The New York Times pays Ross Douthat to write this crap.
It's hard to make progress in the middle east and all of our varied wars around the globe when idiots like this are all too happy to oblige Osama Bin Laden and act like we're on some new "crusade" ordered by the frickin' Pope.
I'm afraid I'm at a loss with your ire on this one. I don't see a problem tightening up the "troops" in this instance. What are we supposed to do? Nothing? Not ratchet up our game (our game presumptively being "Christianity") in the face of a mounting opposing religion? I think it's beyond saying that this is another one of those areas we will fail to agree, which is no surprise, but still, I'm not finding the crusade language here that you're talking about. I'm not Catholic, but the Pope doesn't appear to be talking to non-Christians or the conversion of those people, but rather, directly to Christians. I can see how such a rally cry might cause some alarm, but I don't think there is really a problem here. Does progress in the middle east mean we lay down our own religious beliefs, pay complete homage to theirs (because we already know they won't do the same) and think everything will be okay? When we're talking fundamentalists, Christian, Islam, whatever, we know they are playing a zero sum game. And I'm pretty sure Bin Laden is playing that same game. Not sticking to our proverbial religious guns in this instance will do nothing. We don't do anything, we lose, we do do something, we lose. Because, I doubt Bin Laden is about diplomacy. He's about supremacy.
I'm afraid I'm at a loss with your ire on this one. I don't see a problem tightening up the "troops" in this instance. What are we supposed to do? Nothing? Not ratchet up our game (our game presumptively being "Christianity") in the face of a mounting opposing religion? I think it's beyond saying that this is another one of those areas we will fail to agree, which is no surprise, but still, I'm not finding the crusade language here that you're talking about. I'm not Catholic, but the Pope doesn't appear to be talking to non-Christians or the conversion of those people, but rather, directly to Christians. I can see how such a rally cry might cause some alarm, but I don't think there is really a problem here. Does progress in the middle east mean we lay down our own religious beliefs, pay complete homage to theirs (because we already know they won't do the same) and think everything will be okay? When we're talking fundamentalists, Christian, Islam, whatever, we know they are playing a zero sum game. And I'm pretty sure Bin Laden is playing that same game. Not sticking to our proverbial religious guns in this instance will do nothing. We don't do anything, we lose, we do do something, we lose. Because, I doubt Bin Laden is about diplomacy. He's about supremacy.
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