Posted on 01/07/2015 11:29:36 AM PST by Teófilo
Brethren, Peace be with you.
Today's Islamofascist terrorist attack in Paris, France must remind us that vigilance for the defense of liberty is no vice, but a virtue. However, the virtue will soon be under attack, not only by the Islamofascists themselves, but by domestic voices in Europe and in America seeking to limit our freedom of expression at the expense of Muslim susceptibilities here and over there.
Like my freedom to state that God is Great, yes, but that Muhammad is not his prophet, that Islam is humanity's one unnecessary religion, that the Koran is no more inspired than a phone book, and that the political order described in Islamic sources is a totalitarian system that, among other things, will treat non-Muslims as second-class citizens in their own countries. No, we can't have that for the sake of social peace, we can't point out the numerous shortcomings of Islam in its traditional sources of belief and social ordering for fear of "offending".
They'll take away that liberty only over my dead body.
I'm no fan of satirical writers or cartoonists who pursue ridicule and meanness for their own sake, but I want to exercise, freely and without coercion of any kind, my moral choice against them. I want no turbaned terrorist pointing a gun at me and ordering me to conform, or else. Nor do I want to submit to new canons of Political Correctness coercing me not to think certain thoughts or say certain things for peace's sake. If I choose not to read or watch mean-spirited parodies, I want to do it via my free exercise of moral choice; if I want to tell Muslims their religion is fatally flawed and that no one goes to the Father but through Jesus Christ, I have a right and duty to tell them and they have a right to listen to what I say and then to follow their own consciences without fear of the Islamic penalty for "apostasy" which is social and/or physical death.
I'll keep the victims of the Islamofascist terror attack in Paris in my prayers. To the the Islamofascists who kill those who exercise their freedom of speech, and to those who would want to limit my own freedom of speech in the pursuit of "niceness", I say:
Maybe we “crossed input in the ether”?
The statement I copied [I’m no fan of satirical writers or cartoonists who pursue ridicule and meanness for their own sake] appeared to be rather weak attack at “mean journalists” who ply their trade in a political world of jihad. The inclusion of “who pursue ridicule and meanness for their own sake” seems to whisper of an anti-first amendment consideration according to the US playground standard of “bullying”.
Yes, I know it is France but, even if a journalist champions communism, we are bound to, at a minimum, suffer such ignorance (not a slight to Teofilo but rather a slight to certain US journalists)
If Teofilo finds that an improper assessment, s/he has opportunity to defend [outside of the adhominem “troll” commen]. I just saw the included words to point to certain foreign journalists as “mean” which in today’s culture provides the first step to silencing opinion - - - even if that opinion is incorrect.
But you got to remember that what happened today is a harsh reminder of who is at war against humanity in general and the west in a special way.
Thank-you for your service to this country and God Bless.
It is a reminder to be thankful that the USA has Amendment 2 for this reason.
There is no God named Allah, and Mohammed is his false prophet.
Well, you did call me “stupid”...:-)
Hey, water under the bridge. OK?
Anyway, I would be the last person to attack the First Amendment. True, I don’t like mean satires and gratuitous insults, but speech is to be countered by speech, not by bullets. Nor will I allow a either a turbaned terrorist nor a theorist of political correctness to dictate my free moral choices and limit, through coercion or threats of bodily harm, what I am to read, think, or say.
As Catholic Christian, I am called not to be a jerk-ass toward my neighbor, regardless of my neighbor’s political or religious persuasion. Yet, also as a Catholic Christian of the school of St. John Paul II, I must make the free, informed choice for good against evil. Islam, in its traditional sources, as I read them, narrows considerably the room for free moral choice on things we should be free to choose. Islam does so by advocating the social, moral, or bodily killing of those who dare to question its foundations. As a Catholic citizen, I reject and oppose any movement, from whatever quarter, seeking to limit my scope of moral action and my free exercise of religion and religious expression.
At the same time, I’m called to be as meek as Jesus Christ. Holiness in our place and times means to carve out the sphere of liberty necessary for one to be as meek as Jesus Christ. Hence, the struggle for freedom of expression is tied to the free exercise of Christ’s summons to be meek and humble of heart. Thus, I won’t personally insult Muslims gratuitously, but if exercising and professing my faith openly bothers them, there’s nothing I can do about that. So be it.
+JMJ,
~Theo
It sounds like this person submitted already...Freedom of speech in the pursuit of 'niceness'??? We don't need niceness in dealing with Izlam...We need defenders, Champions...
Sorry.
My use of the term “stupid” was wrong.
You have FRmail.
People who want to limit one’s freedom of speech in pursuit of niceness are quite numerous, I tell you. I will not submit to them either.
“The mohammedans chose instead to murder them ... the mohammedans in turn should be hanged by the neck until they are dead.”
I’m sorry, but that won’t be enough. The mohammedans should be expelled from all civilized countries, down to the last infant.
“Yet, also as a Catholic Christian of the school of St. John Paul II, I must make the free, informed choice for good against evil.”
Umm...I’m pretty sure that idea has been around since long before the time of St. John Paul II. (Why does everybody think he was so great, anyway?)
Think of it as a “good first step” toward “reasonable mohammedan control” ...
;’}
Hey: guns don’t kill people; muzzies kill people.
The idea indeed was well before St. JPII, you are correct. His merit lies in the way he verbalized and communicated these eternal principles for our time. His greatness rested on that ability also.
~Theo
“His merit lies in the way he verbalized and communicated these eternal principles for our time. His greatness rested on that ability also.”
I have wondered for decades why he couldn’t have communicated—and enforced—what is perhaps the most pressing eternal principle of our time:
NO HOMOS.
Not in the seminaries, not in the schools, not in the monasteries and convents.
What would the Church look like today if he had done that?
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