The Banzai Chronicles

Are you going to vote?

In the event of a tie, the chair shall cast the deciding vote.

What I find amusing especially frustrating is that some of my more...not-conservative friends, people who, while not defending the attacks, are claiming that outrage is understandable, are the same people that decried Christian close-mindedness when some protested works of "art" like piss-christ, and that more resent Mary exhibit.

Gah, people.

Well, everyone knows that Christianity is a religion of hate and Islam is a religion of peace. So if you have a problem with deadly riots over a frickin' cartoon, it's obviously because you believe in a religion of hate. And if said cartoon is referred to as a "terrorist act" and responded to with violence, it's just because we infidels haven't fully understood Islam as a religion of peace.

Oh, man, good point. I see the light.

So much so that I'll strap some grenades to my niece and have her mosey on over to the building across the street. They have this totally mint courtyard to hang out in, but there's a gate around it. I hate that gate.

Thank you, terrorists, for showing me what's what!

"Terrorism," "terrorists," and "terror" in general have recently come to mean so many things that they effectively don't mean anything.

It's hard for me to believe that a cartoon has the capability of instilling terror into the very fabric of Islam, to such a degree that it is a violation of international law.

I've never been terrified by a cartoon or comic strip. Well, except for Marmaduke, but he's just creepy.

This all just reminds me how much I love and need God. And how much I despise organized religion

Though I'm a pretty big advocate of organized religion, we're in complete agreement on your first point.

Eh... I'm not saying organized religion can't be good. I'm just saying if you look at history its really really good at screwing things up (the crusades, jihads, mercy killings, subjigation of women). Rarely do organized religious entitites even remotely resemble their founders.
On the other hand there are pinacles like Ghandi and Martin Luther King- sadly they seem like the exception to the rule.

You're right, but I'm not convinced religion has a unique historical distinction in that regard. One could just as easily point to atrocities committed by individuals (Son of Sam, Jeffrey Dahmer, Jack the Ripper) or governments (take your pick) and conclude that those entities are also really, really good at screwing things up. People together are capable of greater good or harm than people individually, but examples of good and harm exist in abundance in both states. So I'm just not persuaded that either religion or organization are the determining variables per se.

The fact that God calls to Himself a people and created us for community is a consistent theme of Scripture. The Church needs to be forgiven, and Jesus does that. That's what's amazing about the gospel. If the Church didn't need forgiveness, the Cross would just be sadism.

I understand what you are saying. I just wish the church could distinguish itself from other messed up human ventures. And it really hasn't in most cases. I pray that God does forgive the church.

Some of whether we are distinguished from other ventures depends on where we set the bar, too. Do we call it "distinguishing" if Christians refrain from rioting and killing people the next time there's a cartoon out making fun of Christianity?

For the most part, there's a pretty high bar set for Christianity. Nothing wrong with that in some respects, but we should be honest about where double standards exist. Whatever the standard, I believe we will see both grace and failure, and ultimately, God's forgiveness will in fact be required.

I love that I feel like we understand each other. That's huge. And I love your prayer, in part because it includes me.

I think I could pretty easily show people who call themselves christians acting with equal ignorance and malace. While I believe God sees the Christian church as different from other faiths- to the eyes of the world we are no different. Blowing up abortion clinics in order to argue for the sanctitiy of life seems just as bad to me.

Just like there is a great range of people of various beliefs in the Christian church, we have to see the Muslim faith as multifaceted. If we don't we push ourselves farther towards the kind of ignorance that causes people to riot over a cartoon.

I think that, when that occurs, it is just as bad. Is it just as prevalent? When was the last time that occurred? Have such instances ever occured over a cartoon about abortion? Because (let's be rational and honest) that's clearly different.

There are certainly examples of extremism in any faith, and Christians owe it to our faith and our Lord to be wary. For right now, however, Christian extremism seems to be limited to individuals and very small groups (not riots), and incidents of violence are few and far between. If our biggest problems are the blatherings of the Robertsons and Fallwells, I don't think it's honest to put us on the level of Muslim extremism.

Obviously, I don't keep up with the news, because I had no idea this was going on.

I don't know if "batshit crazy" covers it. :/ Doesn't the fact that people are getting killed over a cartoon kind of prove the point?

maybe we should storm their embassies, and burn them to the ground and murderize people to show them that our prophet is a prophet of peace, love, and understanding and not one of war and terrorism.

</sarcasm>