Food for thought
Sep. 1st, 2005 07:32 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
fpbI will superimpose two pieces of news I have recently read. Let anyone who has any goodwill and mental openness see what conclusions they lead to.
1.
LONDON, AUG. 27, 2005 (Zenit.org).- The July terror bombings in England opened up a debate over the place of Islam in the country. It also triggered heated words over the role of religion in general. Not a few commentaries attacked religion in general as being dangerous in today's secular culture.
Writing in the Guardian newspaper on July 22, commentator Polly Toynbee called for a defense of "Enlightenment values" against the threat of violence inspired by religious extremism. "If religions teach that life after death is better," she warned, "then it is hardly surprising that some crazed followers will actually believe it."
"It is time now to get serious about religion -- all religion -- and draw a firm line between the real world and the world of dreams," declared Toynbee.
Matthew Parris, writing in the July 23 issue of the Spectator magazine, declared: "What unites an 'extremist' mullah with a Catholic priest or evangelical Protestant minister is actually much more significant and interesting than what divides him from them."
Parris says that the crucial difference between those who are secular and those who are religious is that the latter teach about a new life after death and try to help people have faith. The divisions between religions, such as whether or not they instruct followers to kill innocent people, is of little importance, he argued.
For Muriel Gray, writing in the Scottish newspaper Sunday Herald on July 24, "The cause of all this misery, mayhem, violence, terror and ignorance is of course religion itself." Gray lumped together extremist Islam with "fundamentalist Christian insanity" and described all religion as "Dark Ages nonsense."
"For the government of a secular country such as ours to treat religion as if it had real merit instead of regarding it as a ridiculous anachronism, which education, wisdom and experience can hopefully overcome in time, is one of the most depressing developments of the 21st century," according to Gray.
These sentiments are not new. In the Times newspaper on March 19, long before the London bombings, Sam Harris wrote: "Incompatible religious doctrines have Balkanised our world and these divisions have become a continuous source of bloodshed."
He rejected the idea that such conflicts could be avoided through promoting religious moderation. "In so far as religious moderates attempt to hold on to what is still serviceable in orthodox religion, they close the door to more sophisticated approaches to human happiness," according to Harris.
"If religious war is ever to become unthinkable for us, in the way that slavery and cannibalism seem poised to, it will be a matter of our having dispensed with the dogma of faith," he concluded.
2.
MEXICO CITY, Mexico, September 1 (CNA) - Cardinal Juan Sandoval Iñiguez of Guadalajara, Mexico, announced the beatification of Anacleto Gonzalez Flores and eleven companions, all martyrs, who died defending the Cristeros uprising against the Masonic persecution of 1926-29.
According to Cardinal Sandoval, the announcement was expected in March of this year but was postponed because of the death of Pope John Paul II.
Anacleto Gonzalez Flores was born into a large and poor family in Tepatitlán in the Mexican state of Jalisco on July 13, 1889. His love of culture and his desire to gain an education in order to defend the faith against the anti-clerical attacks of the Masons led him to become a lawyer in 1922, the same year in which he married.
He became a history and literature teacher in Guadalajara and in 1925 became president and founder of the “Popular Union of Jalisco.” At the outbreak of the Masonic Mexican Revolution in 1926, Anacleto worked to prevent an armed rebellion against the revolutionaries as he was opposed to resorting to violence against anti-Catholic attacks.
He became a successful leader of the boycott launched by Catholics against the Masonic media and businesses. His example and teaching became a symbol for the Cristero uprising, which resulted in his imprisonment in April of 1927.
He was brutally tortured in an attempt to get him to disclose the location where Bishop Orozco y Jimenez were in hiding. His torturers hung him from the ceiling by his thumbs and used knives to slash his feet.
Unmoved by his heroic resistance, his captors began to slash his body with knives, subjecting him to innumerable and inexpressible tortures. As they began to torture the other companions with him, Anacleto shouted, “Do not mistreat these young men, if you want blood you can have mine!”
Anacleto was let down and struck on the shoulder, resulting in a complete fracture. Nevertheless, he continued to encourage his companions not to give up. He and his companions were sentenced to death for “supporting the rebels.”
Upon hearing the sentence, Anacleto responded, “I will only say one thing, and that is that I have unselfishly worked to defend the cause of Jesus Christ and His Church. You shall kill me, but know that the cause will not die with me. Many will come after me willing to defend it unto martyrdom. I go, but with the confidence that from Heaven I will soon see the triumph of the faith of my country.”
