Dialog International

Pope Benedict XVI's Terrible Prayer

So far Pope Benedict's trip to the United States has gone rather well.  His meeting with the Boston victims of the sexual abuse scandal was unexpected and no doubt helped to restore the Church's standing with American Catholics.  Der Spiegel even seemed to detect some veiled criticisms of President Bush in his remarks at the White House. They quote Benedict:

"Die Kirche ist überzeugt,… , dass Demokratie nur blühen kann, wenn die politischen Führer sich von der Wahrheit leiten lassen und ihre Weisheit auf moralische Grundsätze aufbauen." Die verlogene Begründung des Irak-Kriegs - Vizepräsident Dick Cheney und Außenministerin Condoleezza Rice sitzen unter den Ehrengästen in der ersten Reihe - kann damit nicht gemeint sein. ("The Church is convinced that Democracy can only blossom when the political leaders are guided by the truth and base their wisdom on moral principles."  He could not have been referring to the dishonest reasons for starting the Iraq War.  Vice President Dick Cheney and Secretary of State Condoleezza RIce were among the guests of honor in the front row.)

But Benedict will have other wounds to heal on the rest of his stay when he visits a synagogue on Friday and meets with Jewish leaders in Washington DC and New York City.  With just two Latin sentences in his Good Friday prayer Benedict has dealt an enormous setback to Church relations with Jews:

Oremus et pro Iudaeis: Ut Deus et Dominus noster illuminet corda eorum, ut agnoscant Iesum Christum salvatorem omnium hominum. (Oremus. Flectamus genua. Levate.) Omnipotens sempiterne Deus, qui vis ut omnes homines salvi fiant et ad agnitionem veritatis veniant, concede propitius, ut plenitudine gentium in Ecclesiam Tuam intrante omnis Israel salvus fiat. Per Christum Dominum nostrum. Amen.

(Let us also pray for the Jews: That our God and Lord may illuminate their hearts, that they acknowledge Jesus Christ is the Savior of all men. (Let us pray. Kneel. Rise.) Almighty and eternal God, who want that all men be saved and come to the recognition of the truth, propitiously grant that even as the fulness of the peoples enters Thy Church, all Israel be saved. Through Christ Our Lord. Amen.)

Now I have nothing against any religion asserting its own primacy and ownership of the truth.  And anyone who is in possession of the Truth obviously wants to share the Good News with others and convince them of the superiority of their viewpoint.  Conversions and proselytizing are a necessary feature of any religious organization that doesn't wish extinction. But it is incomprehensible to me that Benedict would single out the Jews for conversion - especially in a Good Friday prayer when for centuries Catholics blamed all Jews for the crucifixion of Christ. Why not extend the prayer of conversion to all non-Catholics - including Protestants, Muslims, Atheists, etc?

Can there be any question as to why Charlotte Knobloch, president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, chooses to sever all ties and discontinue dialogue with the Vatican and the Catholic Church?

"As long as Pope Benedict does not return to the previous wording, I assume that there will not be any further dialogue [such as we had] in the past," said Knobloch.

The best book about the shameful history of the Catholic Church's relationship with the Jews through the centuries is James Carroll's Constantine's Sword: The Chuch and the Jews  - a History. Carroll is a former Catholic priest, and his account is intensely personal even as he examines a legacy that goes back to the early church and the crusades. 

"There is no apology for Holy Week preaching that prompted pogroms until Holy Week liturgies, sermons, and readings have been purged of the anti-Jewish slanders that sent the mobs rushing out of church.... Forgiveness for the sin of anti-Semitism presumes a promise to dismantle all that makes it possible." (James Carroll - Constantine's Sword)

UPDATE: James Carroll on Benedict and the Holocaust.

Lenten Reading: Pope Benedict XVI's Jesus of Nazareth

I am very late to the table in commenting on this book, which was published last spring and is now an astonishing bestseller in Germany: over half a million copies sold in the "land of the empty churches".  Jesus of Nazareth is an elegantly written book - as we have have come to expect from Benedict/Ratzinger - which is at once eminently readable and intellectually challenging. (It would be nice to think that all of the people who bought the book actually read it, but I wonder.) It is a book that will delight not just Catholics (I am not Catholic) but any Christian, or anyone interested in understanding the Christian faith and the meaning of the Gospels.

