Trophy Bride
10 June 2008 - 8 סיון 5768 by Huw
Ruth reports that the Roman Church thinks the West ‘held hostage’ by Islam. Apart from any political issues B16 and his ilk might have with people of a different faith (and don’t force it on the rest of us, thanks), there’s this sentence in Ruth’s article:
The Catholics and other Christian leaders are understandably concerned that Muslims expect equal treatment here while in some Islamic countries, Christians are not allowed to worship openly.
And there’s the link that I’ve not had. Translation: Ruth (and the Vatican) say, “Because some countries act like asses, we should act the same way in our countries.” They continue to tie the Church to the state. As if the state was at all part of what the Church was supposed to be.
More importantly they miss the reality. Christianity’s marriage to the Western State is coming to a slow, painful death. Why? Because the new power is Islam. The political union of Church and State only served the State. Now that the Church is weak - and Muslim nations control oil and populations with vast income - we should expect the western state to divorce the church and go looking for a decent trophy bride.
That betrayal comes because the Church should never have married the state in the first place: she already had a husband and she’s been playing the whore since Constantine - sucking up to power, cozying up to war, sleeping with soldiers and wining military victories so that she could say, “Look, I’m the state religion now…”
I love this line:
‘You really don’t know whether to laugh or cry. Here is a government minister endorsing the sidelining of the founding faith of her country by an aggressively colonising religion whose adherents are determined that it should supplant that founding faith – and boasting that she is giving it British taxpayers’ money to do so in the name of defeating religious extremism.
If you’ve read Geoffrey of Monmouth or Bede’s Ecclesiastical History, you know that’s exactly how Christianity got into place in England: various kings saying, “Oh, my wife is of this new faith, I’ll let her build a church here… the people will support me.” Note to the writer: the founding faith of England was not Anglicanism. It was either (according to whom you read) Eastern Orthodoxy, Roman Catholicism or else Druidism.
Naturally the Muslims expect some concessions to Sharia. Why not? The Church managed to get her religion codified when she was the popular choice. Now that she’s in the minority, another religion should have a shot, no? And, given that the western states claim to function on democracy, I’m betting that there will be a lot more Muslim leaders elected in the West in the coming 50 years.
Granted: the state will just want to dilute Islam as well.
Actually, if your argument is accurate, we should want Islam to become the very acceptable religion of the West. By doing so, they will be so badly tainted by the West that they will lose their edge, like Mormonism lost its edge once they gave in on their religious beliefs (in the 19th century) in order to be accepted as a State.
Interesting that you agree with the uberfromm Orthodox that the West is the mother of all evils and accomodations.
You read my argument near perfectly. I said as much about Islam too. But it’s the marriage of religion with the state - I don’t care if it’s east (Constantine, Russia) or west (US, UK).
I don’t think Islam is much of a trophy bride … unless you want your bride cheating on you all the time! The problem with the Islamic world is that it is organizationally devolutionary - a schism a minute and badly divided. It would be as foolish to think that the western world was going to marry Christianity - in all its denominations and forms - the “Christian Church” just is’nt formed (yet). There are some practical problems within Islam as well. Intellectual dishoinesty is rampant - many within the faith buying into the western notion that Islam in itself is a political force. Materialism, greed and individual interest dominate the politics of Islam, just as it probably would if a Christian force was put on a pedestal.
-Kevin
Like it has been Since Constantine? That’s why all these folks (like Ruth and the Vatican) can speak of “the Christian world” and “the islamic world” You don’t need to pick a denomination: just face the right direction when you pray (or pretend to).