Month: March 2006

The case of Abdul Rahman is a fascinating one because it exposes the heart of a large segment of Islam. The notion of religious freedom is simply not there for many Muslims, and this is allied, in some of the more backward parts of the world, with a pathological attraction to violence. Here’s an AP story that illustrates the chasm:

"Senior Muslim clerics said Thursday that Rahman must be executed and if the government caves into Western pressure and frees him they will incite people to "pull him into pieces." Four senior clerics interviewed by The Associated Press in their mosques in Kabul agreed Rahman deserved to be killed for his conversion. "He is not crazy. He went in front of the media and confessed to being a Christian," said Hamidullah, chief cleric at Haji Yacob Mosque.
"The government is scared of the international community. But the people will kill him if he is freed."
"He is not mad. The government is playing games. The people will not be fooled," said Abdul Raoulf, cleric at Herati Mosque. "This is humiliating for Islam … Cut off his head."

I know there are moderate Muslims. I know that in Malaysia, Turkey, Indonesia and India, for example, these kinds of views are not common. I also know that it wasn’t that long ago that Christians held similar views about heretics or Jews, and that today’s fundamentalist Christianity is often supportive of the death penalty and torture. But that a religious faith contains this kind of fanatical intolerance and violence anywhere is disturbing. It’s barbaric. And it is in the Middle East that this kind of theocratic fascism is ascendant.

(Photo: Veronique de Viguerie/WPN.)

Chuck Todd suspects that they have completely different bases of support. Rudy is getting support from the Bush base, Todd argues, but he thinks most Giuliani supporters haven’t yet got a clue that Rudy is pro-choice, socially tolerant of gays, and in favor of some gun control. Rudy’s a Bush proxy – but a very fragile one. McCain’s supporters, on the other hand, know exactly what they think about him, and his current support is solid. That leaves a potential pool of Bush groupies up for grabs. McCain’s pandering to Bush makes even more sense now, doesn’t it?

According to this study, atheists are the most distrusted minority in American society. They’re lower down the totem poll than Muslims, gays or recent immigrants. (Gee, I’m two out of three.) I’m not an atheist but my last boyfriend was; and he was and is a great and moral guy. If you were to listen to O’Reilly, you’d think atheists run this country and Christians are persecuted. The opposite is closer to the truth. Religious freedom must emphatically include the right to believe in nothing at all. I wish our president said that more often.

The latest development in the South Park-Scientology battle is the revelation that Chef may never have actually said the words about South Park’s "bigotry" attributed to him. Those words allegedly came from Scientologist, Christina "Kumi" Kimball, a fashion executive for designer Craig Taylor, according to Fox News’ Roger Friedman. Friedman adds:

The only good news in this story is that Isaac, according to friends, is doing very well. He’s attending to business and getting back on his feet. Hopefully, he’ll be dishing up Chef like a gourmet again in no time.

Here’s hoping. Down with the Super Adventure Club!

Well, Will Ferrell doing an impersonation. Certainly made me laugh.

"So hard at best is the lot of man, and so great is the beauty he can apprehend, that only a religious conception of things can take in the extremes and meet the case. Our lifetimes have seen the opening of abysses before which the mind quails. But it seems to me there are a few things everyone can humbly try to hold onto: love and mercy (and humor) in day-to-day living; the quest for exact truth in language and affairs of the intellect; self-recollection or prayer; and the peace, the composed energy of art," – Robert Fitzgerald, Harvard poet and classics translator, from "The Third Kind of Knowledge, Memoirs & Selected Writings."

A reader writes:

"I am rapidly losing my hair and have a neatly trimmed beard. I’m 28 and married to a beautiful woman. She finds my baldness "distinguished" and the beard sexy. It’s not just for gays, Andrew. The revolution is everywhere! PS: My back is also extremely hairy. She loves that, too!"

What a woman.

"Throw a bash at the White House advertised as the bash to end all bashes. Have only neocons. They are a terrible-looking bunch, so I’d get off the wagon, if I were you. Make sure there is plenty to eat because of John (four dinners) Podhoretz. Then, as midnight strikes, have Big Julie from Chicago come in and do his thing. Rataatatatattatat … You know what I mean. It’s the only chance you have to go up in the polls." – Taki Theodoracopulos, giving the president advice, from the London Spectator (sub req).

Yesterday, I expressed puzzlement and depression at the polling news that American Christians are more likely than non-religious Americans to support the Bush policy of torturing and abusing military detainees. A reader objects:

"If you think about it, the results are not so surprising.
Consider:  forced conversions ("you can die of hunger or convert"), the Salem witch trials, the Inquisitions. And I would not be at all surprised to learn that Christians favor the death penalty more than non-Christians.
I think it not unfair to say that Christianity, unlike, say, Buddhism, contains or permits belief systems that support horrific means for just ends. Heresy is, thus, grounds for burning at the stake. An "eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth". Attacking the USA (satan vs. saint) is grounds for torture.
To be honest, I am more horrified by the support for torture from people such as Alan Dershowitz who really should know better."

All I can say is that faith founded genuinely on Jesus could not begin to endorse such a concept (which is why I find Bush’s endorsement of it so troubling). But then Christianity’s history shows, alas, that Jesus’ followers have not exactly always been faithful to his teachings. Today’s age of politicized and intolerant Christianism seems to me to be one of those moments when Christianity has estranged itself most thoroughly from the priorities and spirit of its founder. But this will pass. Christianity will survive Christianism. Some true followers of Jesus will recover their faith from Caesar’s grip at some point.

Well, he can indeed reach a point where he’s writing sentences like:

While Saletan cites my “Here Come the Brides,” he doesn’t talk about the most potentially stable form of multi-partner union: a man and two bisexual women. That union does reduce jealously, and also points to the potentially powerful bisexual constituency for multi-partner unions.

Ah, yes, that powerful female bisexual community! We all tremble in fear of its revolutionary potential. (And this is finally what Kurtz’s loopy argument against gay marriage via polygamy comes down to.) Funny how after observing gay politics closely for almost two decades, the bi "community" has always felt itself to be a bit player, ignored and condescended to by gays and lesbians and the transgendered. If they haven’t sadly mustered much clout within the gay movement, does Kurtz really believe they are about to storm the barricades of society as a whole? Or are we really dealing with someone here who is now chasing his own ideological fantasies? If you want to read a reasonable discussion of the issues, try Will Saletan.