OUR SECULAR leaders in the West, torn between adherence to the agnosticism (or atheism) of most of our media and a mere desire not to offend the fashion, have conspicuously failed . . .
. . . to assert Christianity's rightful claim to seniority in chronology, and in intellectual rigor, to all other religions except the closely related monotheistic and messianic one of Judaism. Our political leaders have not made the point that the West is a profoundly Christian culture, even for most of those who do not, in fact, believe that Jesus Christ was a divinely inspired [read divine] person, and that, while the lengthy experience of the Judeo-Christian world has arrived at a division of secular and religious jurisdictions that entirely tolerates an infinite range of opinions, including complete religious doubt, the West is the world's premier center of religious thought and practice. Instead, they have chosen to sidestep the issue, and, by not asserting the West's religious distinction, have abdicated and surrendered the entire vast field of thought and endeavor to the most intellectually disreputable claimants of belligerent Islam. In the process, they have largely overlooked the immense annual persecution of Christians, including thousands murdered every year, mainly in Islamist and Communist countries, and have sat as silent and inert as suet puddingsin the face of the anti-Christian atrocities that their craven silence tolerates and even legitimizes.
The credentials of Christianity as the world's principal religious option, even if considered most crudely as the brand-leader with the premier market share, are ignored while Islam has been largely kidnapped by dogmatic lunatics and [while] the entire West mumbles an incantation about avoidance of sectarian discrimination. Of course, there must be no discrimination, but pointing out that there are at least twice as many practicing Christians as practicing Muslims (without mentioning that athey have a substantially higher level of socioeconomic accomplishments) is justified and necessary, and would come especially well from some of our many non-Christian (in any but the most technical sense) leaders.
The problem of this deafening cultural quietism is aggravated by the almost universal Western practice of overlooking, whether from generosity of spirit, ignorance, indifference, or the fear that grips the intimidated, the fact that Islam's claim to religious toleration is mitigated by the fact that it is not a religion by Western or Eastern standards. That is, it is not only a religion. It is a complete system of life that includes a social, judicial, and political system, replete with geopolitical ambitions to regain territory and prestige lost in the 13-century retreat [of military Islam from Europe]. . . . Forgotten among the confessions of Christian guilt about the wantonness and impiety of many of the Crusaders is the naked aggression of Islam against the West for almost all of its first millenium, now revived, implausibly and, in fact, comparatively feebly, in sponsored terrorism and acts of mob violence, a considerably less distinguished effort at proselytization by force majeure than the march of Muslim armies, the assault of Muslim siege engines, and the challenge of Muslim fleets, no equivalent of which could be sent forth with any possible success today.
. . . .
It is not for us in the West, whether religious believers or not, to say that Mohammed was not divinely inspired, or to dispute his message [Mr. Black is wrong here, but let's press on], but it is quite in order to question Islam's frequent inflexibility and violence. Islam deserves the respect due to the subject of mass adherence and to the consideration officially recorded religious practice. It is a mighty force, whether the West, believing or not believing, likes it or not. But Islam does not deserve to be excused from the requirements of conforming to reasonable norms of coexistence with secular authorities and with other faiths. And it certainly does not deserve a full pass from that large segment of our self-loathing Western media that devotes itself constantly to the destruction of Judeo-Christian values, while largely ignoring the antics of teeming masses of Muslims who scream death to the West while pressing their foreheads against the floor of their mosques, and who treat women as property and intellectual curiosity as blasphemy. Our secular leaders, whatever their own religious views, should cease to appease these forces of the anti-Christ; should unsheath their great moral sword in their scabbards, and have some thought for more than 1.5 billion practicing Christians whose votes they seek . . . .
(Conrad Black, "Defend Christendom," nationalreview.com, January 9, 2014, emphasis added)
Excellent commentary.
I would go further: Christianity is disdained among many precisely because it acknowledges that a loving God is in charge. The atheists -- who believe they are in charge since (they believe) there is no God -- hate Christians and Jews who say there is a God, that He is loving, and that one can have a personal relationship with Him. The atheists give the Muslims a pass because (1) they believe "the enemy of my enemy is my friend" and (2) they sense the Muslims will extend their history of slaughtering their brothers. God wins in the end, but the world might be blood-drenched and smoking when Christ returns.
Posted by: Fred | January 13, 2014 at 04:14 PM