... when asked about his support for Donald Trump:
"In the scriptures Caesar was the ruler of the world, and he was a ruthless person who killed who knows how many hundreds of thousands of people. But at the same time, the Bible says all authority on earth has been given by God, so for some reason God has allowed Donald Trump to become President of the United States." (In his father's footsteps, Barney Zwartz, The Sun-Herald, 10/2/19)
File under 'God works in mysterious ways'.
Showing posts with label Christianity. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Christianity. Show all posts
Wednesday, February 13, 2019
Monday, February 4, 2019
Franklin Graham Channels his Inner Frank
So, according to Australian journalism's number one Israel fanboy Greg Sheridan, he & Tony did Billy Graham in 1979:
"With Tony Abbott and an evangelical friend, I went to see Billy Graham at Sydney's Randwick racecourse in 1979. He was compelling and brilliant, with his dramatic gestures, magnificent voice, Hollywood good looks. Neither Abbott nor I felt impelled to join the throngs coming forward to commit their lives, simply because we were already Catholics... So we watched the performance with some admiration from the bleachers." (God and Graham, The Australian, 2/2/19)
That little confession comes in what is essentially a promo for Billy's son Franklin, who'll be touring Australia next week.
As does this telling prognosis from Franklin Graham himself:
"I think, as a nation, our culture will descend eventually into chaos. In parts of the world where the Christian faith has not had much of an influence, such as the modern Middle East, it's scary what people have to endure."
Now in light of that, it's worth remembering what actually happened the last time the medieval forbears of Tony, Greg, and the Grahams 'toured' the Middle East - at various times between the 11th and 13th centuries centuries
Take, for example, the conquest of Jerusalem by those soldiers of Christ, aka Crusaders, aka Franks in the late 11th century. Forget "influence," 'impact' is the word here, and "scary" doesn't even begin to do justice to what Jerusalem's inhabitants had to "endure" in July 1099:
"With the fall of Jerusalem and its towers one could see marvellous works. Some of the pagans were mercifully beheaded, others pierced by arrows plunged from towers, and yet others, tortured for a long time, were burned to death in searing flames. Piles of heads, hands and feet lay in the houses and streets, and men and knights were running to and fro over corpses." (Raymond of Aguilers, quoted in Thomas Asbridge, The First Crusade: A New History, 2004, p 316)
"After a very great and cruel slaughter of Saracens, of whom 10,000 fell in that same place, they put to the sword great numbers of gentiles who were running about the quarters of the city, fleeing in all directions on account of their fear of death: they were stabbing women who had fled into palaces and dwellings; seizing infants by the soles of their feet from their mothers' laps or their cradles and dashing them against the walls and breaking their necks; they were slaughtering some with weapons, or striking them down with stones; they were sparing absolutely no gentile of any place or kind." Gesta Francorum, ibid, p 317)
"With Tony Abbott and an evangelical friend, I went to see Billy Graham at Sydney's Randwick racecourse in 1979. He was compelling and brilliant, with his dramatic gestures, magnificent voice, Hollywood good looks. Neither Abbott nor I felt impelled to join the throngs coming forward to commit their lives, simply because we were already Catholics... So we watched the performance with some admiration from the bleachers." (God and Graham, The Australian, 2/2/19)
That little confession comes in what is essentially a promo for Billy's son Franklin, who'll be touring Australia next week.
As does this telling prognosis from Franklin Graham himself:
"I think, as a nation, our culture will descend eventually into chaos. In parts of the world where the Christian faith has not had much of an influence, such as the modern Middle East, it's scary what people have to endure."
