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Thursday, November 11, 2004

BLEEDING HART-FELT HERESY:

Much like Tony Scalia's brethren in Opus Dei, liberals are busy flagellating themselves with guilt about not reaching out to faith-based voters. The Yellow Doggerel Democrat points to a New Sodom Times op-ed by Gary Hart. In a triumph of chutzpah, the man who sailed the Monkey Business off the political map points to his Nazarene upbringing and education as cover for his call to advocate liberal policies in the name of religion, trying to co-opt the Founders to criticize Our Noble Lame Duck.
Neither Washington, Adams, Madison nor Jefferson saw America as the world's avenging angel. Any notion of going abroad seeking demons to destroy concerned them above all else.
No doubt, for two reasons. They were at most nominal Church of England refugees, seriously infected with the virus of Eighteenth Century Enlightenment Deism. They also had no power to go on crusades. As you can read at Dean Esmay's site, they felt they had to go on paying protection money to Muslim pirates in north Africa, until the War of 1812 built up our Navy and Marines enough to defeat those Extortionists of Peace.
The religions of Abraham all teach a sense of personal and collective humility. ... Whether Bush supporters care or not, people around the world now see America as arrogant, self-righteous and superior. These are not qualities of any traditional faith I am aware of.
That "religions of Abraham" is a sneaky way of smuggling Islam into the discussion, just as Mohammed's minions sometimes refer greedily to all the "people of the Book". Hart's unawareness is a result of his origins in a post-Lutheran schismatic sect. Had his ancestors remained united in one church he would have realized that head nuns are called "Mother Superiors" because they have a lot to be self-righteous about. (Would he prefer being "self-erroneous"?)

Consider the history of the Albigensian Crusade, beginning in 1204. Fortunately, the "Angelic Doctor", who imposed rigid Aristotelian "logic" and its obstructive requirements of "proof" before finding heretics guilty, was not even born for another two decades. This window of opportunity was put to good use by Pope Innocent III. He made Arnaud-Amaury, the Abbot of Cîteaux, his legate to begin purging southern France of Catharism. Excommunications proving inadequate, in 1209 that Cistercian directed crusaders to begin war against the traitors. In July they besieged the the rebel city of Béziers, and demanded that the enemies of the church be turned over to them. When this was refused, they conquered the city.
When asked by one of the crusader warriors about the possible killing of Catholics along with the heretic Cathars, Arnaud-Amaury is supposed to have delivered his nefarious [sic] statement "Kill them all! God will recognize His own!" Accounts vary as to the numbered slaughtered (10,000 to 20,000, with just over 200 estimated to have been Cathars) in this, the bloodiest and first, battle of the crusade. The massacre frightened many other towns to surrender without resistance.
The clueless former playboy Senator should pay attention to this genuine example of Christian humility. The Abbot did not arrogantly claim to have the wisdom to judge who was truly devout, but left that decision in the hands of a greater power. Had I been in charge after 9-11, I would have displayed a similar humility in dealing with the terrorists. If the Taliban refused to turn over Osama, I would not have tried to figure out who in Kabul was guilty. I would have nuked the whole city, and offered the remnants of the country another chance.

Any hypothetical good people among the incinerated would be "taken to Abraham's bosom", perhaps (depending on which church's teachings you adhere to) after a pause in Purgatory. The slaughter would have been the same kind of excellent example as the massacre at Béziers. One need only have the faith of a grain of plutonium, and trust in the Deity to split the sheep and the goats posthumously.

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