St. Matthew's Monastery in Kurdish Iraq, one of the oldest Christian Institutions in the world, was built by Christians fleeing persecution in 363 AD. Today, 16 centuries later, Christians are once again seeking shelter there. In the last decade it has been estimated that half the Christians have left Iraq. Since the Baghdad Church bombing in October, some Christians are afraid to be seen wearing a cross; Others have fled with little more than the clothes on their back. Pray for them.
St. Matthew's is part of the Syriac Orthodox Church
The persecution of Christians, the few who have not left yet, is another unintended consequence of our invasion of Iraq. History will judge our actions there but for me it is another warning against hubris in foreign policy.
ReplyDeletegary, as you well know, the Christians are not being killed by american soldiers. the blame rests solely on those doing the killing, nobody else. i understand the excuse of a power void. yes, saddam could chop off enough hands to discourage some other violence. Christians are also dying in other countries, to similar silence.
ReplyDeleteMM: Your response to me is illustrative of a basic difference between us. You seem to believe, as you do in Israel, that if one engages in an action that is justified and as a result another commits an injustice, then the responsibility for the injustice lies solely with the second party.
ReplyDeletegary, I don't understand the morality of your point of view. for instance, in Lebanon, they blamed ariel sharon for not stopping the local lebanese militia from killing palestinian refugees. you want to blame the united states for the killing of christians in iraq. your premise is that the killers cannot control their impulses, and are therefore not wholly responsible. that's one step away from blaming the victims.
ReplyDeleteMy point is not that "killers cannot control their impulses." My point is that if I give a gun to a killer and he kills someone with my gun, am I culpable? When a nation-state creates conditions that any reasonable person would see as contributing to violence and turpitude, it is, in part, culpable!
ReplyDeletegary, i reject your premise in both lebanon and iraq. neither israel or united states can be culpable for violence which has been going on long before their mission. your analogy is flawed, nobody gave weapons. you might say the policeman wasn't on duty, but does that justify the killer? christians have been an endangered species there for a long time. i can only imagine the world anger if those deaths were caused by jews instead of muslims.
ReplyDeleteThere must be some misunderstanding here.
ReplyDeleteIslam is the religon of peace and tolerance, or so I am constantly told.
Heck, just ask the Emam who wants to build a Victory Mosque at Ground Zero for 9/11 Disaster...
"..... the blame rests solely on those doing the killing, nobody else." I reject your statement, particularly the term "solely." We all must look into our behavior to see if we contributed to the killing. The United States and Israel, and I might say the British during the 1940s, contributed to the violence in the Middle East. The Israelis want a secure state at almost any cost. The United States has wanted cheap oil. And the British in vain were trying to keep an empire. These are some, not all, of the causes of the violence in the Middle East. Simply blaming the current crop of "killers" ignores history. By the way I do not condone killing of innocent persons whether Christian, Muslim or Jews!
ReplyDeleteDear Apologist,
ReplyDeleteI can categorically state that I have absolutely no responsibility for the Baghdad Church bombing in October whatsoever.
None, zero, zip, zilch.
Now, you, on the other hand, sound like you have some sort of guilty conscience about something...
Did you send money to some "charitable" organization only to find out later the cash was spent to manufacture the bomb for the October Baghdad Church incident or something?