In his preface, Benedict writes that his book "is in no way exercise of the magisterium, but is solely an expression of my personal search ... Everyone is free, then, to contradict me."  I will take him at his word, even though I note that any critics among the 1000 reader reviews on Amazon.com have been excoriated as hostile detractors of the Holy Father or even blasphemers.

Empty Churches, Also in America

American conservatives have always mocked Europe for its lack of religiosity.  The US is superior to Europe because Americans are more religious and attend church.  The empty churches in Europe reflect the post-modernist "relativism" of Europeans, as the European continent (Eurabia) is overrun by fervent Muslims.  The Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney recently mocked European godlessness as he put forward his vision of a faith-based presidency:

"Europe's cathedrals are indeed "so inspired, so grand, so empty," as Mitt Romney, a Mormon, put it .... Some do not survive at all. The Continent has paid a heavy price in blood for religious fervor and decided some time ago, as a French king once put it, that "Paris is well worth a Mass."

Romney, a Republican candidate for the presidency and former Massachusetts governor, was dismissive of European societies "too busy or too 'enlightened' to venture inside and kneel in prayer." In so doing, he pointed to what has become the principal trans-Atlantic cultural divide."

But Romney failed in his bid for the presidency, and American churches - according to a new poll - are emptying out:

"A new map of faith in the United States shows a nation constantly shifting amid religious choices, unaware or unconcerned with doctrinal distinctions. Unbelief is on the rise. And immigration is introducing new faces in the pews, new cultural concerns, new forces in the public square.

Key findings from the survey:

Faith is fluid: 44 percent say they're no longer tied to the religious or secular upbringing of their childhood. They've changed religions or denominations, adopted a faith for the first time or abandoned any affiliation altogether.

"Nothing" matters: 12.1 percent say their religious identity is "nothing in particular," outranking every denomination and tradition except Catholics (23.9 percent) and all groups of Baptists (17.2 percent).

here are as many self-proclaimed pagans (0.3 percent) as there are Disciples of Christ, Orthodox Jews, or Greek Orthodox.

Nearly 20 percent of all men and 13 percent of all women are unaffiliated. So are 25 percent of adults under age 30.

The major Christian denominations are losing numbers fast. Only nondenominational Christian churches showed growth outpacing losses. "Two in three people who say they grew up as Jehovah's Witnesses have left the faith. Any one of 10 people you meet is a former Catholic," Lugo says.

The two groups who identified with "Nothing in particular" now match or outstrip the two largest mainline Protestant groups. The percentage of "secular unaffiliated" (6.3 percent), who say religion is unimportant to them, is statistically the same as Methodists (6.2 percent).The "religious unaffiliated" (5.8 percent), who say they believe religion is at least somewhat important, now outnumber Lutherans (4.6 percent).

The good news here is that there really is no longer a  monolithic "Religious Right" in the US: that group of gay-hating, war-loving Americans that propelled George  W. Bush to the presidency.  Evangelicals are now a far more  diverse group, with  younger Christians now much more concerned about  issues like poverty, global warming and social justice.  The candidacy of Republican Mike Huckabee also shows that there is some support in America for the concept of Christian Democracy, although its time may have passed as more and more Americans turn away from religion altogether.  In this development, America looks more and more like Europe.

Denigration of Islam ....and Barack Obama

Watchblog Islamophobie links to a TV interview with German hate-blogger Stefan Herre, whose blog Politically Incorrect is a flash point for anti-Muslim sentiment in Germany.  In the interview, Herre says "Islam is not a religion, rather it is an ideology of violence". The reporter also quotes Herre as stating that Senator Barack Obama is a "secret Muslim".  In blog post on Politically Incorrect Herre writes that Barack Obama lied about visiting a mosque and that he is a "racist".  The comments that follow are filled with hate against Muslims and Barack Obama.

Herre's big hero is President George W. Bush. Is he aware that President Bush also - to his great credit - visited a mosque?  Will Herre have to remove the American flag from his blog in one year, when President Obama takes office?

