The other challenge to Christianity comes from the aggressive secularism which tends to dominate our media and political class. That is not to say that they will not, from time to time, pay lip service to the ‘importance’ of ‘faith’ to individuals; but it is to say they will insist it is kept out of public discourse. They fail to see that this, itself, is an ideological position. When people say, as some do, that this means we are back to a position analogous to that in which Christianity grew, they have a minor point, but miss a major difference. The minor point is the similarities in terms of promiscuity and spiritual relativism; the major difference is that this is a society which sees Christianity as having been tried, weighed in the balance and found wanting. One reason why secular polemicists major on the misdeeds of Christians in the past is to ‘prove’ that Christianity is, in Lord Ridley’s words, a ‘virus’ which needs to be ‘exterminated’. As our own Geoffrey Sales rather predicted someone would, Ridley (whom I have met) wants religion to be taken out of schools altogether; as a Tory peer he is presumably not of the opinion that the State should provide the money which would be needed to fill the holes in funding if all churches withdrew financial support for education in this country. The sort of lack of self-reflexivity mixed with arrogance which is typical of this type can be seen in his comment: “rationalists no longer expect to get rid of religion altogether by explaining life and matter: they aim only to tame it instead, and to protect children from it”.
It is reflective of some of the lesser minds who concentrate on science, that Ridley thinks in terms of religion as ‘explaining matter’; there’s little to be done with one who starts from there and claims a monopoly on being rational. But he reflects, with devastating accuracy, the mindset of which I have been writing here. Unencumbered by much in the way of actual knowledge of religion, emboldened to speak with ignorance by the fact that the people to whom he is speaking share it, Ridley peddles the old, broken, solutions for how to deal with Islam; he assumes that Western rationalism will win out. One has to have some level of admiration for someone who can so defy the experience of the last century. He sees Islam and Christianity as both need extirpation. He is a Cameron created ‘Tory Peer’. He says openly what many of his fellows say in private. Perhaps, like so many Cameron Conservatives, he desperately wishes to atone for his sins on that front – after all to be an ‘out’ Conservative is much more likely to see one criticised than to be openly gay – by aligning himself with liberal pieties elsewhere. If you want to know why the British Government has done (and said) nothing of significance about what is happening in Mosul, there is a short answer; it doesn’t really care.
To those of you who have followed me thus far, I apologise if you were expecting some answer to the dilemma in which Christianity finds itself; but I hope some attempt to outline the problem coherently might be a place to begin such an exercise.
Is it just me or does this whole problem bring to mind the Lord’s directive to the Israelites in the OT when confronted with various pagan peoples on their way to the Holy Land; that they should not form a covenant with these peoples as they would corrupt the People of God? It may or not apply; but it just jumps out at me that our invitation within the West to peoples so foreign in their beliefs and ethics find themselves growing in large numbers within our borders and the secularists and even our own own Christians are being effected in rather radical ways; changing their outlooks on a number of issues and in the fundamental way we look at one another. It seems arrogant that we somehow think that there is a possible way to settle our differences through dialogue and logic when the two cultures don’t seem to lend themselves to any kind of melding of spirit or mind.
This OT covenant directive by God also makes me think that the modern equivalent in politics is probably the modern notion of a treaty. To form alliances with evil regimes to solve another problem that is viewed as an evil: the old, the old ‘the enemy of my enemy is my friend’ routine. It may need be done politically but I wonder as to how these play out over time.
In short, a coherent outline may help us in decisions we will all have to make on our own as this unfolds but the answer seem to elude us all at the moment.
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Interesting thoughts. Our leaders have created a situation where it is hard to see any outcome as good.
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Seems the hallmark of the 20th and 21st century world. Choices between the lesser of 2 evils. It is not a choice many true believers of Christianity relish making.
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It is so, my friend, it is so.
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Black and white is almost gone in the modern mind: only muddy grays.
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Black and white are only useful concepts when discussing race and guilt.
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Touche, and very true, my friend.
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We live in strange times, my friend.
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Not only strange but shifting swiftly as well. I can never remember more things that we categorize as a crisis that occur on almost a daily basis. Who can follow each of thee in detail to their conclusion or their disappearance from the discourse about them?
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There are great drawbacks to the 24/7 news cycle.
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Indeed and it seems to center about what items will attract a higher audience and win the ratings war they all seem so intent in fighting..
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All very odd. We are fortunate in the UK in having two good radio stations which provide good music and good factual programming; that justifies the BBC in my view; the rest, I rarely watch or listen to.
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I know the feeling. A shame we have lost reliable newsprint articles as well. At least in the past one would hold the reporter to the facts and the meaning of the words written. Now it is like a conversation where much of the verity is lost or never checked for accuracy.
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Yes, my last resort, the Telegraph, becomes worse by the week.
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Seems to be a worldwide problem: opinion often supplants news and facts and the people cannot distinguish the difference.
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A problem we see here with our friend from California.
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A child of the times I’m afraid.
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Good brother newengland hijacked my avatar and put a phoney comment on it in his worthless blog. The guy thinks hes a comedian. He even told me to watch my language. Can you beat that? The guys gonna be on the news soon, I swear. The guys wacked out.
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