Posted on 11/24/2007 11:42:20 PM PST by Roberts
THE Archbishop of Canterbury has said that the United States wields its power in a way that is worse than Britain during its imperial heyday.
Rowan Williams claimed that Americas attempt to intervene overseas by clearing the decks with a quick burst of violent action had led to the worst of all worlds.
In a wide-ranging interview with a British Muslim magazine, the Anglican leader linked criticism of the United States to one of his most pessimistic declarations about the state of western civilisation.
He said the crisis was caused not just by Americas actions but also by its misguided sense of its own mission. He poured scorn on the chosen nation myth of America, meaning that what happens in America is very much at the heart of Gods purpose for humanity.
Williams went beyond his previous critique of the conduct of the war on terror, saying the United States had lost the moral high ground since September 11. He urged it to launch a generous and intelligent programme of aid directed to the societies that have been ravaged; a check on the economic exploitation of defeated territories; a demilitarisation of their presence.
He went on to suggest that the West was fundamentally adrift: Our modern western definition of humanity is clearly not working very well. There is something about western modernity which really does eat away at the soul.
Williams suggested American leadership had broken down: We have only one global hegemonic power. It is not accumulating territory: it is trying to accumulate influence and control. Thats not working.
He contrasted it unfavourably with how the British Empire governed India. It is one thing to take over a territory and then pour energy and resources into administering it and normalising it. Rightly or wrongly, thats what the British Empire did in India, for example.
It is another thing to go in on the assumption that a quick burst of violent action will somehow clear the decks and that you can move on and other people will put it back together Iraq, for example.
In the interview in Emel, a Muslim lifestyle magazine, Williams makes only mild criticisms of the Islamic world. He said the Muslim world must acknowledge that its political solutions were not the most impressive.
He commends the Muslim practice of praying five times a day, which he says allows the remembrance of God to be built in deeply in their daily rhythm.
If I recall, Canterbury did a lot of oppression and persecution on the English people which explains why many fled to America in the 16th to 18th century. Many of them were non-Anglican. People talk about slave reparations and by that thinking, whites should sue Canterbury for what they did to their ancestors. Slave reparations has already been done in the form of Liberia and Sierra Leone because many former slaves wanted to go back to Africa. America is not the worst imperialist when compared to other nations. China and Japan come to mind and they were outright imperialists and did that many times in history.
In all honesty people (especially people in the Anglican church) should do some research on where the church came from and why. Then they will know why anybody who has looked it up does not really care what the Archbishop of Canterbury says.
All I have to say about it is, wow, it is good to be king.
No, the worst of all worlds would be allowing nuclear proliferation throughout the Muslim world. ...a state of affairs that would one day assuredly lead to the incineration of everything this naive fool of an archbishop holds dear.
The U.S. is trying to prevent that from happening, so he'd be wise to just shut his piehole and be appreciative. ...privately, if he's shy about it.
certainly most great regional and continental powers throughout world history were during their respective expansionist period. from the Assyrians to the Zulus and everyone in between, including The USA.
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