A Cartoonish Response to Benedict's Speech

1. Are Muslims “acting in accordance with reason” in response to Pope Benedict’s remarks? The Muslim world is outraged by Pope Benedict’s criticism of “violent conversion” and references to the siege of Constantinople. A lawmaker from the Turkish ruling party said Benedict’s speech on the universality of reason “looks like an effort to revive the mentality of the Crusades” and that Benedict “is going down in history in the same category as leaders such as Hitler and Mussolini.” Pakistan’s parliament unanimously condemned the Pope and his remarks. In Srinagar, India, a group of Muslims burned an effigy of Benedict and shouted, “Those who dare to target Islam and the Prophet will be finished!”

“This is not an effective way to argue against someone who has questioned your religion’s relationship to violence,” notes Catholic blogger Amy Welborn.

“Honestly, the thin-skinnedness of many Muslims is getting awfully tiresome,” agrees Rod Dreher at Beliefnet’s Crunchy Con. “How on earth are we ever supposed to be able to have a dialogue if the non-Muslim side has to walk on eggshells to avoid offending the wounded sensibilities of Muslim leaders, who seem very eager to take gross offense at anything critical?”

Not that Benedict’s point was to criticize Islam, says National Catholic Reporter‘s John Allen Jr. “He brought up the dialogue between Paleologus and the Persian to make a different point. Under the influence of its Greek heritage, he said, Christianity represents a decisive choice in favor of the rationality of God. While Muslims may stress God’s majesty and absolute transcendence, Christians believe it would contradict God’s nature to act irrationally. He argued that the Gospel of John spoke the last word on the biblical concept of God: In the beginning was the logos, usually translated as word, but it is also the Greek term for reason.”

And that’s why we should be defending the pope, said Italian Mario Mauro, one of 14 vice-presidents of the European Parliament. “Let us defend the Pope without ifs or buts, let us defend reason,” he said. “The monstrous attempt on the part of many Islamic leaders, even the so-called moderates, to distort the Pope’s reaching out to all religions (through the lecture), in order to hit out at Christians and the West shows us the gravity of the danger we are facing.”

2. Critics say TBN panders to Muslims TBN’s viewers have continued to support the broadcasting network despite charges of “plagiarism, fleecing poor viewers out of hundreds of millions of dollars while living extravagant lifestyles,” and accusations of a gay tryst by president Paul Crouch. “But now Crouch must deal with the worst slur of 21st-century Christendom,” OC Weekly reports. “His network, critics say, is soft on Islam.”

Officials at Zola Levitt Ministries say their show was dropped because “TBN, you see, is modifying its programming to be suitable for broadcast in Arab nations.” Hal Lindsey says his program was similarly dropped earlier this year over a dispute with the network over comments about Islam. “Let’s be careful how we treat the Arabs and Islam,” Crouch wrote to TBN programmers in 2002. “Let’s not slam Mohammed and Islam. Let’s reach out to them in love.”

OC Weekly is certainly not the first to cover the disputes. The conservative (and often conspiratorial) site WorldNetDaily, where Lindsey is a columnist, has been covering this all year. But the OC Weekly piece may put the controversy in the spotlight, especially since it comes during conversations about the Pope’s Regensburg address.

3. Report says chaplain prayer provision is holding up U.S. defense bill “A fight over whether military chaplains can pray in the name of Jesus in nondenominational settings is one of the issues holding up negotiations on the 2007 defense authorization bill,” Army Times reported yesterday. House Armed Services Committee chairman Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., is the chief supporter of a provision in the House bill’s version that bars limits on what chaplains can say in public prayers. Rep. Steve Israel, D-N.Y. promised to “remove this dangerous and unnecessary language” from the bill. The Defense Department also opposes the provision.

4. Expect to hear about the criminalization of Christianity “Religious conservative leaders, sensing declining alarm over same-sex marriage, are warning that the debate over homosexuality has prompted attacks on religious freedom,” the Associated Press reports. The story quotes Tony Perkins: “There are a number of pastors that said, ‘Look, we don’t get involved in politics, I’m not going to get involved in this issue, I just want to preach the gospel. When they realize their ability to preach the gospel may very well be at stake, they may reconsider their involvement.”

Which means that the future fight over homosexuality is largely going to be between two influential, mostly white, mostly affluent groups trying to convince the American public that they’re an oppressed, persecuted minority.

But evangelical persecution claims won’t just be about the gay thing. In a WorldNetDaily piece titled, “Welcome to the criminalization of Christianity,” Janet Folger claims that “At issue in the court-martial of Lt. Gordon James Klingenschmitt, chaplain for the United States Navy, is a name and the freedom to speak it. That name is Jesus.”

