The Pope
Today, I have to be the Pope.
Latest news: “Three Christians executed by firing squad in Indonesia for rioting against Muslims and burning their mosques."
I’m outraged that my fellow Jesus-lovers should be persecuted and prosecuted for their work against heretics. Yes, I consider as non-believers all non-Jesus loving people, including and especially Muslims, no matter how great they think their “God” is.
I’m so glad I came out recently against their prophet in quoting 14th-century Byzantine Emperor Manuel: “Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached.”
So you see, Christians have for a thousand years fought against the intrusion of Islam. There’s no point anymore in being acquiescent or accommodative toward other so-called religions, chief of which is “Islam which cannot be trusted to incorporate any reason to discipline simply because a significant part of that religion does not have the capacity to be self-critical.” If it’s total faith, then the blind execution of fatwas of violent jihads or holy wars against others becomes a condition of Allah’s acceptance. God is supposed to be, nay is definitely, a figure of love and that’s what that makes Christianity the only religion for all mankind.
As Islam is all faith and no reason, then Christianity must prevail because it has both faith and reason. Not to mention better technology. If war is what they understand and want, then with greater conviction, higher rationality and war collateral that are more superior, we will overcome.
Don’t believe a word from my “apology” or explanation about my recent lecture at the University of Regensburg in Germany. It was not my intention to openly offend the sensibilities of the Muslim faithful, but what I said was a clear rejection of the religious motivation for violence. Here I have to admit to having a selective memory in not recalling the Crusades that were the most belligerent religious movement in history. I know religion, any religion, can be manipulated and perverted to evil ends. Faced with challenges (from other faiths), any religion would be worth less its prayer if it did not rise to defend its holy territory. It makes it much easier now for me to further advocate, or at least condone, violence by Christians against Muslims. If they burn our churches, we burn their mosques; if they kill us, we kill them.
In reality, I’m saddened by the decline of Christian vigour in the Western world. Catholicism has suffered more declining believers than the Protestant sects. Regrettably, Islam now counts more faithful worldwide than even when Christianity was at its prominence.
Before I became Pope, I had written “Truth and Tolerance” in which I said “religion demands the making of distinctions, distinctions between different forms of religion and distinction within a religion itself, so as to find the way to its higher points.” What was I saying? It all seems like hogwash. I had advocated for “an Islamic reformation in which the young would be made to understand faith through critical thinking, which should push the forces of violence away from its core values.” There was much hypocrisy and blind-sightedness in that statement because it was the very critical dissecting of Catholic doctrines that has led to the mass exodus from the faith, first to Protestantism then to atheism. I am totally lost for new ideas to win back the lost flock.
There is, however, some hope on the horizon – in China, where sons of Abraham are increasingly filling the spiritual vacuum brought about by Communism. I’d pray to go to China to find out if this is a true renaissance of the Christian faith or an erstwhile suppressed people searching to experiment with anything foreign or exotic. The Chinese have traditionally been idol worshippers that no atheist totalitarianism or fervent exclusive religiosity could change so easily.
I have a secret worship of my own of the Chinese belief in many gods, with no one supreme being. Logically, how could there be just one creator and ruler considering how big and diverse the universe is? The world is just a dot in space, but look at the multiplicity and complexity of the conflicts found within it. God cannot even manage the tiny dot’s affairs; forget the rest of the universe. It makes a lot of sense to have many gods within each religion. Better still, let’s have many religions. This way, every aspect of life will be taken care of.
For example, the Chinese farmer prays to the god of harvest, who rewards him with a bountiful crop if seen fit. The Chinese housewife makes offerings to the kitchen god in return for assurance of adequate food to feed her family. The Chinese feed and entertain the ghosts unleashed upon earth by the god of hell during the Seventh Moon. The appeased ghosts go back happy to purgatory and create less havoc for its keepers that in turn leave the not-yet-dead in peace for another year.
Such charming practical customs and traditions: specialised gods with specific responsibilities administering to particular congregations. You go where your needs are likely to be heard and fulfilled. And if one god is deaf to your beseeching, there are others on whom to indulge your sacrifices. You could not possibly exhaust the array of heavenly help lines available. If you feel completely hopeless, well, don’t we all get rejected at one time and dejected at another? No point turning to God, because he does not have a care. If he did, he would not have allowed all the human suffering in the world.
Same story in India. A thousand deities for a thousand purposes. There’s a shiva out there to fill your every spiritual or emotional emptiness. It may be a he or a she – such sexual equality! If only Christianity could have female popes, Islam female imams and Judaism female rabbis, half of the world’s problems would receive empathetic hearing and airing. Hinduism is sexually egalitarian and its faithful truly grateful. It is conducted as human affairs should be, with a well-run organization of disparate departments, each with designated activities and responsibilities, and manned (womanned as well) by the most capable.
The “religious” systems of multiple idolatry affiliations seem to be flourishing in China and India, witness the rise and rise of these two countries and their burgeoning populations. God favours those who do right by themselves. I may not know what I believe any more but what I see in these nations is the emergent state of Asian doing and, more ominously, thinking.
I’m too old to initiate any major religious changes; I’m too bold only to create minor intellectual waves. Only to be offensive at the same time. That leaves me, Pope Benedict XVI, the Morally Bankrupt.