In a great op/ed piece in today's Boston Globe, former Roman Catholic priest James Carroll had this to say about Barack Obama and Islam:

In last week's debate, moderator Brian Williams put to Barack Obama a question about Internet rumors that claim he is a Muslim. The tone of the question suggested that Obama was being accused of something heinous. He replied with a simple affirmation that he is a Christian. He did not then ask, "And what would be wrong if I were a Muslim?" Had he done so, it seems clear, he would have cost himself votes in the present climate.

The denigration of Islam has unfortunately become a fixture in what passes today for political discourse in America.

n recent years, the public realm has been invaded by a certain kind of narrow Christian enthusiasm, made up partly of triumphalistic self-aggrandizement (exclusive salvation), and partly of the impulse to denigrate other religions, especially Islam.

Today America celebrates Martin Luther King Day.  It was completely appropriate for Senator Obama to deliver a speech in Dr. King's church in Atlanta where he stressed unity.  It is a magnificent speech.  You can read it here and watch the video here. Here is a brief excerpt:

"Unity is the great need of the hour - the great need of this hour. Not because it sounds pleasant or because it makes us feel good, but because it's the only way we can overcome the essential deficit that exists in this country.

I'm not talking about a budget deficit. I'm not talking about a trade deficit. I'm not talking about a deficit of good ideas or new plans.

I'm talking about a moral deficit. I'm talking about an empathy deficit. I'm taking about an inability to recognize ourselves in one another; to understand that we are our brother's keeper; we are our sister's keeper; that, in the words of Dr. King, we are all tied together in a single garment of destiny."

Muslims in Germany

I may never have the time to read the entire 500-page report Muslime in Deutschland (pdf) which was commissioned by the German ministery of the interior and prepared by the Institute of Criminology at the University of Hamburg, but it is interesting to read the reception in the German media. Apparently both Islamophobes and Muslims alike can find data in the report to support their position.

The tone of the reception has been strongly influenced by interior minister Wolgang Schäuble's foreward to the report: "Liebe Leserinnen und Leser, der weltweit operierende islamistische Terrorismus ist heute eine der größten Gefahren für unsere Sicherheit." (Dear Reader, the worldwide-operating Islamic terrorism is one of the greatest threats to our security today) Schäuble has been sounding the alarm of homegrown terrorism in Germany for years, using this as a pretext for systematically dismantling civil liberties (Stasi 2.0).  The report showed that 6% of the approx. 3 million Muslims living in Germany would consider violence as an acceptable solution. The right-wing noise machine immediately kicked in: "180.000 Muslims in Germany are willing to commit violence in the name of Islam" was the headline in the right wing Pajamas Media. Politicians immediately began to exploit the report's finding, with Bavaria's interior minister Joachim Herrmann demanding that all Muslims in Germany sign a Pledge renouncing violence (Gewaltverzichtserklärung ).

Those that actually read the report came away with a different conclusion.  The vast majority of Muslims reject violence; the number of violence prone Muslims is no greater than the right-wing extemists who routinely carry out attacks on foreigners in Saxony. Indeed, Eberhard Seidel, writing in the Tageszeitung, sees uncomfortable similarities between Muslims and non-Muslims in Germany:

"(the report's) results show that considerable similarities exist between the attitude of a minority of Muslims and the authoritarianism, intolerance, xenophobia and extreme right wing mentality among young Germans. The sole difference: in the one case the ideology of inequality is based on religion, in the other on nationalism. This data and the questions raised could open a new chapter in the social sciences."

The report does expose a huge problem for Germany with respect to the integration of its Muslim population. Even third generation Muslims in Germany feel socially excluded, even though they were born in Germany, attend German schools and speak German as their first language. They are German, but they feel like foreigners in their own country and consequently turn to Islam.  Especially students, the report shows, see themselves as collective victims of global anti-Islamic sentiment, increasing the risk of radicalization. Hopefully this report will initiate a new national discussion in Germany on the persistent barriers to integration of its minorities.

For German readers, Telepolis has a good and objective analysis of the report.

