GK Chesterton on Modernity and Christianity

Ran across this fine quote from Chesterton from his book, The Man who was Thursday: A Nightmare.

"Do you see this lantern?" cried Syme in a terrible voice. "Do you see the cross carved on it, and the flame inside? You did not make it. You did not light it. Better men than you, men who could believe and obey, twisted the entrails of iron and preserved the legend of fire. There is not a street you walk on, there is not a thread you wear, that was not made as this lantern was, by denying your philosophy of dirt and rats. You can make nothing. You can only destroy. You will destroy mankind; you will destroy the world. Let that suffice you. Yet this one old Christian lantern you shall not destroy. It shall go where your empire of apes will never have the wit to find it."

There is brilliant insight here I think. That modernity creates things that are inherently temporary and ephemeral. I suspect this is true.

Paul Wood on Trump's Poland Speech

Loved this insight from Paul Wood at his blog, A Political Refugee from the Global Village. I think he is making a really good point--that President Trump is willing to recognize an obvious reality that neither Bush nor Obama were willing to acknowledge, or perhaps even able to see.

Here is most of the post:

Trump's speech yesterday at Warsaw was a very good one, though I have mentioned that I disliked him seeing the Assad regime and Iran as hostile.  

George W. Bush went to lengths to insist the West was not in conflict with Islam. He declared war instead on an abstract noun, terrorism, even though you can't win a war with an abstract noun. Barack Obama said the terrorist murders in Paris, several massacres ago, were "an attack on all of humanity and the universal values we share", even though values are not really universal.

Donald Trump yesterday at Warsaw declared that Western culture, not universal values, are under assault in Europe and the U.S. This is an important step forward.

Read the rest of it here. And do leave comments over there.

The death of the West

R. R. Reno over at First Things really knocked it out the ballpark with this new article, 'Return of the Strong Gods.'

Check this out:

Our political struggles over nations and nationalisms are best understood as referenda on the West’s meta-politics over the last three generations, which has been one of disenchantment. The rising populism we’re seeing throughout the West reflects a desire for a return of the strong gods to public life. 

Or this:

[After WW2] many political and cultural leaders assumed that restoration of a more humane way of life in the West would require softening and weakening. 

And this:

Our present-day view of the good life “has the features of lightening.” All of this is summed up in his catchphrase the “weakening of Being,” which he sees as a happy unburdening of the West, for weakening promotes tolerance, peace, and freedom. If there are no strong truths, nobody will judge others or limit their freedom. If nothing is worth fighting for, nobody will fight. 

But do yourself a favor and read the whole thing. It is well worth your time.

Why the West is losing the War against Militant Islam

by Adam Borowski

1. No Culture - the West has no culture anymore. And while it would be great to live in a perfect world of harmony, there are predatory cultures on Earth that have rigid rules and those cultures have one aim and one aim only – world domination. The West is weak – and everyone on the planet sees it.

2. Western Values – discoveries. Education. Freedom of epression. Emphasis on an individual. Cherishing – revering even – intellectual feats. And many, many more. But that was in the past. In the era of peripatetic philosophers who devisedall the political systems we know today. Here are the new Western values: rampant greed. Careerism. Celebrity culture. Nihilism. Cheap Machiavellianism. Intellectual devolution. Censorship. Surveillance. Naive Tolerance--the symbol of which ought to be a refugee beating a woman who offred him water.

Read it all here.

What countries have the smallest Christian population by %?

The folks at Pew Research have provided us with another great chart that provides information on religious composition by country, and it can be viewed by percentage, or by number. A bit of clicking got me the countries of the world with the lowest percentage of Christian populations. And guess what? Not until you get to place 13 do you find a country that is not Islamic. Here are the top 13 places:

1. Morocco
2. Somalia
3. Afghanistan
4. Iran
5. Tunisia
6. Western Sahara
7. Yemen
8. Algeria
9. Bangladesh
10. Mauritania
11. Maldives
12. Turkey
13. Cambodia (Buddhist majority)

What does this mean? I don't want to jump to any conclusions, but one possible factor (of many, I would think) is that Muslim countries do a good job keeping the Gospel out, or making sure that converts leave (or die).

Please pray for those top 13 countries, and do visit the Pew site, HERE.

Quotes from the brilliant Bernard Lewis

I really love Bernard Lewis, the great orientalist. I was just reading one of his books and thought I would share with you some of great, insightful quotes I found:

Lewis, Bernard. 1993. Islam and the West. Oxford.