Now in light of that, it's worth remembering what actually happened the last time the medieval forbears of Tony, Greg, and the Grahams 'toured' the Middle East - at various times between the 11th and 13th centuries centuries
Take, for example, the conquest of Jerusalem by those soldiers of Christ, aka Crusaders, aka Franks in the late 11th century. Forget "influence," 'impact' is the word here, and "scary" doesn't even begin to do justice to what Jerusalem's inhabitants had to "endure" in July 1099:
"With the fall of Jerusalem and its towers one could see marvellous works. Some of the pagans were mercifully beheaded, others pierced by arrows plunged from towers, and yet others, tortured for a long time, were burned to death in searing flames. Piles of heads, hands and feet lay in the houses and streets, and men and knights were running to and fro over corpses." (Raymond of Aguilers, quoted in Thomas Asbridge, The First Crusade: A New History, 2004, p 316)
"After a very great and cruel slaughter of Saracens, of whom 10,000 fell in that same place, they put to the sword great numbers of gentiles who were running about the quarters of the city, fleeing in all directions on account of their fear of death: they were stabbing women who had fled into palaces and dwellings; seizing infants by the soles of their feet from their mothers' laps or their cradles and dashing them against the walls and breaking their necks; they were slaughtering some with weapons, or striking them down with stones; they were sparing absolutely no gentile of any place or kind." Gesta Francorum, ibid, p 317)
Tuesday, May 29, 2018
Trump's 4th Century Fan Base
Need proof that Trump's demented Christian Zionist fan base hasn't moved on since the 4th century?
Here they are today:
"While video streamed on television of [Palestinian] protesters bleeding and dying on the ground, I noticed very quickly a stark contrast on my social media feeds, where relatives and friends back home seemed to rejoice in the chaos. The turmoil in Gaza, according to them, represented a full vindication of the decision [to move the US embassy to Jerusalem] and further proof that something otherworldly was taking place in Israel... Growing up in rural Indiana, I was raised on a steady diet of conspiracy theories and apocalyptic dogma. Objects as innocuous as the clouds in the sky or tasks as commonplace as boiling water were imbued with spiritual import. According to my family, Satan was as ever-present as the hum of the refrigerator, and every new day meant another opportunity to resist and battle him with the word of God. Going astray, or simply entertaining an impure thought, was tantamount to being damned to a pit of fire for eternity. Every Sunday we were reminded just how dire the battle was. Our preacher worked himself into a drenching sweat as he paced our church's stage, his dog-eared Bible in hand, his gaze turned toward the ceiling as he pleaded with the almighty father to forgive his doomed flock. There was no grey area when it came to salvation. You were either among the chosen or destined to suffer, and our fate hinged on our every decision." ('They see glory': Trump's evangelical base sees doomsday prophecy in Gaza violence - and they're thrilled, Jared Yates Sexton, alternet.org, 15/5/18)
And here they were way back then:
"This was another country and they did things differently there. It was a time when a monk might talk personally with Christ, walk with John the Baptist and feel the tears of a prophet fall from heaven onto his skin. The world then still glimmered with miracles: the blind were still healed, the faithful still resurrected from the tomb, the holy still walked on water... This was also a world of evil apparitions too, not just holy ones: a place where Satan might walk past you in the road and a demon might sit next to you at dinner; a world in which your immortal soul was in perpetual peril." (The Darkening Age: The Christian Destruction of the Classical World, Catherine Nixey, 2017, p 13)
Here they are today:
"While video streamed on television of [Palestinian] protesters bleeding and dying on the ground, I noticed very quickly a stark contrast on my social media feeds, where relatives and friends back home seemed to rejoice in the chaos. The turmoil in Gaza, according to them, represented a full vindication of the decision [to move the US embassy to Jerusalem] and further proof that something otherworldly was taking place in Israel... Growing up in rural Indiana, I was raised on a steady diet of conspiracy theories and apocalyptic dogma. Objects as innocuous as the clouds in the sky or tasks as commonplace as boiling water were imbued with spiritual import. According to my family, Satan was as ever-present as the hum of the refrigerator, and every new day meant another opportunity to resist and battle him with the word of God. Going astray, or simply entertaining an impure thought, was tantamount to being damned to a pit of fire for eternity. Every Sunday we were reminded just how dire the battle was. Our preacher worked himself into a drenching sweat as he paced our church's stage, his dog-eared Bible in hand, his gaze turned toward the ceiling as he pleaded with the almighty father to forgive his doomed flock. There was no grey area when it came to salvation. You were either among the chosen or destined to suffer, and our fate hinged on our every decision." ('They see glory': Trump's evangelical base sees doomsday prophecy in Gaza violence - and they're thrilled, Jared Yates Sexton, alternet.org, 15/5/18)
And here they were way back then:
"This was another country and they did things differently there. It was a time when a monk might talk personally with Christ, walk with John the Baptist and feel the tears of a prophet fall from heaven onto his skin. The world then still glimmered with miracles: the blind were still healed, the faithful still resurrected from the tomb, the holy still walked on water... This was also a world of evil apparitions too, not just holy ones: a place where Satan might walk past you in the road and a demon might sit next to you at dinner; a world in which your immortal soul was in perpetual peril." (The Darkening Age: The Christian Destruction of the Classical World, Catherine Nixey, 2017, p 13)
Saturday, March 3, 2018
The Greatest Story Never Told
The Australian's currently on a 'Bring back the Bible!' binge.
