Portland: No More Dots to ConnectSo a Muslim teenager attempted to set off a bomb to kill hundreds and maybe thousands of innocents in Portland, Oregon, at a Christmas tree lighting ceremony—which follows the Muslim shoe-bomber trying to bring down a commercial airliner, the Muslim Christmas Day ‘underwear bomber’ trying to bring down a commercial airliner, the Muslim Times Square would-be bomber, the Muslim Ft. Hood shooter/murderer, the Muslim ‘Fort Dix six’; the Muslim who attempted to blow up an office building in Dallas, Texas, and the 19 Muslims who hijacked and flew airliners into buildings (and the ground), killing approximately 3,000 innocent people on September 11, 2001. Americans are going to have to decide: when is enough enough???!!!! Do we really need to listen to some expert tell us we can’t be sure what the nature of the terrorist threat is all about? Must we put up with an Attorney General of the United States of America who can’t bring himself to name the threat? Are we going to tolerate a Department of Homeland Security that refuses to allow common sense profiling to deal with the threat—or as new American hero Allen West calls it, "trend analysis"? Are we as a people going to continue to profess a politically correct non-judgmentalism that says we are dealing only with a common criminal problem? More broadly, are we going to allow the spread of Islamic schools and sharia law in America? The Muslim in Portland did Americans a great favor in his choice of a Christmas ceremony as a setting for mass killing of innocents accompanied by the ubiquitous Islamic chant of “Allahu Akbar!” He put the nature of the conflict right in front of us; he placed flashing neon lights around the core issue; he has made sure there are no dots left to connect. Islam, and Judeo-Christian America as it was founded, do not mix and cannot be reconciled. Period. There is no one who is deeply familiar with Islamic theology and Judeo-Christian theology who denies this fact or could deny it. The two theologies involve radically different and essentially opposite concepts of Deity, of the nature of creation in that Deity’s image and likeness, and of basic ideals of freedom, justice, mercy and wisdom, not to mention heaven and hell. Here’s some additional common sense: one theology is better for the health, well-being and progress of humanity than the other. To date, too many Americans refuse to face this core issue, some out of ignorance, some out of naivete, and some because of a belief that such a stark statement of the problem must inevitably lead to a clash of civilizations that simply cannot even be contemplated—and therefore a forthright statement of the problem cannot be considered and must be condemned. We suggest that it is only a forthright statement of the problem that can give humanity any chance of avoiding a catastrophic clash of civilizations. Because when the problem is clearly stated, the clash can then be seen as not between civilizations, but between civilization and barbarism. By recognizing the conflict as theological, the clash can cease to be viewed as one intractable group of people pitted against another intractable group of people. The thought of people is not intractable. It can change, and it will change when, as and if it is recognized that the enemy of all humanity is a false theology that makes evil, violent, oppressive and tyrannical animals out of what should be children of God. Humanity’s path forward out of this conflict can seem insurmountably complex. We’re not good enough policy-makers to know just how the path can or should be navigated to get humanity safely through this darkness, though we’ve made suggestions. But as Ronald Reagan often said, there may not be easy answers, but there are simple answers. And with the right starting point, we’ll eventually get to the right end point. America is founded on the truth of ‘Nature and Nature’s God’; the proof of its truth is the unparalleled demonstration of goodness and greatness that has been the actions and experience of America in the history of humanity. The simple answer is to acknowledge and uphold this truth, and stop allowing any form of political correctness to obscure or deny it. The right starting point is to resolve to follow and uphold that truth—measured today by renewed appreciation for and allegiance to the spirit of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. Ignorance of the problem or refusal to face it, are no longer possible or excusable. The dot represented by the episode in Portland ought to be the last one we have to connect. Other Brushfires essays relating to this issue: Innocent People, Malignant Theology In Defense of Judeo-Christian America Confident Theological Leadership, NOW
Paul Gable November 27, 2010 |