In a bizarre turn toward the strange, Rosie O'Donnell and violent Islamic clerics across the world bound themselves together this week in a bit of ideology that not only defied common sense but is also insanely wrong.
Muslims who are brainwashed by their spiritual leaders in countries where free and independent education is unavailable to a certain extent explains how easily they can be whipped into a frothy frenzy over the pope quoting from a historical debate. But what's Rosie's excuse?
On Wednesday the big-mouthed-wonder uttered, "And as a result of the (9-11) attack and the killing of 3,000 innocent people, we invaded two countries and killed innocent people."
She went on to add, "Radical Christianity is just as threatening as radical Islam in a country like America where we have separation of church and state."
The profound ignorance of the statements not only reveals Rosie's absolute incapacity to comprehend the serious matter of the war on terror, but more importantly the eternal issue of her soul.
In comparing the harshest moments of the historical crusades, Rosie's point would have still been amiss, but notice she specified the type of Christianity she considers dangerous, the kind of Christianity that we have in America.
Pardon me for brushing aside a lot of speculation and getting straight to the issue: Rosie hates evangelicals. The kinds of Christians that scare her most are the radical ones. Roughly translated, that means the ones who actually live by what they believe.
Herein is part of the difference between the ignorant Muslim-rent-a-mobs that objected to the pope and O'Donnell. Muslims lie about what they believe. But if you look carefully enough – or just ask any Islamic scholar who will tell you the truth – you'll discover the Quran advocates the killing of the infidels. And in Islam's case, that includes anyone who doesn't convert to Islam.
Rosie refuses to recognize that Muslims whose doctrine calls for them to kill us are attempting to do just that, while at the same time evangelical Christians share a theology that speaks to the need for grace to those who are in danger, and mercy for those who repent. There are thousands of Christian pastors who even this day are prepared to launch their congregations into tremendous acts of compassion for those needing emergency help and care. Juan Williams, an NPR liberal, detailed as much to me this week as well as in his new book, "Enough," in the immediate aftermath of Katrina.
But the easy comparisons aside, Rosie's statement says much more about her own belief system.
It tells us, for example, that she doesn't have a relationship with God. She has no discernment between the exclusive claims of the God of the Bible and Allah of the Quran. More importantly, she doesn't care to have one, so anything that God may have to say about her life, how she should live and what is best for her becomes increasingly irrelevant.
It also tells us that she knows nothing of history or the formation of Islam itself. The fact that Muhammad was a jealous soul who sought to have a larger following than some of his contemporaries who spoke of Jesus is important in its context. The fact that Muhammad in essence had to create his own God to compete with the "God of the book" and the "people of the book," demonstrates the man-made-ness of Islam as opposed to the claims of divine origin for Jews and Christians. But this too is lost on Rosie.
Finally, Rosie's statement also reveals a deep-seated anger against a group of people that believe in moral absolutes. The idea of an objective source by which we can understand the difference between right and wrong is a concept that people like Rosie run from. It scares them, and the only way they can respond is in emotional anger toward the reality they cannot change.
In the world Rosie would like to live in, she wishes there would be no evil. In acknowledging that there is as much, she is also admitting to a greater moral structure that she must measure herself by each day, and in that she falls short – as do we all.
Rosie lives the way mankind always has when God is rejected. They convince themselves that if no one gets hurt by what they do, then there is no such thing as right or wrong. So secrets are made, deeds are engaged in and illicit sin holds a sway over their lives to the point where boldness begins to be craved.
Convinced over a long enough period of time that the deeds they know to be wrong will not harm them, they wish to force the rest of society to agree with them. The most important object in their way becomes the voices of those who would remind them that what they are doing is not good for them. And their most important goal becomes to equivocate or eliminate those voices.
Rosie is angry with radical Christians because radical Christians know a peace and resolve about their life that she has yet to find. She believes "radical Christianity" is dangerous because she views it as something that will limit her ability to do what she wishes.
What she doesn't understand is the incredible freedom she would find in embracing it.
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