What Was The Pope Thinking?
Philip F. Harris
September 16, 2006
Despite the back peddling, the damage is done. The insensitive comments by Pope Benedict XVI regarding Muhammad’s teachings are one more notch for the case of religious reform. Saying that the Prophet brought nothing new and there you will “find things only evil and inhuman” has drawn the ire of the East.
Religious leaders in Turkey, Egypt, India and Pakistan and elsewhere have condemned the Pope’s remarks- and rightfully so. In a world filled with religious tension and strife, what was he thinking? How could anyone not be offended by his words? Is the true nature of religion finally showing its ugly face?
And now President Bush says that he sees a “Third Awakening” of religious fervor. Great, is this what the world needs, more religious fervor and extremist religious views? Bush says he sees a religious revival that now takes the form of ‘good vs. evil.” When will this madness end?
Books like “The Da Vinci Code” and “Waking God” have been criticized for their portrayal of religious dogma and institutions as misleading at best, and dangerous at worst. And now we have the self proclaimed leader of the Christians openly referring to another religious prophet as evil. This raises some very fundamental issues. Is it possible that the reason the West is taking no action in the Sudan to halt the genocide is due to the fact those being slaughtered are not Christian? Is this why the Kurdish slaughter went unanswered? Maybe the 6million dead in Nazi Germany was also permitted because the Jews did not embrace Jesus. How many other genocides did the world permit that were, perhaps, religiously motivated or tolerated?
What the world needs a spiritual revival, not a religious revival. The steps to heaven are paved in blood by countless religious wars and persecutions. Is this what we seek to revive? Have not all religious institutions, Christian and Muslim alike, shed enough blood? If there is a ‘third awakening, I hope that the world will awaken to the hypocrisy of organized religion and put an end to the entire concept of ‘good versus evil’ which feeds the coffers oh the Church while starving the human soul.
Philip Harris
Religious leaders in Turkey, Egypt, India and Pakistan and elsewhere have condemned the Pope’s remarks- and rightfully so. In a world filled with religious tension and strife, what was he thinking? How could anyone not be offended by his words? Is the true nature of religion finally showing its ugly face?
And now President Bush says that he sees a “Third Awakening” of religious fervor. Great, is this what the world needs, more religious fervor and extremist religious views? Bush says he sees a religious revival that now takes the form of ‘good vs. evil.” When will this madness end?
Books like “The Da Vinci Code” and “Waking God” have been criticized for their portrayal of religious dogma and institutions as misleading at best, and dangerous at worst. And now we have the self proclaimed leader of the Christians openly referring to another religious prophet as evil. This raises some very fundamental issues. Is it possible that the reason the West is taking no action in the Sudan to halt the genocide is due to the fact those being slaughtered are not Christian? Is this why the Kurdish slaughter went unanswered? Maybe the 6million dead in Nazi Germany was also permitted because the Jews did not embrace Jesus. How many other genocides did the world permit that were, perhaps, religiously motivated or tolerated?
What the world needs a spiritual revival, not a religious revival. The steps to heaven are paved in blood by countless religious wars and persecutions. Is this what we seek to revive? Have not all religious institutions, Christian and Muslim alike, shed enough blood? If there is a ‘third awakening, I hope that the world will awaken to the hypocrisy of organized religion and put an end to the entire concept of ‘good versus evil’ which feeds the coffers oh the Church while starving the human soul.
Philip Harris
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