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E.J. Dionne: Christians Do Weird Things
E.J. Dionne's new book is all about "taking back" faith from the feverish mouths of the right. Aside from the obvious silliness that comes of asserting that one can really "hijack" an entire religion, Dionne in a TNR op-ed makes a wonderful point about Christians working at an organization called "Catholic Relief":
..[W]hat's striking is that the faith of its employees is inherent in what they do, not something they wear on their sleeves. McGarry says his co-workers are not in the field to preach Christianity, even if the fact they are there bears witness to their faith.
He then notes something that makes me curious:
McGarry says his co-workers are not in the field to preach Christianity, even if the fact they are there bears witness to their faith. Indeed, in most Afghan villages, seeking converts among Muslims would be highly dangerous. The group consciously avoids preaching the Gospel, and its Afghan staff is overwhelmingly Muslim.
This pretty much flies in the face of what he later complains about:
It is strange how a faith that traces its origins to a stable, preaches love and demands good works is so often invoked to condemn, to divide and to denounce.
Never mind that he lumps Catholics, Fundamentalists, and Unitarians together. (I'm not expressing a preference, but there are real things that divide these denominations.) A number of Christian organizations go out of their way to employ and work with people of other faiths without proselytizing. (Let's put aside the weird assertion that there's value in not telling other people what you believe can help them.) I wonder if we looked over the number of Muslim organizations that do this in Christian countries, versus the number of Christian organizations that do the same in Muslim countries, how those numbers would add up?
I don't know this, so I'm putting this as a question to readers. I'm sure that there are Muslim organizations that do this. I just don't know which. But I do chafe at the idea that a religion sells itself short when it "condemns, divides, and denounces." A shepherd that allows his flock to wander off and lose itself isn't much of a shepherd.
But then again, that doesn't conform to Dionne's stereotype.
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dad29| 12.25.08 @ 4:42PM
Well, Catholic Relief Services may be following the model of Christ, who fed the 5,000 before launching into the Sermon on the Mount.
But CRS, like a lot of other Catholic agencies, may also be sorta ashamed of its Catholicity. You never know these days.
BD57| 12.25.08 @ 7:16PM
Dionne's "faith" (liberalism, that is) routinely 'condemns, divides and denounces', so he can't really have a problem with that ....
J. Peter Freire| 12.25.08 @ 11:53PM
Well put, BD57. And dad29, that may also be the case. But I'm likely to just think it's Christians being ecumenical -- the way they're expected to be. But where's this pressure on other religions?
Dale| 12.26.08 @ 10:47AM
Why is E.J. Dionne worthy of a response?
Oops! I just did.
tomsbartoo| 12.26.08 @ 9:46PM
Just one thought on "feeding the hungry". If we fed the hungry because it's the pc thing to do, then that's one thing; but if feed the hungry because that's what Jesus wants us to do, then that's very different, and for the life of me I cannot equate supporting legislatively sponsered social programs that "feed the hungry" with our "non-voluntarily submitted" tax dollars, with that of an individual (such as you and me) voluntarily and independently "feeding the hungry".
The question is this: does Jesus want you and me to individually engage in the act of feeding the hungry; or does he simply want them fed? If we are to believe the liberal press and the MSM, they would say that it's up to government to "feed the hungry". I don't believe that. In fact, I read the biblical story of the feeding of the 5000, as Jesus telling us that if God simply wants to have people fed, he can do that himself anytime he wishes. But what he really wants from each and every one of us, individually (and not through government or Catholic Charities or the like), to personally do what we are able to do to help our fellow human beings. This, I realize, is very much contrary to what the governemt, the MsM and the churches of this country would have us believe.
tomsbar
VinceP1974| 12.27.08 @ 2:10AM
You guys should read Michael Oren's "Power, Faith and Fantasy. United States in the Middle East 1776 - Present".. it's a book about how involved we've been in the Middle East and Muslims since the very beginning of our nation.
Throughout the 1800s there have been streams of Protestant evangelicals who got the notion in thier minds to convert the Muslims... only to be faced with being attacked , killed, etc.. and having absolutely no luck,
So as time goes by the Christians decide the best way to turn the Middle East from a Klingon culture to something more civilized is spread the religion of America as opposed to the religion of Christ. That's when universities and hospitals were constructed all throughout the Ottoman Caliphate as it was waning.
We taught them ideas like Nationalism. We modernized them to the extent that they were able to be. An early encounter with a Christian doctor by a certain Saud was a key factor in America getting Saudi Arabia's oil concession decades later.
And going back before the Civil War, the Christians were more Zionists than the Jews were. The Christians of America felt that it was their destiny to enable the return of the Jewish people to the Land of Israel. That that was the special role that God has planned for the New World.
This belief goes right to the Puritans, through the Founding Fathers, into a George Bush of the 1800s who wrote a pamphlet about it right through to Harry Truman.
Mohunch| 12.27.08 @ 12:55PM
I'm reminded of the old saying: "Build a man a fire and he will be warm for a few hours. Set a man on fire and he will be warm for the rest of his life."