So don’t expect me to throw any more enlightenment on the execution in Indonesia. As for fighting back, don’t read my lips; listen to my next lecture at some obscure European university.
I’m so glad I came out recently against their prophet in quoting 14th-century Byzantine Emperor Manuel: “Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached.”
So you see, Christians have for a thousand years fought against the intrusion of Islam. There’s no point anymore in being acquiescent or accommodative toward other so-called religions, chief of which is “Islam which cannot be trusted to incorporate any reason to discipline simply because a significant part of that religion does not have the capacity to be self-critical.” If it’s total faith, then the blind execution of fatwas of violent jihads or holy wars against others becomes a condition of Allah’s acceptance. God is supposed to be, nay is definitely, a figure of love and that’s what that makes Christianity the only religion for all mankind.
As Islam is all faith and no reason, then Christianity must prevail because it has both faith and reason. Not to mention better technology. If war is what they understand and want, then with greater conviction, higher rationality and war collateral that are more superior, we will overcome.
Don’t believe a word from my “apology” or explanation about my recent lecture at the University of Regensburg in Germany. It was not my intention to openly offend the sensibilities of the Muslim faithful, but what I said was a clear rejection of the religious motivation for violence. Here I have to admit to having a selective memory in not recalling the Crusades that were the most belligerent religious movement in history. I know religion, any religion, can be manipulated and perverted to evil ends. Faced with challenges (from other faiths), any religion would be worth less its prayer if it did not rise to defend its holy territory. It makes it much easier now for me to further advocate, or at least condone, violence by Christians against Muslims. If they burn our churches, we burn their mosques; if they kill us, we kill them.
In reality, I’m saddened by the decline of Christian vigour in the Western world. Catholicism has suffered more declining believers than the Protestant sects. Regrettably, Islam now counts more faithful worldwide than even when Christianity was at its prominence.
Before I became Pope, I had written “Truth and Tolerance” in which I said “religion demands the making of distinctions, distinctions between different forms of religion and distinction within a religion itself, so as to find the way to its higher points.” What was I saying? It all seems like hogwash. I had advocated for “an Islamic reformation in which the young would be made to understand faith through critical thinking, which should push the forces of violence away from its core values.” There was much hypocrisy and blind-sightedness in that statement because it was the very critical dissecting of Catholic doctrines that has led to the mass exodus from the faith, first to Protestantism then to atheism. I am totally lost for new ideas to win back the lost flock.
There is, however, some hope on the horizon – in China, where sons of Abraham are increasingly filling the spiritual vacuum brought about by Communism. I’d pray to go to China to find out if this is a true renaissance of the Christian faith or an erstwhile suppressed people searching to experiment with anything foreign or exotic. The Chinese have traditionally been idol worshippers that no atheist totalitarianism or fervent exclusive religiosity could change so easily.
I have a secret worship of my own of the Chinese belief in many gods, with no one supreme being. Logically, how could there be just one creator and ruler considering how big and diverse the universe is? The world is just a dot in space, but look at the multiplicity and complexity of the conflicts found within it. God cannot even manage the tiny dot’s affairs; forget the rest of the universe. It makes a lot of sense to have many gods within each religion. Better still, let’s have many religions. This way, every aspect of life will be taken care of.
For example, the Chinese farmer prays to the god of harvest, who rewards him with a bountiful crop if seen fit. The Chinese housewife makes offerings to the kitchen god in return for assurance of adequate food to feed her family. The Chinese feed and entertain the ghosts unleashed upon earth by the god of hell during the Seventh Moon. The appeased ghosts go back happy to purgatory and create less havoc for its keepers that in turn leave the not-yet-dead in peace for another year.
Such charming practical customs and traditions: specialised gods with specific responsibilities administering to particular congregations. You go where your needs are likely to be heard and fulfilled. And if one god is deaf to your beseeching, there are others on whom to indulge your sacrifices. You could not possibly exhaust the array of heavenly help lines available. If you feel completely hopeless, well, don’t we all get rejected at one time and dejected at another? No point turning to God, because he does not have a care. If he did, he would not have allowed all the human suffering in the world.
Same story in India. A thousand deities for a thousand purposes. There’s a shiva out there to fill your every spiritual or emotional emptiness. It may be a he or a she – such sexual equality! If only Christianity could have female popes, Islam female imams and Judaism female rabbis, half of the world’s problems would receive empathetic hearing and airing. Hinduism is sexually egalitarian and its faithful truly grateful. It is conducted as human affairs should be, with a well-run organization of disparate departments, each with designated activities and responsibilities, and manned (womanned as well) by the most capable.
The “religious” systems of multiple idolatry affiliations seem to be flourishing in China and India, witness the rise and rise of these two countries and their burgeoning populations. God favours those who do right by themselves. I may not know what I believe any more but what I see in these nations is the emergent state of Asian doing and, more ominously, thinking.
I’m too old to initiate any major religious changes; I’m too bold only to create minor intellectual waves. Only to be offensive at the same time. That leaves me, Pope Benedict XVI, the Morally Bankrupt.
So don’t expect me to throw any more enlightenment on the execution in Indonesia. As for fighting back, don’t read my lips; listen to my next lecture at some obscure European university.
posted by Your Life that I Live @ 7:59 PM
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