I happen to believe that the vast majority of people, irrespective of their cultural background or religious beliefs, are peaceful law-abiding members of their society. The risk that they will plan or participate in a terrorist attack is essentially zero.
The reason that I believe this is really quite simple - if the vast majority of people were not peaceful law-abiding members of their society then the world would exist in a state of near total chaos. I'm not talking about a couple of newsworthy attacks a week. I'm talking about nearly continuous widespread major terrorist events occurring all over the world on an essentially continuous basis. There would be literally hundreds of major attacks per day where a major attack would be defined as an attack killing at least 1,000 people. The human civilization all over the world would simply collapse into a state far far worse than the Dark Ages.
Since human civilization has obviously not collapsed and is in fact thriving by most measures, the vast majority of people, irrespective of their cultural background or religious beliefs, must be peaceful law-abiding members of their society.
What we do have is formal and informal groups of people all over the world who, for various reasons, have decided to "go rogue". More accurately, they have decided to attack those whom they perceive as being their oppressors (note that it does not matter whether or not those that they attack actually are their oppressors - all that is required to create the situation we see in the world today is that a relatively modest number of groups of people are attacking who they perceive to be their oppressors).
We do indeed live in interesting times . . .
Army of God? Here are 6 modern-day Christian terrorist groups you never hear about (http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2015/04/army-of-god-here-are-6-modern-day-christian-terrorist-groups-you-never-hear-about/)
Showing posts with label us religious right. Show all posts
Showing posts with label us religious right. Show all posts
Monday, 18 May 2015
Tuesday, 14 April 2015
The US religious right's use and abuse of Dietrich Bonhoeffer's legacy
You have probably never heard of Dietrich Bonhoeffer so a quick biography is in order (Dietrich Bonhoeffer on Wikipedia is as good a place as any to start if you want a more detailed biography).
Bonhoeffer was a Christian pastor in Germany before and during the Second World War. He found the Nazis and their acts to be so offensive that he participated in the German Resistance. He was imprisoned by the Nazis in April of 1943 where he remained until he was tried and executed/murdered on 9 April 1945 for his association with participants of the 20 July 1944 plot to assassinate Hitler (the same one that the relatively recent movie Valkyrie staring Tom Cruise popularized).
Bonhoeffer studied and taught at the Union Theological Seminary in New York in the early 1930s. He found the progressive institution's stance less than satisfying, once stating "There is no theology here". His views on the US fundamentalist Christian theology of the era were not exactly flattering either as he accused the Southern Baptists of preaching “the crassest orthodoxy…an unrelenting harshness in holding on to one’s possessions, possessions either of this or of the other world.”
The US religious right has recently been invoking the name of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Their claim is essentially that Bonhoeffer's decision to risk death by participating in the German resistance is an exemplar which justifies the use of deadly force to resist the "imposition" of gay marriage on the US Christian community.
Bonhoeffer died resisting the Nazi regime which was not only responsible for launching the deadliest war in human history but also embarked on a program of industrialized murder to "deal with" their opponents and anyone else that they happened to not like (see Nazi concentration camp badges for more info).
That the US religious right could somehow create a parallel between their strong opposition to gay marriage and Bonhoeffer' decision to participate in the German Resistance during the Second World War truly boggles the mind. Then again, there is little that the US religious right does these days which doesn't boggle the mind . . .
Some sources and references are probably in order:
Bonhoeffer was a Christian pastor in Germany before and during the Second World War. He found the Nazis and their acts to be so offensive that he participated in the German Resistance. He was imprisoned by the Nazis in April of 1943 where he remained until he was tried and executed/murdered on 9 April 1945 for his association with participants of the 20 July 1944 plot to assassinate Hitler (the same one that the relatively recent movie Valkyrie staring Tom Cruise popularized).
Bonhoeffer studied and taught at the Union Theological Seminary in New York in the early 1930s. He found the progressive institution's stance less than satisfying, once stating "There is no theology here". His views on the US fundamentalist Christian theology of the era were not exactly flattering either as he accused the Southern Baptists of preaching “the crassest orthodoxy…an unrelenting harshness in holding on to one’s possessions, possessions either of this or of the other world.”
The US religious right has recently been invoking the name of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Their claim is essentially that Bonhoeffer's decision to risk death by participating in the German resistance is an exemplar which justifies the use of deadly force to resist the "imposition" of gay marriage on the US Christian community.
Bonhoeffer died resisting the Nazi regime which was not only responsible for launching the deadliest war in human history but also embarked on a program of industrialized murder to "deal with" their opponents and anyone else that they happened to not like (see Nazi concentration camp badges for more info).
That the US religious right could somehow create a parallel between their strong opposition to gay marriage and Bonhoeffer' decision to participate in the German Resistance during the Second World War truly boggles the mind. Then again, there is little that the US religious right does these days which doesn't boggle the mind . . .
Some sources and references are probably in order:
- Dietrich Bonhoeffer http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dietrich_Bonhoeffer
- Nazi concentration camp badges http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazi_concentration_camp_badges
- Why This Pastor Who Tried To Assassinate Hitler Has Become A Hero To The Anti-LGBT Movement http://thinkprogress.org/lgbt/2015/04/14/3646532/conservatives-comparing-anti-lgbt-crusade-pastors-attempt-assassinate-hitler/
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