I have been to Iran twice, the first time in 2006 at the invitation of former President Khatami. More recently, I spent five days meeting with academic and religious leaders in Iran who are very concerned about the possibility of a US military incursion against their homeland. While in Tehran and Qom, one of the holiest cities in Iran, we spent a great deal of time discussing the common religious values and themes shared by both Christianity and Islam. Our commonalities centred on issues of peace as well as the moral prohibition of developing and using weapons of mass destruction.
Hmmm... "common religious values and themes". I wonder what Chane has in mind. Obviously, it's something these Muslims have which traditionalist Episcopalians don't. Let's see:
Strong belief in a deity. Nope, can't be that -- the traditionalists who Chane persecutes feel the same.
Desire for a more relgious culture. Nope, not that either. Traditionalists regret that America has become so secular and un-Christian... even if they don't advocate theocracy, war, murder and terrorism to attempt to change that situation.
Opposition to homosexuality. Nope, that can't be that... unless he's praising one group for the very quality he condemns another for. So unless this is a VGR-style denial of basic rationality (or he thinks traditionalists ought to be advocating the execution of homosexuals as Islam does) it's probably safe to say it's not this aspect of Islam he's praising either.
Willing to sacrifice for their faith. Hm, here's another one it can't be. Traditionalists (as opposed to both liberals and head-in-the-sand institutionalists) sacrifice buildings, salaries, comfort, cash to maintain the faith. In some parts of the world, they're martyred by Islamicists and others. So unless he's suggesting he'd be praising traditional Anglicans if they started imitating the Islamicists by manufacturing IEDs along the route of his own daily commute, or by wearing suicide vests for blowing up abortion clinics, liberal Episcopal seminaries, and druidic groves, it can't be that either.
Well, golly gee, it's kinda tough to figure out what he thinks so "praiseworthy" in Islam, when that religion takes itself seriously (unlike Chane takes Christianity but like traditional Anglicans take it) and when it, on various matters (women's rights, homosexuality, etc) errs by being as far off the scale in one direction as Chane and his ilk are off it in the other.
Hang on... brainstorm here... there is one thing on which Chane and the Islamicists agree on:
DENIAL OF CHRISTIANITY AND PERSECUTION OF CHRISTIANS!!!
AHA -- That's the "common religious values and themes" which PEcUSA shares with Islam... the "deeper convergence" he's found in his visits.
And, you know, given that that the destruction of Christianity has been a major part of PEcUSA's overall gameplan for the last 30+ years, I can see why he might think that. And as long as he doesn't think too much about what the Islamicists want to replace Christianity with (i.e. something not only just as inimical to his own polysexual brain-dead liturgical unitarianism as Christianity is, but which would, for preference, either forcibly convert or execute him to boot!), I suppose he can continue with this sort of thinking.
Anyone want to hazard a guess as to which possible presidential candidate he's going to vote for?
pax,
LP
First posted on the MCJ blog.