Or, as columnist Angela Shanahan in today's edition, puts it: "To understand fully the beauty of Western culture, children need to know the Bible." (Greatest stories ever told bring a spark to young minds)
Opines Angela:
"Knowledge of the principal foundation documents of our own culture, found in the biblical texts, especially the Gospels, is necessary for understanding the evolution of the Christian world. The emergence of Christianity from the classical world, into the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, has shaped our culture. Within their education, children need to know just the stories, which are beautiful, dramatic and exciting, like the foundation myths from Genesis, but to have the great themes of the Old Testament explained to them."
Notice how seamlessly, in Angela's telling, Christianity emerged from the classical world? Except that this was anything but a smooth transition. What ever happened to the Dark Ages (476-800)? An inconvenient truth for today's propagandists of 'Judeo-Christianity' apparently.
Here's a reminder:
"The evidence from surviving manuscripts is clear: at some point, a hundred or so years after Christianity comes to power, the transcription of the classical texts collapses. From AD 550 to 750 the numbers copied plummeted. This is not, to be clear, an absolute collapse in copying: monasteries are still producing reams and reams of religious books. Bible after Bible; copy after copy of Augustine is made. And these works are vast. This was not about an absolute shortage of parchment; it was about a lack of interest verging on outright disgust for the ideas of a now despised canon. The texts that suffer in this period are the texts of the wicked and sinful pagans. From the entirety of the sixth century, only 'scraps' of two manuscripts by the satirical Roman poet Juvenal survive and mere 'remnants' of two others, one by the Elder and one by the Younger Pliny. From the next century, there survives nothing save a single fragment of the poet Lucan. From the start of the next century: nothing at all.
"Far from mourning the loss, Christians delighted in it. As John Chrysostom crowed, the writings 'of the Greeks have all perished and are obliterated'. He warmed to the theme in another sermon: 'Where is Plato? Nowhere! Where is Paul? In the mouths of all!' The fifth century writer, Theodoret of Cyrrhus observed the decline of Greek literature with similar enthusiasm. 'Those elaborately decorated fables have been utterly banned,' he gloated. 'Who is today's head of the Stoic heresy? Who is safeguarding the teachings of the Peripatetics?' No one, evidently, for Theodoret concludes this homily with the observation that 'the whole earth under the sun has been filled with sermons'. Augustine contentedly observed the rapid decline of the atomist philosophy in the first century of Christian rule. By his time, he recorded, Epicurean and Stoic Philosophy had been 'suppressed' - the word is his. The opinions of such philosophers 'have been so completely eradicated and suppressed... that if any school of error now emerged against the truth, that is, against the Church of Christ, it would not dare to step forth for battle if it were not covered under the Christian name'.
"A slow but devastating edit of classical literature was taking place. It is true that the appalling loses of knowledge that followed were not usually the result of dramatic, discreet actions - the burning of this library, the fury of that particular abbot - though these played their part. Instead, what ensured the near total destruction of all Latin and Greek literature was a combination of ignorance, fear and idiocy. These weapons have less narrative heft, perhaps, but when left unchecked they can achieve a great deal.
"Much was preserved. Much, much more was destroyed. It has been estimated that less than ten percent of all classical literature has survived into the modern era. For Latin, the figure is even worse: it is estimated that only one hundredth of all Latin literature remains. If this was 'preservation' - as it is often claimed to be - then it was astonishing incompetent. If it were censorship, it was brilliantly effective.
