Well, it's been a hell of a ride, laying rubber all over the road for the past decade. But it's time to call it a day and park the Rogue in the garage. Effective today, I am shutting down my blog to focus my attention on other endeavours. My thanks to the more than 2.7 million people who regularly joined me on these sojourns through news stories over the years that dealt with the places with issues of religion and faith intersecting with public affairs. May God bless you with a continuing desire to learn about and help disseminate the issues of faith throughout the public square. Happy trails in your continuing travels! Fr. Tim Moyle, p.p. Diocese of Pembroke
Reflections from the pastoral ministry of an Evangelical Catholic Priest.
Hi Tim,
ReplyDeleteFull disclosure: I am no fan of Michael Coren. Seems he is just pushing his book sales and not advancing civil discourse around the proper role of religion in the public square. Quel surprise!
Some North American Christians like to portray themselves as victims. In their defence, a lot of other groups also like to portray themselves as victims - as there are few other tactics that are as effective in garnering sympathy. Such Christians are merely mimicking an effective tactic.
IMHO, there is nothing wrong with examining the content of Christianity, Islam, Judaism etc..and criticizing it. I would even go farther and state that some theology is so ridiculous that it is entirely worthy of ridicule. To cite such criticism as evidence of persecution is stretching the meaning of "persecution" to the point of being meaningless.
Having said all of that, I also believe that every person deserves to be treated with respect. Consequently, I would never criticize or ridicule a neighbour, a friend or a colleague for their religious beliefs. The content of their beliefs may be silly to me, but I still think individuals deserve to be treated with respect. Mr. Coren appears to adopt the same stance when he speaks of not denegrating his "gay" friends by hurling Catholic catechism at them.
By all means - attack ideas...but do not attack people.
I will stand to toe to toe with Mr. Coren (or anyone else) and happily explain why Catholic catechism on homosexuality (and many other issues) is without a foundation in reality.
One place where Mr. Coren and I do part company, is that I do not agree with his assertion that those who criticize Christianity often do cartwheels to rationalize Islamic terrorism. To my mind, he is just playing a game of poor us .... we Christians are the biggest victims. I criticize both (and all other religious ideas and spiritual modalities). Coren offers nothing in support of his assertion, and when it comes to atheists in general - you will find that they lavish no special exemptions upon Islam. I refer you to Sam Harris if you want a scathing critique of Islamic terrorism.
Cheers...Martin