God is Dangerous

In his speech earlier this month defending his Mormon faith, Republican candidate for president Mitt Romney made the following preposterous statement: "Freedom requires religion just as religion requires freedom".  Later in his speech Romney urged that Americans reject the "religion of secularism", fueling the culture wars between the faithful and non-believers.  This kind of rhetoric disturbs the sociologist Ulrich Beck, who in an essay in Die Zeit (not available online) - Gott ist gefährlich (God is Dangerouss) warns that religion is, at its core, a totalitarian enterprise:

"Religion setzt ein Merkmal absolut - glauben. Alle anderen sozialen Unterschiede und Gegensätze sind daran gemessen unerheblich. Das Neue Testament sagt: 'Vor Gott sind alle gleich.' Diese Gleichheit, diese Aufhebung der Grenzen, die Menschen, Gruppen, Gesellschaften, Kulturen trennen, ist die Gesellschaftsgrundlage der (christlichen) Religionen. Die Folge allerdings ist: Mit derselben Absolutheit, mit der Unterscheidungen des Sozialen und Politischen aufgehoben werden, wird eine neue Fundamentalunterscheidung und Hierarchie in die Welt gesetzt - die zwischen Gläubigen und Ungläubigen." ("Religion is by nature absolute: its core is faith. All other social differences and contradictions are unimportant by comparison. The New Testament says: 'All are equal in the eyes of God.' This equality, this rejection of boundaries that separate people, groups, societies and cultures, is the societal foundation of (Christian) religions. But the result is that the very same absolutism that abolishes social and political differences establishes a new fundamentalism and hierarchy in the world: the one between believers versus non-believers."

in the same speech Mitt Romney contrasted the vibrant religiosity of American life with the churhes and cathedrals of Europe, which stand "so grand, so inspired, so empty."  America, Romney warns, must not embrace the secularism of Europe. (Why Europe is so terrible, he didn't say). Those empty churches in Germany also bother Klaus Motschmann, who, in the radical right-wing weekly Junge Freiheit, proclaims that the "the Church and the Volk"  (I get queasy when I read stuff like this) must return to the core message of Evangelium. The German Volk has been betrayed by the current leaders of the church, who have delivered them to the "magic world" of secular socialism:

Selbst Bischöfe, zahlreiche Pfarrer, Religionslehrer und kirchliche Publizisten bekennen, daß sie nicht mehr an die „Wunderwelt des Neuen Testaments“ glauben können. Sie tragen damit zu immer weiterer diabolischer Verwirrung unseres Volkes bei und damit zur Bestätigung des Glaubens an die „Wunderwelt“ des Sozialismus. (Even bishops, numerous priests, religious instructors and writers confess that they can no longer believe in the "magic world" of the New Testament. They thereby contribute to the diabolical confusion of our Volk and confirm their belief in the "magic world" of socialism.)

Looks like Mitt Romney and Klaus Motschmann have much in common. 

 

Spe salvi (In Hope We Are Saved)

Pope Benedict XVI released his second Enclyclical yesterday just in time for Advent, the season of hope and expectation. It is a worthy successor to Deus caritas est. The title is a quotation from the 8th chapter of St. Paul's epistle to the Romans: Spe salvi facti sumus-- "For in this hope we were saved." The 76-page document, presented in 8 chapters, is a historical analysis of the Christian meaning of hope and the rise of secularist ideology. I have only read the english version once, but I will have to read it several times - as well as read the original German. The Encylical covers an enormous terrain of modern thought and historical teachings of the church.

Like in the first Encyclical, Benedict reveals his mastery of theology and modern philosophy by returning to Augustine, Bacon, Kant and Marx. But there are some delightful surprises as well: Benedict has studied the critical theory of the Frankfurt School, and cites approvingly the Negative Dialectics of Theodor Adorno as well as the work of Max Horkheimer.  Spes salvi reaches its crescendo, however, with quotations from a letter from Hell about suffering in a concentration camp written by the Vietnamese martyr Paul Le-Bao-Tinh († 1857) before moving on to meditation on the true meaning of Grace illustrated by Dostoyevsky in The Brothers Karamazov!

Spes salvi is being hailed in the media as an attack on atheism.  And it is true that Benedict returns to his favorite theme of the interplay between reason and faith throughout modern history. He does not specifically cite Adorno and Horkheimers Dialectic of Enlightenment - which examines the destructive path of reason from the French Revolution to Auschwitz - but he lays the blame for most of the horrors of the 20th century at the the feet of secularist ideology.