“The imported idea of ethnic and territorial nationhood remains, like secularism, alien and incompletely assimilated.” (p 136) 

“Since for Muslims Islam is, by definition, superior to all other faiths, the failures and defeats of Muslims in this world can only mean that they are not practicing authentic Islam and that their states are not true Islamic states.” (p 136, 7) 

“…many of the extremist organizations tend to be Christian, for in the radical extremism that they profess, Christians still hope to find the acceptance and equality that eluded them in nationalism.” (p 144) 

“After a long period of secular, liberal, and nationalist ideologies and programs, the non-Muslim minorities are no longer conditioned to revert to their former position of inferiority. Some have sought a solution to their problem in emigration; some have resorted to radical politics; and some look anxiously, with decreasing confidence, for saviors from outside.” (page 146) 

“Humiliation and privation, frustration and failure have so far discredited all the imported solutions and made increasing numbers of Muslims ready to believe those who tell them that only in a return to their own true faith and divinely ordained way of life can they find salvation in this world and the next.” (153)

Pope Benedict XVI: a ground-breaking bishop and pioneer

The bishop of Rome and successor of Peter has, for all his conservatism, has broken new ground once again.

The first time was with his ability and willingness to confront Islam at Regensburg, as I wrote in Islam, the Pope, and History.

The second time was when he allowed for the establishment of ordinariates for marginalized and abused anglo-catholics in the Anglican Communion.

This third time is in resigning his episcopate, as most bishops do sooner or later. But he has done it with class, after much prayer I'm sure, and according to the laws of his Church.

I have said before, and will say again, that in my opinion Pope Benedict XVI was the only European leader head of state or head of church who actually understood Islam and had the balls to confront it.

My only beef with him is that he never responded to my open letter to him regarding Catholic witness to Muslims. But then again, he is and was a busy guy...

May God bless him and keep him, and provide another excellent pastor for the Church of Rome.

T.S. Eliot and the danger of democracy

G. K. Chesterton defined tradition as "democracy extended through time," and for Eliot, tradition offered the advantages of democracy -- diverse viewpoints and a protection against tyranny -- nestled in the cocoon of time. Apart from tradition, democracy could too easily degenerate into hysteria. Eliot saw this as a particular danger in industrial society, which creates "people detached from tradition, alienated from religion, and susceptible to mass suggestion: in other words a mob. And a mob will be no less a mob if it is well fed, well clothed, well housed, and well disciplined" (Idea, p. 21) To guard against these moblike tendencies, Eliot lent his support to a class system.

Philip Yancey writing on Eliot. Read it all here.

And this is what the West wants for the Arab world? Say it ain't so...

Pope wants to re-evangelize the West

On the Arrogance of the West

How can it be that the West sits by idly as it is being Islamized? Here is one answer:

These are societies that are able to preen themselves on their sophistication and enlightenment only because they have managed to retire into an arbor of relative peace and considerable opulence. They feel no hazard in inviting the 7th century into the 21rst while deprecating their own traditions, usages, and foundational premises. It should be conceded, however, that the chief culprits in the charade of self-delegitimation derive mainly from the more advantaged and connected strata of society.

From HERE.

Liberals and Islam?

Don over at Positive Infinity has come out with a good post on liberals and Islam, please do check it out. Here is a section:

Why should the left care if anyone hates Islam or not? They certainly don’t care if people hate Christians. But Islam, if it succeeds, will be the end of much of what leftists hold to be “beautiful and good.” That includes but is not limited to their sexual agenda. Homosexuals and those who engage in sexual activity outside of marriage—especially women—will find themselves subject to capital punishment if sharia is implemented, a frequent goal of Muslim groups.

And here's another great quote:

Experience teaches that Islam, once the controlling factor in a country, will move to impose sharia on the population and do so without exception. Although the Ottomans were probably the most able rulers the Islamic world has ever known, their system of encapsulating and using non-Islamic groups to their own advantage is going out of fashion, replaced by the religious cleansing we see all too often in the Middle East today.

The Night Before Christmas and the PC Police

Twas the month before Christmas *When all through our land,* *Not a Christian was praying* *Nor taking a stand.* *See the PC Police had taken away,* *The reason for Christmas - no one could say.* *The children were told by their schools not to sing,* *About Shepherds and Wise Men and Angels and things.* *It might hurt people's feelings, the teachers would say* * December 25th is just a ' Holiday '.* *Yet the shoppers were ready with cash, checks and credit* *Pushing folks down to the floor just to get it!* *CDs from Madonna, an X BOX, an I-pod* *Something was changing, something quite odd! * *Retailers promoted Ramadan and Kwanzaa* *In hopes to sell books by Franken & Fonda.* *As Targets were hanging their trees upside down* * At Lowe's the word Christmas - was no where to be found.* *At K-Mart and Staples and Penny's and Sears* *You won't hear the word Christmas; it won't touch your ears.* *Inclusive, sensitive, Di-ver-si-ty* *Are words that were used to intimidate me.* *Now Daschle, Now Darden, Now Sharpton, Wolf Blitzen* *On Boxer, on Rather, on Kerry, on Clinton !* *At the top of the Senate, there arose such a clatter* *To eliminate Jesus, in all public matter.* *And we spoke not a word, as they took away our faith* * Forbidden to speak of salvation and grace* *The true Gift of Christmas was exchanged and discarded* *The reason for the season, stopped before it started.* *So as you celebrate 'Winter Break' under your 'Dream Tree'* *Sipping your Starbucks, listen to me.* *Choose your words carefully, choose what you say* *Shout MERRY CHRISTMAS, not Happy Holiday !*