Actually, at issue in the court-martial of Klingenschmitt was whether he disobeyed an order not to wear his military uniform to press conferences or political protests. A jury found that Klingenschmitt did wear his uniform to a March 30 news conference in front of the White House, where he protested what he called restrictions on what he can pray and preach as a military chaplain. (The Navy has repeatedly denied Klingenschmitt’s claim that he is banned from praying in Jesus’ name.) Klingenschmitt had argued that because he prayed before and after talking to reporters, it was a religious service and thus exempt from the uniform ban.

“America is no longer the land of the free,” says Folger. “Thankfully, there are still brave Americans like Chaplain Klingenschmitt.” Folger’s column is full of misrepresentations and untruths. But might it still mobilize her readers? Or will they object to her bearing false witness and taking the Lord’s name in vain?

5. USCIRF “shocked” at U.S. State Department religious freedom report The U.S. Department of State released its eighth annual report on international religious freedom today. The Associated Press highlights the report’s criticism of Iran, but what the report says (or rather, doesn’t say) about Saudi Arabia may be the real news. Saudi Arabia is still listed as a “country of particular concern”—along with Iran, Vietnam, Burma, China, Eritrea, North Korea, and Sudan—but U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom chair Felice Gaer says the commission “is simply shocked that the Department removed longstanding and widely quoted language from its report that freedom of religion does not exist in Saudi Arabia.” The state department’s own report, she notes, says “There generally was no change in the status of religious freedom during the reporting period.” But John Hanford, the U.S. ambassador at large for international religious freedom, said at this morning’s press conference, “We see things moving in the right direction” in Saudi Arabia.

Quote of the day “With the lack of ethics in this culture, keeping your word, honoring your agreements, is difficult. You never know who’s cheating on you. You can’t control it. You just have to lay back and enjoy the show.”

—Regan Books publisher Judith Regan, complaining about leaks of The Confession by James McGreevey. The former New Jersey governor’s memoir describes how he began having sex with men while his wife was in the hospital recovering from the delivery of his daughter. McGreevey says he had sex with women other than his wife “scores of times” to “prove” that he was straight, and also had sex with “scores of men” while married. He also lied to reporters about the background of his homeland security chief, Golan Cipel, whom McGreevey now says was among his lovers. (Cipel denies sexual involvement with McGreevey and had threatened to file a sexual harassment suit against him.) Regan was quoted by The New York Times.

Pope’s Islam comments | War and violence | Navy chaplain reprimand | Church and state | Politics | Life ethics | AIDS | Education | Jesus Camp | Entertainment and media | Music | Books | Theology and belief | Church life | Homosexuality | Other stories of interest

Pope’s Islam comments:

Turkish lawmaker compares pope to Hitler | It’s among the criticisms throughout the Muslim world (Associated Press)
In quotes: Muslim reaction to Pope | Muslim political and religious leaders around the world have been reacting to a speech by Pope Benedict XVI in which he mentioned the Prophet Muhammad (BBC)
Pope’s talk on Islam sparks anger and tarnishes homecoming | Pope Benedict XVI returned to Rome after a six-day visit to Bavaria. While the trip was mostly personal, remarks he made about Islam have Muslim leaders around the world calling angrily for an apology (Deutsche Welle, Germany)
Muslims condemn Pope’s remarks on Islam | Some of the strongest words came from Turkey, possibly putting in jeopardy Pope Benedict XVI’s plan to visit there in November (The New York Times)
Muslims deplore Pope speech, want apology | Muslims deplored on Friday remarks on Islam by Pope Benedict and many of them said the Catholic leader should apologize in person to dispel the impression that he had joined a campaign against their religion (Reuters)
Muslims lash out at Pope’s remarks | Benedict’s criticism of Islamic violence draws sharp rebukes and may threaten his Turkey trip (Los Angeles Times)
Pope a ‘medieval crusader’ in India | Pope Benedict XVI’s attack on Islam has stirred anger in India with the head of the National Commission for Minorities saying he sounded like a medieval crusader (AFP)
Muslim anger grows at Pope speech | A statement from the Vatican has failed to quell criticism of Pope Benedict XVI from Muslim leaders, after he made a speech about the concept of holy war (BBC)
Building bridges not walls | Some have been accusing the Pope of having offended Muslims with one of his speeches, which a Vatican statement said last night was certainly not his intention (Vatican Radio)
Whoops, a pontiff | The Pope is innocent of charges of stirring up hatred against Islam (Stephen Bates, The Guardian, London)
Appealing to reason | The Pope is trying to start a dialogue—with Muslims and people who regard his words as meaningless. (Andrew Brown, he Guardian, London)
Also: Germans reconsider religion | Pope Benedict XVI’s challenge to secularism meets with receptivity during his German visit (The Christian Science Monitor)

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