Another misrepresentation of Christianity

Or maybe it's time to engage and interact with the culture and pop religious beliefs so that we may fully and knowledgeably represent Christ's Kingdom in the world around us.

Disengaging and ignoring is not the key.

 

People are always trying to re-write history. Christianity never had the issue of treating women badly. It was the social environment that Christianity changed over the years.

 

:thumbs:

 

I started watching the 20/20 piece on Islam the other night. As expected, it was a hit piece designed to place Islam in a positive light and Christianity in a negative light. Sadly, it will probably work. All those smiling faces of American Muslims, women expressing their desire to be fulfilled in life, children playing happily, etc., will make more of an effect than the doctrines and theologies behind the religious practice.

Widely touted is that Islam is a "religion of peace," which, by the way, it is -- once it subjugates all other religions under its own mantle -- is rather a crock of the stuff that comes out of the south end of a north-going bull. Islam has proven itself to be a religion of the sword since its earliest days. By definition, Islam means "subjugate" and that is exactly what it intends for all the world's people.

No mention was made of many of the more difficult positions of Islam in the piece as far as I watched it, nor was fair or accurate mention made of Christianity, without which Islam would never exist in the first place, it being a borrowing (and horrid at that) of Christian and Jewish tenets that preceded it.

What is weird is the timing of this and another similar program on Sunday morning about Islam. This has to be tied to the current administration's efforts in regards to the prevailing view of Islam. Too many puff pieces on Islam at the same time by media outlets who have proven themselves very sympathetic to the cause of the left to be chance occurrences. I'm not sure what is up, but I doubt that it will be good for Christians...

 

It all ties in with the Obama Agenda very neatly. Things such as the below:

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/07/05/nasa-chief-frontier-better-relations-muslims/

NASA Chief: Next Frontier Better Relations With Muslim World
Published July 05, 2010
| FoxNews.com

NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said in a recent interview that his "foremost" mission as the head of America's space exploration agency is to improve relations with the Muslim world.

Though international diplomacy would seem well outside NASA's orbit, Bolden said in an interview with Al Jazeera that strengthening those ties was among the top tasks President Obama assigned him.

 

Except this new emphasis is not quite in line with previous efforts.

Something regarding the upcoming election is on the horizon -- another "October surprise" and that is always more frightening to me than halloween...

 

I think a Catholic saint, called St.Thomas Aquanis, can sum Mohammed, and Islam up in his letter.


"He (Mohammed) seduced the people by promises of carnal pleasure to which the concupiscence of the flesh urges us. His teaching also contained precepts that were in conformity with his promises, and he gave free rein to carnal pleasure. In all this, as is not unexpected; he was obeyed by carnal men. As for proofs of the truth of his doctrine, he brought forward only such as could be grasped by the natural ability of anyone with a very modest wisdom. Indeed, the truths that he taught he mingled with many fables and with doctrines of the greatest falsity.

He did not bring forth any signs produced in a supernatural way, which alone fittingly gives witness to divine inspiration; for a visible action that can be only divine reveals an invisibly inspired teacher of truth. On the Contrary, Mohammed said that he was sent in the power of his arms - which are signs not lacking even to robbers and tyrants. What is more, no wise men, men trained in things divine and human, believed in him from the beginning (1). Those who believed in him were brutal men and desert wanderers, utterly ignorant of all divine teaching, through whose numbers Mohammed forced others to become his follower's by the violence of his arms. Nor do divine pronouncements on part of preceding prophets offer him any witness. On the contrary, he perverts almost all the testimony of the Old and the New Testaments by making them into a fabrication of his own, as can be seen by anyone who examines his law. It was, therefore, a shrewd decision on his part to forbid his followers to read the Old and New Testaments, lest these books convict him of falsity. It is thus clear that those who place faith in his words believe foolishly"

- Summa Contra Gentiles, Book 1, Chapter 16, Art. 4.



God Bless.

 

St. Thomas Aquinas: "It was, therefore, a shrewd decision on his part to forbid his followers to read the Old and New Testaments, lest these books convict him of falsity. It is thus clear that those who place faith in his words believe foolishly"

Yes, I would say St. Thomas is 'spot on' in his assessment.

 

Thanks, he was right on the money. To bad how many today can't or won't see it.

 

What is truly sad is two things... First, the majority of American people don't know that Islam came about 600 years after the NT was lived out. It is not a peer, but a later counterfeit version, designed to promulgate the Arabic factions that have existed in the Middle East since Issac and Ishmael (and who have been at war since!). Second, is that the very people helping the cause of Islam (liberal atheistic political operatives) will be the first ones that Islam will remove if they actually gain the power they are looking to gain.

Islam is against true infidels, not "people of the book." True infidels are those without morals, and who refuse to acknowledge God -- a perfect descriptor of the majority of the politicians who support the Muslim advance in the West and around the world. People of the book will be asked to subject themselves to Sharia Law, but they may remain under protection if they do so.

It is this fatal misunderstanding of Islam that will eventually doom us, for our political leaders are the ones cutting the deals -- to their own peril -- just as leaders in Europe who cast the die first are now starting to realize.

 

Uh...have you ever read patristics? Augustine, Origen, Justin Martyr...lots of those guys are considered great Christian minds, which they were, but they also had sub-Christian perspectives on women. Of course, it was the culture of the day, but the social and psychological effects on women were great.

The truth of Christianity is one thing, but the people of Christianity have always, and continue to, treat women badly.

 

I actually have read the Patristics and your right their view of women was in line with their culture. Not scripture. In fact, women played a valuable role in the early church and among Jesus and his disciples. However, after centuries of christian teaching in Europe the culture soften towards women and slowly adapted to honor them. Just like after centuries of christian teaching Europe developed a system of human rights.