Post by johnjacobjingleheimerschmidt on Sept 20, 2006 13:31:52 GMT -5
was reading excerpts of this dude's speech....
"Faith is born of the soul, not the body. Whoever would lead someone to faith needs the ability to speak well and to reason properly..."
and now he apologizes, saying that he was misunderstood...
"I hope this serves to appease hearts and to clarify the true meaning of my address, which in its totality was and is an invitation to frank and sincere dialogue, with mutual respect"
now, what I don't understand is why someone like the pope, who is, I think, supposed to (to use his words) lead people to 'the faith' would think that his comment would be an invitation to dialogue with mutual respect.
first he quotes a byzantine emporer...
"Show me just what Muhammad brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached."
then he goes on to explain in his own words...
"The emperor, after having expressed himself so forcefully, goes on to explain in detail the reasons why spreading the faith through violence is something unreasonable. Violence is incompatible with the nature of God and the nature of the soul. "God," he says, "is not pleased by blood - and not acting reasonably is contrary to God's nature."
and then all hell broke lose! Not only has he accused all Islam of attempting to "convert by the sword" he even calls them unreasoning people! wow...way to open a reasonable dialogue.
what an ass. I agree with what he said about those who seek to bring people to faith should be able express themselves clearly... which is what I think he was doing, he simply is backing down now. Actually I'll take his comment a little further. Why on EARTH do we have such a problem with (I won't say dumb...) incompetant public speakers getting into office! it seems every day I look at the news and think 'oh boy, someone else has been ofended now.'
I'm tempted to say let's all just start one more war, at least then we're not pussy-footing around trying not to offend anyone. let's settle us some differences the American way!
...*sigh*
"Faith is born of the soul, not the body. Whoever would lead someone to faith needs the ability to speak well and to reason properly..."
and now he apologizes, saying that he was misunderstood...
"I hope this serves to appease hearts and to clarify the true meaning of my address, which in its totality was and is an invitation to frank and sincere dialogue, with mutual respect"
now, what I don't understand is why someone like the pope, who is, I think, supposed to (to use his words) lead people to 'the faith' would think that his comment would be an invitation to dialogue with mutual respect.
first he quotes a byzantine emporer...
"Show me just what Muhammad brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached."
then he goes on to explain in his own words...
"The emperor, after having expressed himself so forcefully, goes on to explain in detail the reasons why spreading the faith through violence is something unreasonable. Violence is incompatible with the nature of God and the nature of the soul. "God," he says, "is not pleased by blood - and not acting reasonably is contrary to God's nature."
and then all hell broke lose! Not only has he accused all Islam of attempting to "convert by the sword" he even calls them unreasoning people! wow...way to open a reasonable dialogue.
what an ass. I agree with what he said about those who seek to bring people to faith should be able express themselves clearly... which is what I think he was doing, he simply is backing down now. Actually I'll take his comment a little further. Why on EARTH do we have such a problem with (I won't say dumb...) incompetant public speakers getting into office! it seems every day I look at the news and think 'oh boy, someone else has been ofended now.'
I'm tempted to say let's all just start one more war, at least then we're not pussy-footing around trying not to offend anyone. let's settle us some differences the American way!
...*sigh*