"The ebullient, argumentative classical world was, quite literally, being erased." (The Darkening Age: The Christian Destruction of the Classical World, Catherine Nixey, 2017, pp 165-66)
Or, as columnist Angela Shanahan in today's edition, puts it: "To understand fully the beauty of Western culture, children need to know the Bible." (Greatest stories ever told bring a spark to young minds)
Opines Angela:
"Knowledge of the principal foundation documents of our own culture, found in the biblical texts, especially the Gospels, is necessary for understanding the evolution of the Christian world. The emergence of Christianity from the classical world, into the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, has shaped our culture. Within their education, children need to know just the stories, which are beautiful, dramatic and exciting, like the foundation myths from Genesis, but to have the great themes of the Old Testament explained to them."
Notice how seamlessly, in Angela's telling, Christianity emerged from the classical world? Except that this was anything but a smooth transition. What ever happened to the Dark Ages (476-800)? An inconvenient truth for today's propagandists of 'Judeo-Christianity' apparently.
Here's a reminder:
"The evidence from surviving manuscripts is clear: at some point, a hundred or so years after Christianity comes to power, the transcription of the classical texts collapses. From AD 550 to 750 the numbers copied plummeted. This is not, to be clear, an absolute collapse in copying: monasteries are still producing reams and reams of religious books. Bible after Bible; copy after copy of Augustine is made. And these works are vast. This was not about an absolute shortage of parchment; it was about a lack of interest verging on outright disgust for the ideas of a now despised canon. The texts that suffer in this period are the texts of the wicked and sinful pagans. From the entirety of the sixth century, only 'scraps' of two manuscripts by the satirical Roman poet Juvenal survive and mere 'remnants' of two others, one by the Elder and one by the Younger Pliny. From the next century, there survives nothing save a single fragment of the poet Lucan. From the start of the next century: nothing at all.
"Far from mourning the loss, Christians delighted in it. As John Chrysostom crowed, the writings 'of the Greeks have all perished and are obliterated'. He warmed to the theme in another sermon: 'Where is Plato? Nowhere! Where is Paul? In the mouths of all!' The fifth century writer, Theodoret of Cyrrhus observed the decline of Greek literature with similar enthusiasm. 'Those elaborately decorated fables have been utterly banned,' he gloated. 'Who is today's head of the Stoic heresy? Who is safeguarding the teachings of the Peripatetics?' No one, evidently, for Theodoret concludes this homily with the observation that 'the whole earth under the sun has been filled with sermons'. Augustine contentedly observed the rapid decline of the atomist philosophy in the first century of Christian rule. By his time, he recorded, Epicurean and Stoic Philosophy had been 'suppressed' - the word is his. The opinions of such philosophers 'have been so completely eradicated and suppressed... that if any school of error now emerged against the truth, that is, against the Church of Christ, it would not dare to step forth for battle if it were not covered under the Christian name'.
"A slow but devastating edit of classical literature was taking place. It is true that the appalling loses of knowledge that followed were not usually the result of dramatic, discreet actions - the burning of this library, the fury of that particular abbot - though these played their part. Instead, what ensured the near total destruction of all Latin and Greek literature was a combination of ignorance, fear and idiocy. These weapons have less narrative heft, perhaps, but when left unchecked they can achieve a great deal.
"Much was preserved. Much, much more was destroyed. It has been estimated that less than ten percent of all classical literature has survived into the modern era. For Latin, the figure is even worse: it is estimated that only one hundredth of all Latin literature remains. If this was 'preservation' - as it is often claimed to be - then it was astonishing incompetent. If it were censorship, it was brilliantly effective.
"The ebullient, argumentative classical world was, quite literally, being erased." (The Darkening Age: The Christian Destruction of the Classical World, Catherine Nixey, 2017, pp 165-66)
Saturday, December 16, 2017
Christian Wahhabis... 2
Positively prophetic:
"Some of the 'holy' violence alarmed even the Church. In North Africa at the turn of the fifth century, the circumcellions became notorious not only for their suicides but for their vicious attacks on those who didn't share their particular Christian beliefs. One bishop was standing next to his altar when suddenly he found himself surrounded and beaten by men with clubs. Then his attackers tore his altar apart, beat him with its remnants, before finally stabbing him in the groin. Another priest found himself dragged from his house and, once the circumcellions had him outside, they gouged out his eye. Like the tailor-made tortures that awaited sinners in Hell, where blasphemers were strung up by their tongues, there was a ghoulish appositeness to these assaults. Eyes of the erring were gouged out because those who couldn't see the true religion were 'blind' anyway. Another bishop was seized, his hands chopped off and his tongue, which had preached falsehoods, cut out.