What stood out for me at my first reading was Benedict's criticism of the notion of personal salvation, which core of American evangelical thinking, and which is preached each Sunday in the thousands of megachurches:

"How could the idea have developed that Jesus' message is narrowly individualistic and aimed only at each person singly? How did we arrive at this interpretation of the 'salvation of the soul' as a flight from responsibility for the whole, and how did we come to conceive the Christian project as a selfish search for salvation which rejects the idea of serving others?"

American evangelicalism is established around the question: What can God do for me? Evangelicals are told to establish a "personal relationship" with Christ the Savior, abandoning the the greater "news" of the Gospel. Benedict reminds us that early Christian prayer grew out of communal suffering:

"Being in communion with Jesus Christ draws us into his “being for all”; it makes it our own way of being. He commits us to live for others, but only through communion with him does it become possible truly to be there for others, for the whole."

Anyway, it is doubtful that many American evangelical Christians will bother to read Spes salvi, but they are missing Benedict's tantalizing glimpse of eternity.  Can the 81-year old pontiff be thinking about his own death?

"To imagine ourselves outside the temporality that imprisons us and in some way to sense that eternity is not an unending succession of days in the calendar, but something more like the supreme moment of satisfaction, in which totality embraces us and we embrace totality—this we can only attempt. It would be like plunging into the ocean of infinite love, a moment in which time—the before and after—no longer exists. We can only attempt to grasp the idea that such a moment is life in the full sense, a plunging ever anew into the vastness of being, in which we are simply overwhelmed with joy."

There is something for everybody in Spes salvi - even mystics.  I would like to compare Benedict's understanding of Christian hope with Juergen Moltmann's eschotology.

The German Anti-Islam Movement

The growing intolerance of Islam in Germany has caught the attention of the editors at The American Muslim (HT BigBerta).  Unlike in the US - where the neocon establishment in Washington leads the anti-Muslim charge - German Islamophobia is spread primarily through fundamentalist "Christian" organizations:

"Radical Christians are mobilising against Islam. “The groups may be small,” says Andreas Renz, in charge of interreligious dialogue at the Catholic Archdiocese of Munich, “but they exert an enormous amount of pressure with letters to newspapers, with telephone calls to the archdiocese and with their activities at public meetings. They create an atmosphere of insecurity and they do plenty of damage.”

While the two big churches in Germany, the Catholic and the Lutheran-reformed, aim to teach about Islam objectively, and while many communities are active in interreligious dialogue, fundamentalist Christians see Islam as the new threat to Europe. Andreas Renz believes they represent a broad spectrum, which stretches from the far right to the very centre of society. "

Appropriately, the editors of The American Muslim single out the German hate-blog Politically Incorrect as an important resource for the Islamophobic movment, for the site combines its hate with a right-wing glorification of war.

Although these right-wing populist opponents of Islam deny that they have anything to do with right-wing extremism, their websites include uncensored views which pander to the lowest possible instincts. The site http://www.politicallyincorrect.de is run by Stefan Herre, a Catholic primary school teacher from Bergisch-Gladbach near Cologne. The site has had over four million visitors. It includes an internet shop in which you can buy buttons and mugs with the slogan “Islamophobic – and proud of it.”

Also mentioned are the activities of the Evangelical Alliance in Germany.  More on this group and its leader Hartmut Steeb in a later post.

Art and "entartete Kultur"

Gerhard Richter recently unveiled his new spectacular abstract stained glass windows in the Cologne Cathedral. Richter explained the concept behind his creation:

72 shades of color, each appearing 72 time per level, “out of which the computer uses a random number generator to determine the color arrangement for one half of the cathedral window; the other half is a reflection of the first."

A complete view of the windows can be found here. The windows have been described as a "Symphony of Light" and have been praised lavishly by critics around the world.