Pre-Christian pagans and post-Christian pagans and Newbigin

[Modern society is] a pagan society, and its paganism, having been born out of the rejection of Christianity, is far more resistant to the gospel than the pre-Christian paganism with which cross-cultural missions have been familiar.

--Lesslie Newbigin

Francis Schaeffer on Freedom and Christianity

Great quote from Schaeffer over at Tulip Times, where Abu Tulip is doing a series on FS, do check out his other posts:

The central message of biblical Christianity is the possibility of men and women approaching God through the work of Christ. But the message also has secondary results, among them the unusual and wide freedoms which biblical Christianity gave to countries where it supplied the consensus. When these freedoms are separated from the Christian base, however, they become a force of destruction leading to chaos. When this happens, as it has today, then, to quote Eric Hoffer (1902--), 'When freedom destroys order, the yearning for order will destroy freedom.'

At that point the words left or right will make no difference. They are only two roads to the same end. There is no difference between an authoritarian government from the right or the left: the results are the same. An elite, an authoritarianism as such, will gradually force form on society so that it will not go on to chaos. And most people will accept it--from the desire for personal peace and affluence, from apathy, and from the yearning for order to assure the functioning of some political system, business, and the affairs of daily life. That is just what Rome did with Caesar Augustus.

Lyotard on the transition from Modernity to Postmodernity

He was writing in 1979, from ch. 5 of his 'the postmodern condition':

What is new in all of this is that the old poles of attraction represented by nation-states, parties, professions, institutions, and historical traditions are losing their attraction. And it does not look as though they wilt be replaced, at least not on their former scale, The Trilateral Commission is not a popular pole of attraction. “Identifying” with the great names, the heroes of contemporary history, is becoming more and more difficult. Dedicating oneself to “catching up with Germany,” the life goal the French president [Giscard d’Estaing at the time this book was published in France] seems to be offering his countrymen, is not exactly exciting. But then again, it is not exactly a life goal. It depends on each individual’s industriousness. Each individual is referred to himself. And each of us knows that our self does not amount to much.

This breaking up of the grand Narratives (discussed below, sections 9 and 10) leads to what some authors analyse in terms of the dissolution of the social bond and the disintegration of social aggregates into a mass of individual atoms thrown into the absurdity of Brownian motion. Nothing of the kind is happening: this point of view, it seems to me, is haunted by the paradisaic representation of a lost "organic” society.

Priorities for Islamic Activities in the West

[AD says, this is an important document outlining a Sunni Muslim plan for seeing the triumph of Islam over the failing powers of Western society. It is working very well so far.]

Priorities of Islamic Activities in the West
'Abdur-Rahmaan 'Abdul-Khaaliq

Muslim minorities in the West need urgent help to preserve their identity, Religion and their very existence.

To achieve this, Muslims must:

1 - Re-establish unity in this nation all over the world. Muslims must be loyal to other Muslims and disloyal to all Kufaar. This unity must be implemented by deed and not only by tongue.

2 - Affirm the basic belief that Muslims are members of the best nation ever that was introduced to humanity. Affirm the correct Islamic beliefs that will make Muslims feel pride in their Religion and feel the sweetness of Iman in their hearts. This can be accomplished by teaching the correct belief and knowing the ways of the Kufaar, to avoid them.

Muslims must feel the great bounty of Allah (Ta'aala) that He guided them to the correct Religion. Religion must be understood and believed in. Muslims must study Christian beliefs. The struggle between Islam and Christianity will last till the end of time.

Muslims must also preserve the Islamic code of dress, Islamic foods and marry Muslim women and, if they wish, only pure and good Christian women.

3 - Arabic must be the first language for all Muslims again. Learning Arabic during childhood and giving it its due place in the Religion is a must. Arabic is a necessity of Islam that must be preserved.