"The circumcellions roamed widely, vandalizing property, setting light to churches and torching houses. Just when people thought that these 'warriors', as they called themselves, could not have got any worse, they invented what Augustine called a 'new and unspeakable kind of violence, a piece of cruelty deserving of the Devil Himself'. By mixing together caustic lime powder and vinegar they created a solution strong enough to burn human skin. This they took to throwing into the eyes of priests, blinding them. Nowhere was safe: if a 'traitor' - as they called those who didn't share their beliefs - was known to be at home, the circumcellions would go into their house, drag them out, and then attack them. The more unexpected the attack, the more glorious the effect.
"Festivals of the old gods were a favourite target: circumcellions raided these, smashing statues and shouting their rallying cry of Laudes Deo - 'Praise the Lord' as they went. In a moment, a joyful, drunken celebration could be reduced to sheer chaos. Like so many before and since, these men wanted religious conformity and they would stop at little to get it. Because Matthew 26:52 advised Christians to 'sheathe your sword', with almost Jesuitical precision they adopted the club as their weapon of choice. Appalling violence could thus be done while sin was avoided. Besides, a club was efficient enough: they would beat to death as many as they could before melting back into the landscape. The sticks with which these men carried out this work became their proud trademark; they called them their 'Israels'." (The Darkening Age: The Christian Destruction of the Classical World, Catherine Nixey, 2017, pp 223-24)
Required Christmas reading.
"Some of the 'holy' violence alarmed even the Church. In North Africa at the turn of the fifth century, the circumcellions became notorious not only for their suicides but for their vicious attacks on those who didn't share their particular Christian beliefs. One bishop was standing next to his altar when suddenly he found himself surrounded and beaten by men with clubs. Then his attackers tore his altar apart, beat him with its remnants, before finally stabbing him in the groin. Another priest found himself dragged from his house and, once the circumcellions had him outside, they gouged out his eye. Like the tailor-made tortures that awaited sinners in Hell, where blasphemers were strung up by their tongues, there was a ghoulish appositeness to these assaults. Eyes of the erring were gouged out because those who couldn't see the true religion were 'blind' anyway. Another bishop was seized, his hands chopped off and his tongue, which had preached falsehoods, cut out.
"The circumcellions roamed widely, vandalizing property, setting light to churches and torching houses. Just when people thought that these 'warriors', as they called themselves, could not have got any worse, they invented what Augustine called a 'new and unspeakable kind of violence, a piece of cruelty deserving of the Devil Himself'. By mixing together caustic lime powder and vinegar they created a solution strong enough to burn human skin. This they took to throwing into the eyes of priests, blinding them. Nowhere was safe: if a 'traitor' - as they called those who didn't share their beliefs - was known to be at home, the circumcellions would go into their house, drag them out, and then attack them. The more unexpected the attack, the more glorious the effect.
"Festivals of the old gods were a favourite target: circumcellions raided these, smashing statues and shouting their rallying cry of Laudes Deo - 'Praise the Lord' as they went. In a moment, a joyful, drunken celebration could be reduced to sheer chaos. Like so many before and since, these men wanted religious conformity and they would stop at little to get it. Because Matthew 26:52 advised Christians to 'sheathe your sword', with almost Jesuitical precision they adopted the club as their weapon of choice. Appalling violence could thus be done while sin was avoided. Besides, a club was efficient enough: they would beat to death as many as they could before melting back into the landscape. The sticks with which these men carried out this work became their proud trademark; they called them their 'Israels'." (The Darkening Age: The Christian Destruction of the Classical World, Catherine Nixey, 2017, pp 223-24)
Required Christmas reading.
Tuesday, December 5, 2017
Christian Wahhabis...
