Friday, September 15, 2006

Oh, come on ... the sword is SO middle ages, don't you think?


Oopsie:

In his speech at the University of Regensburg, [Pope] Benedict quoted criticism of Islam and the Prophet Mohammad by 14th century Byzantine Emperor Manuel II Palaeologus, who wrote that everything Mohammad brought was evil and inhuman, "such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached".

Benedict repeatedly quoted Manuel’s argument that spreading the faith through violence is unreasonable, adding: "Violence is incompatible with the nature of God and the nature of the soul."

I'm not sure what the Pope was thinking when he criticized evangelism via the sword. After all, everyone knows the high-powered rifle is the weapon of choice for religious lunatics everywhere these days.

I mean, Muslims might get a bit temperamental at times but, come on, they're not Luddites.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

My, that /is/ a big glass house the Pope is standing in, isn't it?

Quoting a Byzantine Emperor (who apparently had gotten over the family pique at Constantipole being ruinously sacked by Crusading papist Christians a century before) whingeing about the Ottoman empire in between allying with its various Royals to keep them from interfering with his own God given right to militarily expand Byzantine territory (which for the most part, didn't recognize the Pope as head of the Christian world).

His Holiness forgot to mention the pacific evangelical education the western Catholic Church encouraged for Europeans they titled heretics up until the 1800s.

Or the Church's landing in the New World, where they enthusiastically converted the native inhabitants by continuous displays of lace tatting by nuns that were far superior to indigenous crafts.

Or...

Oh, nevermind. That was then, this is now. Do as he says, not as has been done. He wants to incite against Muslims of /today/, by flogging incredibly biased medieval sources? Yeah, that worked out really well in the former Yugoslavia. He'll reap everything he sows.