4 - Muslims must Perform Da'wah (propagating Islam) wherever they me be,

(Let there arise out of you a group of people inviting to all that is good, enjoining righteousness and forbidding evil. And it is those who are the successful.) [3: 104]

Religion must be held to be the reason behind our existence,

(And I (Allah) created not the Jinn and mankind except that they should worship Me (Alone).) [51:56]

5 - Ahlu As-Sunnah Wa Al-Jama'ah and the way and understanding of the Companions are what Muslims should call for. Muslims should warn of all misguided groups and define the One Righteous Group. To fight against misguided groups and off-shoot sects is a necessity. This means that Muslims will fight against all five major misguided groups who have corrupt beliefs:

- Al Khawaarij,
- Shi'ites,
- Al Jahmiyah,
- Al Qadariyah and,
- Al Murji'ah.

6 - Muslims of the West must be united in every matter. They must call to Islam and preserve their loyalty to Muslims and be disloyal to the disbelievers. Arabic must be their first language. Muslims should seek to socialize with, marry from and meet other Muslims in lectures, Masaajid (plural of Masjid), universities, picnics and general activities. Muslims must not be isolated from other Muslims.

7 - Muslims must be concerned with Islamic education for their children from primary to secondary education. Muslims must establish Islamic schools that will preserve and teach Islam to their children in their first years. The first years of life are what will shape the beliefs and ways of later years.

8 - Muslims must seek to preserve Muslim presence in Eastern Europe and strengthen this presence. Muslims in Albania and Bosnia must be provided with material help so they can defend themselves. Muslims must also help Muslims of Eastern Europe using all means possible. Also, Muslims everywhere must seek to protect the Religious, educational and social rights of Muslim minorities in the West.

Muslims of the West must not be prevented from practicing and propagating Islam, the True Religion.

9 - A higher authority for the benefit of Muslim immigrants must be established to protect the rights of Muslim minorities. This authority will coordinate between all Islamic organizations that operate in the West. Coordination will benefit and organize the activities of Islamic organizations and will provide them with vital and firsthand information about needs and the situation of Muslim minorities.

10 - Establish committees composed of Muslim scholars that will teach the Religion to Muslim immigrants and solve their problems according to the Qur'an and the Sunnah. These committees will have firsthand knowledge of the situation of Muslims and provide answers to their problems. These solutions will seek to preserve the Religion, identity and existence of Muslim immigrants.

11 - Establish a sound economic system that will benefit Muslim immigrants in the West. This economic system will provide an honorable life and financial independence for Muslims. This is better than the way that many Muslims of the West live, by seeking the help of the Kaafir government or engaging in usury, prostitution, gambling or [other] dishonorable acts.

Claude Geffre on culture and religion

"The relationship between religion and culture is extremely complex, and the Westerners who pride themselves on the autonomy of a culture said to be atheistic often forget that is still a post-Christian culture."

Claude Geffre in Many Mansions? p 96

Mazhar Mallouhi on the "Buddy" Christology

I liked this quote from a "Muslim Christian":

Also, I find that Western Christians often talk about Christ irreverently, as if he is their "buddy."

Lesslie Newbigin Prophecies: the failure of the secular model

Thus spake the prophet of the Lord, Lesslie Newbigin, in 1996 in Brazil:

The secular model has claimed to provide freedom but it cannot sustain that claim. It has been successful only insofar as it has been sustained by the remaining power of the Christian tradition; and as that tradition weakens, the secular society is unable to defend itself either against the rising religious fundamentalisms or against dissent [sic] into moral anarchy and hopelessness.

(p. 120, delivered in Dec. 1996)

Newbigin, Lesslie. 2003. Signs amid the Rubble: The Purposes of God in Human History. ed. Geoffrey Wainwright. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans.

Converts from Islam perscuted in W. Europe

Yep, in Western Europe. The press doesn't like to talk about it though bc it is an inconvenient truth.

[...]A few weeks ago, an immigrant from Iraq was knifed in the Dutch town of Rolde by another immigrant from Iraq. The victim was a former Muslim who had converted to Christianity; the assailant was a Muslim who took offense. Though similar events recently occurred in Rotterdam, Zutphen and Hengelo, the Dutch media prefer not to report them, the documentary said.

A former Muslim, who wished to remain anonymous because of the danger, told Dutch television that after his conversion to Christianity his car had been bashed with iron bars and stones thrown through the windows of his house. In one incident a Turk tried to assassinate his sister who had become a Christian. An asylum seeker from Iraq was told by the police to move to an undisclosed location. A Moroccan girl was also advised by the authorities to relocate.

One Christian convert received a telephone call from the local imam who threatened him with Koran verses calling for the death of apostates. “I am afraid, not just for myself, but also for the lives of my wife and children,” he said. Muslims who become Christians and subsequently try to convert others take serious risks, the police has warned. Nevertheless, many Muslim converts feel it to be their Christian duty to tell their family and friends of Jesus’ love for them.[...]

Read it all HERE.