... in 4th/5th century Syria:
"Decades before the laws of the land permitted them to, zealous Christians began to indulge in acts of violent vandalism against their 'pagan' neighbours. The destruction in Syria was particularly savage. Syrian monks - fearless, rootless, fanatical - became infamous both for their intensity and for the violence with which they attacked temples, statues and monuments - and even, it was said, any priests who opposed them. Libanius, the Greek orator from Antioch, was revolted by the destruction that he witnessed. 'These people,' he wrote, 'hasten to attack the temples with sticks and stones and bars of iron, and in some cases, disdaining these, with hands and feet. Then utter desolation follows, with the stripping of roofs, demolition of walls, the tearing down of statues, and the overthrow of altars, and the priests must either keep quiet or die... So they sweep across the countryside like rivers in spate.' Libanius spoke elegiacally of a huge temple on the frontier with Persia, a magnificent building with a beautiful ceiling, in whose cool shadows had stood numerous statues. Now, he said, 'it is vanished and gone, to the grief of those who had seen it' - and the grief of those who now never would. This temple had been so striking, he said, that there were even those who argued that it was as great as the temple of Serapis - which, he added with an irony not lost on later historians, 'I pray may never suffer the same fate.'*
"Not only were the monks vulgar, stinking, ill-educated and violent they were also, said their critics, phoneys. They pretended to adopt lives of austere self-denial but actually they were no better than drunken thugs, a black-robed tribe 'who eat more than elephants and, by the quantities of drink they consume, weary those that accompany their drinking with the singing of hymns.' After going on their rampage these men would then, he said, 'hide these excesses under an artificially contrived pallor and pretend to be holy, self-denying monks once again.' Drunks they might have been but, as Libanius saw, they were ferociously effective. 'After demolishing one [temple], they scurry to another, and to a third, and trophy is piled on trophy' - and all this 'in contravention of the law'." (The Darkening Age: The Christian Destruction of the Classical World, Catherine Nixey, 2017, pp 107-08)
I'm now reading Catherine Nixey's ground-breaking, Christians-behaving-badly, history, and, guess what: plus ca change plus c'est la meme chose. Who'd have thought? The ideal Christmas gift!
[Destroyed by a Christian mob led by Theophilus, Bishop of Alexandria, in AD 392.]
"Decades before the laws of the land permitted them to, zealous Christians began to indulge in acts of violent vandalism against their 'pagan' neighbours. The destruction in Syria was particularly savage. Syrian monks - fearless, rootless, fanatical - became infamous both for their intensity and for the violence with which they attacked temples, statues and monuments - and even, it was said, any priests who opposed them. Libanius, the Greek orator from Antioch, was revolted by the destruction that he witnessed. 'These people,' he wrote, 'hasten to attack the temples with sticks and stones and bars of iron, and in some cases, disdaining these, with hands and feet. Then utter desolation follows, with the stripping of roofs, demolition of walls, the tearing down of statues, and the overthrow of altars, and the priests must either keep quiet or die... So they sweep across the countryside like rivers in spate.' Libanius spoke elegiacally of a huge temple on the frontier with Persia, a magnificent building with a beautiful ceiling, in whose cool shadows had stood numerous statues. Now, he said, 'it is vanished and gone, to the grief of those who had seen it' - and the grief of those who now never would. This temple had been so striking, he said, that there were even those who argued that it was as great as the temple of Serapis - which, he added with an irony not lost on later historians, 'I pray may never suffer the same fate.'*
"Not only were the monks vulgar, stinking, ill-educated and violent they were also, said their critics, phoneys. They pretended to adopt lives of austere self-denial but actually they were no better than drunken thugs, a black-robed tribe 'who eat more than elephants and, by the quantities of drink they consume, weary those that accompany their drinking with the singing of hymns.' After going on their rampage these men would then, he said, 'hide these excesses under an artificially contrived pallor and pretend to be holy, self-denying monks once again.' Drunks they might have been but, as Libanius saw, they were ferociously effective. 'After demolishing one [temple], they scurry to another, and to a third, and trophy is piled on trophy' - and all this 'in contravention of the law'." (The Darkening Age: The Christian Destruction of the Classical World, Catherine Nixey, 2017, pp 107-08)
I'm now reading Catherine Nixey's ground-breaking, Christians-behaving-badly, history, and, guess what: plus ca change plus c'est la meme chose. Who'd have thought? The ideal Christmas gift!
[Destroyed by a Christian mob led by Theophilus, Bishop of Alexandria, in AD 392.]
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)