One of the young companions with him asked to make a confession before dying, but Anacleto told him, “No, brother. Now is not the time for confession but for asking for forgiveness and for forgiving! He who awaits you is Father and not judge. Your own blood will purify you.”
Anacleto immediately began to recite the Act of Contrition and was joined by his companions. Upon concluding the prayer, his companions were executed by a firing squad. Still standing despite his pain, Anacleto said to the general in command at the execution, “General, I forgive you from the bottom of my heart. Very soon, we shall see one another before the divine court. The same judge who will judge me will judge you; at that time you find in me an intercessor before God.”
As none of the soldiers had the courage to fire upon him, the general ordered a captain to stab Anacleto with a bayonet.
According to the testimonies of several soldiers who witnessed the martyrdom, after being stabbed Anacleto was able to utter, “For the second time may the Americas hear this cry: I die, but God does not. Long live Christ the King!”
The words “For the second time” were a reference to the same words uttered decades earlier by President Gabriel Garcia Moreno of Ecuador, who was murdered on the steps of the Cathedral of Quito by Masons who were furious that he had consecrated Ecuador to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
The military tried to justify the killing of Anacleto and his companions by claiming they were arrested, not for being Catholic, but rather for “conspiracy and kidnapping.” Although the historical record disproves such a premise, it continues to be held by Masonic groups in Mexico.
1.
LONDON, AUG. 27, 2005 (Zenit.org).- The July terror bombings in England opened up a debate over the place of Islam in the country. It also triggered heated words over the role of religion in general. Not a few commentaries attacked religion in general as being dangerous in today's secular culture.
Writing in the Guardian newspaper on July 22, commentator Polly Toynbee called for a defense of "Enlightenment values" against the threat of violence inspired by religious extremism. "If religions teach that life after death is better," she warned, "then it is hardly surprising that some crazed followers will actually believe it."
"It is time now to get serious about religion -- all religion -- and draw a firm line between the real world and the world of dreams," declared Toynbee.
Matthew Parris, writing in the July 23 issue of the Spectator magazine, declared: "What unites an 'extremist' mullah with a Catholic priest or evangelical Protestant minister is actually much more significant and interesting than what divides him from them."
Parris says that the crucial difference between those who are secular and those who are religious is that the latter teach about a new life after death and try to help people have faith. The divisions between religions, such as whether or not they instruct followers to kill innocent people, is of little importance, he argued.
For Muriel Gray, writing in the Scottish newspaper Sunday Herald on July 24, "The cause of all this misery, mayhem, violence, terror and ignorance is of course religion itself." Gray lumped together extremist Islam with "fundamentalist Christian insanity" and described all religion as "Dark Ages nonsense."
"For the government of a secular country such as ours to treat religion as if it had real merit instead of regarding it as a ridiculous anachronism, which education, wisdom and experience can hopefully overcome in time, is one of the most depressing developments of the 21st century," according to Gray.
These sentiments are not new. In the Times newspaper on March 19, long before the London bombings, Sam Harris wrote: "Incompatible religious doctrines have Balkanised our world and these divisions have become a continuous source of bloodshed."
He rejected the idea that such conflicts could be avoided through promoting religious moderation. "In so far as religious moderates attempt to hold on to what is still serviceable in orthodox religion, they close the door to more sophisticated approaches to human happiness," according to Harris.
"If religious war is ever to become unthinkable for us, in the way that slavery and cannibalism seem poised to, it will be a matter of our having dispensed with the dogma of faith," he concluded.
2.
MEXICO CITY, Mexico, September 1 (CNA) - Cardinal Juan Sandoval Iñiguez of Guadalajara, Mexico, announced the beatification of Anacleto Gonzalez Flores and eleven companions, all martyrs, who died defending the Cristeros uprising against the Masonic persecution of 1926-29.
According to Cardinal Sandoval, the announcement was expected in March of this year but was postponed because of the death of Pope John Paul II.
Anacleto Gonzalez Flores was born into a large and poor family in Tepatitlán in the Mexican state of Jalisco on July 13, 1889. His love of culture and his desire to gain an education in order to defend the faith against the anti-clerical attacks of the Masons led him to become a lawyer in 1922, the same year in which he married.
He became a history and literature teacher in Guadalajara and in 1925 became president and founder of the “Popular Union of Jalisco.” At the outbreak of the Masonic Mexican Revolution in 1926, Anacleto worked to prevent an armed rebellion against the revolutionaries as he was opposed to resorting to violence against anti-Catholic attacks.