The only dissonant note came from Cologne's Cardinal Meisner, who was so angered by the windows that he said "they belonged in a mosque".  Evidently consigning something to a mosque is a terrible insult.  But the good cardinal was just getting started. A couple of days later Meisner gave a sermon at the opening of a museum where he uttered these words - perhaps with Richter and his windows in mind:

Vergessen wir nicht, dass es einen unaufgebbaren Zusammenhang zwischen Kultur und Kult gibt. Dort, wo die Kultur vom Kultus, von der Gottesverehrung abgekoppelt wird, erstarrt der Kult im Ritualismus und die Kultur entartet. Sie verliert ihre Mitte.  ("When culture becomes disconnected from religion, from the worship of God, religion becomes ritualism and the culture becomes degenerate." )

The word "entartet" (degenerate) carries a specific historical meaning in German, for that is how the Nazi's described modern art - especially German expressionism. The 1937 Nazi art exhibit - Entartete Kunst (Degenerate Art) was a sensation, and meant that most of the great German painters could no longer work in Germany (This was a great bonanza for America, for we ended up with many of the paintings and artists ). Meisner may not have been intentionally referring to  Nazi art-appreciation, but he is prone to using inflammatory language, and this comes just a week after Eva Herman's disgraceful performance. Also, one has to question Meisner's appreciation for any art since at least 1800, when artists no longer saw their primary role as "worshipping God". It is perhaps not a coincidence that 1800 is also approximately the point in history when official Roman Catholic theology stopped developing. I like what one of Meisner's strongest critics - theologian Hans Küng had to say about the affair:

"All true art is about the meaning of life, but you can't ban artists from portraying chaos, ugliness and evil," said Kueng, who lives in Tuebingen, Germany.

Triumph of Christo-Fascism: Part III

Recently I wrote about how "Christian" activists disrupted the invocation by a Hindu cleric in the US senate. Now their German counterparts appear to be at work. As reported by the Sueddeutsche Zeitung, a group of activists caused a disturbance at a lecture by University of Erlangen law professor Matthias Rohe. Rohe has been an advocate for education on Islam in Bavaria:

Etwa sieben Personen hatten einen Vortrag des Erlanger Jura-Professors und Islamwissenschaftlers Mathias Rohe regelrecht gesprengt. Bei der Diskussionsrunde, berichtet Veranstalterin Margret Spohn von der Stelle für interkulturelle Arbeit der Stadt, wurden die Störer immer lauter. Sie hätten andere "niedergeschrien".

Als ein muslimischer Zuhörer ebenfalls in scharfem Tonfall antwortete, entstand ein Tumult. "Ich hatte Angst, dass es zu körperlichen Auseinandersetzungen kommen könnte", sagt die Organisatorin. Er sei von "pöbelhaften Herumschreiern" bedrängt worden, bestätigt auch Rohe. Schließlich brach Spohn die Veranstaltung vorzeitig ab. "Ich finde es entsetzlich, dass es in unserer Stadt Situationen gibt, in denen ein Redner nicht mehr reden kann", sagt sie.

A few days after this event, Professor Rohe received a death threat by email. Those who initiated the disturbance (but not the death threat) are apparently connected to a Christo-Fascist group which operates the Web site Deus Vult (loosely translated as "God's Will Be Done") a rallying cry for the early crusades.  The group condemns all Muslims who refuse to convert to Christianity and accept Jesus Christ as their savior.

Threatening emails seem to be more and more common for these "Christian" activists. After the UK site Islamophobia Watch linked to my post on Udo Ulfkotte I received this message from a fan in the UK:

"And you're an islamo-fascist-leninist-stalinist-nazi: true to all totalitarianisms. Let's hope that a 4 x 4 gives you a ride on the hood - with a very aprupt stop at a brick wall or a catapult over a railroad crossing, SOON - like today."

But it is hardly surprising that people feel perfectly comfortable sending such messages. After all, they see Islam "experts" such as Hans-Peter Raddatz on their television equating Islam with terror. Millions of Americans are treated to the hateful commentary of Glenn Beck on his nightly show on CNN Headline News. It is no longer feasible to openly express racism against African-Americans, but it is completely acceptable in US political discourse to demonize Muslims and homosexuals. The Republican Party has made this a cornerstone of the 2008 presidential campaign.  Republican Presidential candidate Tom Tancredo - hoping to gain traction with conservative voters - this week advocated bombing Muslim holy sites as a deterrent to prevent Islamic extremists from attacking the US.  This is consdered serious foreign policy by the American right.

Now the German site Watchblog Islamophobie has translated my post on Islamofascism, so I am eagerly awaiting more "fan mail" in my inbox.