Month: November 2006

A New Tool for Reconciliation?

Pope prays with Mufti:

Did they pray to the same Being?

But on to the title of this post:

Pope Benedict visited Istanbul’s Blue Mosque on Thursday, only the second Roman Catholic Pontiff to take such a step, and prayed silently in another gesture of reconciliation to the Muslim world.

So if the fellow and I that are at odds with each other stand side by side with our eyes closed in alleged prayer, is that a gesture of reconciliation?

And that’s what prayer is about?

Then it seems it wasn’t prayer to any Supreme Being.

Maybe I’m just being picky.

Asked if the Pope had prayed, Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi said:

“This was a moment of reflection and meditation. Certainly, this was a moment of personal meditation in a relationship with God. You can even call this personal, intimate prayer but there were no external manifestations or characteristics of the Christian faith.”

I see.

Well, maybe I don’t.

What exactly is that supposed to mean?

But back to the “gesture of reconciliation” bit. Does all this mean the Pope is kow-towing to Islam, acknowledging his faults and recognizing that the fault is his alone for needing to be reconciled?

Ah, never mind the rhetoric.

😉

The Ties That Bind?

No kidding?

Celebrating mass at a shrine in southwestern Turkey where legend says the Virgin Mary lived out her last days, Benedict stressed that a common devotion to the mother of Jesus Christ is another link binding Christians and Muslims.

I missed mention of some of the other links.

But this one is just too much for me.

That’s OK.

Truth and Consequences?

Illegal aliens murder 12 Americans daily:

Twelve Americans are murdered every day by illegal aliens, according to statistics released by Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa. If those numbers are correct, it translates to 4,380 Americans murdered annually by illegal aliens. That’s 21,900 since Sept. 11, 2001.

Update: Thursday, November 30 at 7:14 am Pacific — Captain Ed singes both WND and King.

Adjusting Freedom of Speech?

Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich yesterday said the country will be forced to reexamine freedom of speech to meet the threat of terrorism.

Gingrich, speaking at a Manchester awards banquet, said a “different set of rules” may be needed to reduce terrorists’ ability to use the Internet and free speech to recruit and get out their message.

Imams Testing Airline Security?

Muslim religious leaders removed from a Minneapolis flight last week exhibited behavior associated with a security probe by terrorists and were not merely engaged in prayers, according to witnesses, police reports and aviation security officials.

Witnesses said three of the imams were praying loudly in the concourse and repeatedly shouted “Allah” when passengers were called for boarding US Airways Flight 300 to Phoenix.

“I was suspicious by the way they were praying very loud,” the gate agent told the Minneapolis Police Department.

Passengers and flight attendants told law-enforcement officials the imams switched from their assigned seats to a pattern associated with the September 11 terrorist attacks and also found in probes of U.S. security since the attacks — two in the front row first-class, two in the middle of the plane on the exit aisle and two in the rear of the cabin.

“That would alarm me,” said a federal air marshal who asked to remain anonymous. “They now control all of the entry and exit routes to the plane.”

God Takes Third Place?

“In God We Trust,” the official national motto since 1956 and a familiar sight on U.S. coins and currency, will be hard to find on the new presidential dollar coins scheduled for release to the public Feb. 15, 2007.

The new gold-colored dollar pieces, featuring images of U.S. presidents, will move the inscription from the face of the coin to the thin edge, along with the year and the previous national motto, “E Pluribus Unum,” Latin for “Out of Many, One.”

The official reason for the design change? To allow space for larger portraits of the presidents on the face and the Statue of Liberty on the reverse, according to the Mint.

Read It and Pray

Joel C. Rosenburg blogs:

For the last six years, few in Washington — including conservatives — have been willing to carefully assess, much less confront, Putin’s increasingly anti-Western rhetoric and actions.

Adding:

With the rebuilding of Russia’s conventional military and strategic nuclear missile forces underway, Vladimir Putin then delivered a speech on April 25, 2005, that I believe ranks as the most dangerous presidential address of our times. “First and foremost,” he declared, “it is worth acknowledging that the demise of the Soviet Union was the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century.

How should a Christian pray?

Never Again?

Does the world not care?

When the fighters came, the mothers of Jebel Maun could not protect their children. Screaming toddlers were ripped from their grasp and shot; older children who tried to save their brothers and sisters were hunted down.

Decades (maybe not that long) after the Nazis hunted down and exterminated Jews, those looking back wondered how people could have stood by.

In the same category, I think of those who after-the-fact criticize those who appeased Hitler’s threats and expansionism.

Don’t get me wrong, I think such criticisms have their place.

But what about today?

Is such history repeating itself with regards to Darfur and Iran?

It seems so to me.

But who is going to do what?

Though I shun political involvement, how dare I neglect fervent prayer?

USAirways, Here I Come

Were they being unreasonable?

The Council on American-Islamic Relations called Tuesday for an investigation into the behavior of airline staff and airport security in the removal of six Muslim scholars from a US Airways flight a day earlier.

I’ll shortly be on my way to Tucson International Airport for a flight to Oregon…on the same airline.

So I’m inclined to think it’s not the airline staff and security officials who should be investigated.

“We are concerned that crew members, passengers and security personnel may have succumbed to fear and prejudice based on stereotyping of Muslims and Islam,” Nihad Awad, the council’s executive director, said in a news release.

Is it possible such “stereotyping” might be based on the reality of 9/11 and subsequent events that could be classed as “self-inflicted stereotyping”?

Perhaps.

Police were called after the captain and airport security workers asked the men to leave the plane and the men refused, Rader said.

Well, good deal.

If I don’t go through security and just take a round-about way and am then asked to stop and I refuse, whose fault is it for the ensuing detention and/or arrest?

Just comply with the initial request of those in authority and save everybody a bunch of trouble.

But then again, if it’s trouble I want . . . .

Private
Above all, love God!