He became a successful leader of the boycott launched by Catholics against the Masonic media and businesses. His example and teaching became a symbol for the Cristero uprising, which resulted in his imprisonment in April of 1927.
He was brutally tortured in an attempt to get him to disclose the location where Bishop Orozco y Jimenez were in hiding. His torturers hung him from the ceiling by his thumbs and used knives to slash his feet.
Unmoved by his heroic resistance, his captors began to slash his body with knives, subjecting him to innumerable and inexpressible tortures. As they began to torture the other companions with him, Anacleto shouted, “Do not mistreat these young men, if you want blood you can have mine!”
Anacleto was let down and struck on the shoulder, resulting in a complete fracture. Nevertheless, he continued to encourage his companions not to give up. He and his companions were sentenced to death for “supporting the rebels.”
Upon hearing the sentence, Anacleto responded, “I will only say one thing, and that is that I have unselfishly worked to defend the cause of Jesus Christ and His Church. You shall kill me, but know that the cause will not die with me. Many will come after me willing to defend it unto martyrdom. I go, but with the confidence that from Heaven I will soon see the triumph of the faith of my country.”
One of the young companions with him asked to make a confession before dying, but Anacleto told him, “No, brother. Now is not the time for confession but for asking for forgiveness and for forgiving! He who awaits you is Father and not judge. Your own blood will purify you.”
Anacleto immediately began to recite the Act of Contrition and was joined by his companions. Upon concluding the prayer, his companions were executed by a firing squad. Still standing despite his pain, Anacleto said to the general in command at the execution, “General, I forgive you from the bottom of my heart. Very soon, we shall see one another before the divine court. The same judge who will judge me will judge you; at that time you find in me an intercessor before God.”
As none of the soldiers had the courage to fire upon him, the general ordered a captain to stab Anacleto with a bayonet.
According to the testimonies of several soldiers who witnessed the martyrdom, after being stabbed Anacleto was able to utter, “For the second time may the Americas hear this cry: I die, but God does not. Long live Christ the King!”
The words “For the second time” were a reference to the same words uttered decades earlier by President Gabriel Garcia Moreno of Ecuador, who was murdered on the steps of the Cathedral of Quito by Masons who were furious that he had consecrated Ecuador to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
The military tried to justify the killing of Anacleto and his companions by claiming they were arrested, not for being Catholic, but rather for “conspiracy and kidnapping.” Although the historical record disproves such a premise, it continues to be held by Masonic groups in Mexico.
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no subject
Date: 2005-09-01 10:29 pm (UTC)Ah, yes... "Enlightenment".
Date: 2005-09-01 11:06 pm (UTC)'Fundamentalist belief' is not exclusive to the religious, as is a very common (and very disturbing) misconception. Switch 'liberal' for 'Christian' and maybe 'conservative' for 'Muslim' - and possibly 'environmentalist' for 'Jewish' - and you find a whole new set of plainly fundamentalist, cross-denigrating extremists bent on the defeat and destruction of the others. No. To limit the notion of fundamentalism to religion is to oversimplify (and overlook a large part of) the problem.
Strangely enough, it seems that the current attitude of many of the non-religious toward the religious is that of the attitude of the religious towatd the non-religious in centuries past. Long ago the various faiths were quite hostile to those not falling into line behind the authority of the 'central control'. Members of other faiths who were unfortunate enough to be caught living in some areas dominated by others were abused, harassed, driven out and/or even killed. Now it seems the tables are turned, in many ways. Food for thought, at least.
Re: Ah, yes... "Enlightenment".
Date: 2005-09-01 11:13 pm (UTC)Re: Ah, yes... "Enlightenment".
Date: 2005-09-01 11:46 pm (UTC)My alma mater is overrun with the strangest creatures, church-going (Catholic and Methodist and Presbyterian) secularlists. They are very active in their respective churches, but they are quite anti-religion when they set foot on the school grounds and in the classes. I haven't been able to nail them down in discussion as to how this happens and what they really believe. Not yet.
Re: Ah, yes... "Enlightenment".
Date: 2005-09-01 11:58 pm (UTC)Similar to secularism, really. Some places do need to have an air of secularism to them, but if it's at the expense of debate or discussion, or respect about religion, then that's similarly a problematic area.
no subject
Date: 2005-09-02 08:23 am (UTC)