Post 145—Some food for thought to bring you into the new year

To begin with, a happy new year to you! The following is a post from an outfit called “Reasons to Believe” (RTB).  They talk a lot about believing, reason and faith. Sometimes they get pretty philosophical.  I am forwarding their post to you just to give you some stuff to ponder as you make your way into 2017.  They tell you about a new book that you could find interesting, even if it is politically incorrect.   But don’t let that put you off. It’s the politically incorrect who are free, at least compared to their counterparts, the politically correct. The latter are hung up on all sort of opinions and don’t dare to discuss things openly.  They don’t dare to ask whether all religions are the same or whether their founders all meant the same; they are too scared to do so. That’s why they attack those who do, for then the correct folk feel threatened. Who knows: someone could just force them to discuss the forbidden!  In addition, the post leaves you with some unanswered questions. Tackle them. Ponder them. Work them out. Send me the conclusions you reach. I am curious. Your conclusions could become the fodder for a post, with our without your name, something you will have to decide.  I won’t use your name unless you specifically tell me I may. So, here goes: Has anyone ever tried to tell you that it doesn’t matter what you believe as long as you believe something? These days, anyone who doesn’t believe that all ideas—especially about religion—are equally valid is likely to be labeled “intolerant.” In an age of growing religious pluralism, how do we articulate why it matters what we believe and what tolerance truly is? Kenneth Samples, RTB theologian and philosopher, is here to help you with his brand-new book, God among Sages: Why Jesus Is Not Just Another Religious Leader. Ken begins with a detailed look at the historic Christian portrait of Jesus Christ, then shows you how Jesus is unique compared to the founders of four major world religions: Krishna, Gautama (Buddha), Confucius, and Muhammad. Using eight objective criteria, Ken demonstrates that it is logically impossible for their claims to be equally valid. While there may be some notable overlaps in ethics and worldview, their teachings about mankind, God, and eternity are mutually exclusive. The book concludes with a thorough and thoughtful examination of what tolerance means for Christians in a pluralistic world. God among Sages is  is hot off the presses, and you’ll be one of the first to have it! Blog Summary and Highlights Have you ever felt threatened by a question? Perhaps someone was questioning your beliefs, and you didn’t know how to respond. Or perhaps you were the one asking a difficult question. In a recent blog post, Jeff shares his love of questions and why our faith welcomes inquiry. In other blog posts, scholars Kenneth and Fazale respond to questions of their own, dealing with theology and biological design. “How Do We Pursue Sanctification Amid a Sinful World?” by Kenneth Samples “Never Fear an Honest Question” by Jeff Zweerink “Q&A: Why Would an Infinite Creator Employ the Same Designs?” by Fazale Rana

Peter LaBarbera

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Post….—Remembrance Day 2017  *                          POSTED    NOV….   2017

Post 98—Long on Freedom Talk

An International Multifaith Conference

Some time ago the World Council of Churches (WCC) and the Vatican held a joint conference to find a common code for religious conversions.  First, a word of identification. I believe we all know that the Vatican is the Rome-based headquarters of the Roman Catholic Church (RCC).  You may not be familiar with WCC. It is a group of nearly 350 denominations that include Reformed, Anglican, Orthodox, Evangelical churches and only God and WCC know who else. 27 persons attended the conference, including adherents of Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, and Animism as represented by the Yoruba tradition. So, a small group as far as world conferences go, with the Christian organizers having a mere scant majority.

As I understand it, they made two major decisions. The first, is freedom of religion, officially already a recognized a non-negotiable throughout the world, though the practice falls far short of the official. The second, to go easy on converting others. As the report put it, “All should heal themselves from the obsession of converting others.” 

Freedom of Religion?

          Non-Christian Persecution of Christians

As to the first, insisting on freedom of religion is great. It is virtually a global mantra. But then what do you do in a world where Buddhists, Hindus and Muslims in particular deny Christians their freedom in scores of countries?  Buddhism and Hinduism are traditional tolerant religions that in the past gave Christians and Muslims freedom to practice their religion. But recently they have become increasingly intolerant of especially Christians and Muslims.  One of these days I will devote a few posts to illustrate the truth of this last sentence. In general, wherever these traditionally tolerant religions find themselves threatened by either Christians or Muslims, they become intolerant and oppressive; they even begin to persecute, destroy and kill.

As to persecution of Christians by Muslims, do you even need to be made aware of that?  It’s all over the map, not only in the Muslim-dominant countries, regions and societies, but even in the West, though sometimes there indirectly through their willing lackeys, some of whom are very powerful, but politically correct  people who glad hand Muslims and refuse to face the Muslim reality in their own Western countries. Geert Wilders is perhaps the most (in)famous Westerner who tries to awake sleeping secular Europeans to this reality. The fact that he often does this in a totally blunt and politically incorrect manner does not mean he is totally wrong in his major concern. In Canada we have our own Ezra Levant.

          Christians Persecuting Christians

And then I have not even mentioned the freedom that Christians in some countries deny other Christians! This takes place in some Orthodox societies, where the dominant church resists the incursion of Evangelical Christians—in Greece and Russia in particular. Now there maybe some semi-legitimate reasons for such resistance, such as Evangelical, often American, disrespect for local deep-rooted historical churches and their leaders. Nevertheless, the principal of freedom of religion stands and may not be undermined by perhaps disgusting or insulting behaviour on the part of outside challengers.  I can well imagine that fundamentalist foreign missionaries can present a serious problem among these Orthodox churches, but that must be solved within the range of religious freedom, not by curtailing it.

A parallel situation obtains in Roman Catholic Latin America, where all strands of Protestants have established missions, churches and institutions, especially Charismatics.  The members of these new churches mostly are drawn from the RCC. So, no wonder the RCC resists them, sometimes in whatever way they can.

We can even make the same point about secular countries and quite a few of my posts speak of secular resistance to full-orbed Christians. However, secularists were not invited to this conference. So, in this post I will leave them alone. 

 

A Grain of Salt

So, here sit these religious leaders with all their wisdom and pomposity, robes and mitres and hats and staffs and all. Very impressive. All of them piously affirming and insisting on religious freedom for all their people, while at home they support and possibly even engineer intolerance and persecution of the very faiths with whom they have signed for tolerance in this conference.

I always take the declarations and communiqués  of such conferences with less than a grain of salt, knowing that many of the signers do so hypocritically. I have taken part in similar conferences between Christians and Muslim in Nigeria and understand the dynamic. The participants use the same language but interpret it in terms of their own religion and, often secretly, exercise the right to hold the declaration they signed in reserve.

The next post will deal with the alleged obsession.

The website of the WCC is  www.oikoumene.org/