Lilla, Politics of God, NYT, August 19, 2007

August 19, 2007 Religion and Politics, Christian Right, Islamism beyond the Shibboleths, Fundamentalism No Comments

Mark Lilla, Politics of God, New York Times, August 19, 2007
Today, we have progressed to the point where our problems again resemble those of the 16th century, as we find ourselves entangled in conflicts over competing revelations, dogmatic purity and divine duty. We in the West are disturbed and confused. Though we have our own fundamentalists, we find it incomprehensible that theological ideas still stir up messianic passions, leaving societies in ruin. We had assumed this was no longer possible, that human beings had learned to separate religious questions from political ones, that fanaticism was dead. We were wrong.

Fifth Dalai Lama, Make the children and grandchildren like eggs smashed against rocks

August 19, 2007 Tibetan Resistance to Chinese Occupation, Buddhism and Violence, Religion and Genocide No Comments

 

Fifth Dalai Lama’s instructions to repress Tibetan rebels, issued in 1660:

Make the male lines like trees that have had their roots cut;

Make the female lines like brooks that have dried up in winter;

Make the children and grandchildren like eggs smashed against rocks;

Make the servants and followers like heaps of grass consumed by fire; …

In short, annihilate any traces of them, even their name

 

(Kiernan, Blood and Soil, 6)

Charles Marsh, God and country, The Boston Globe, July 8, 2007

August 19, 2007 Religious Moderates Criticize Fundamentalists, Militant Fundamentalists versus Moderate Evangelicals, Soldiers Willing to Die for God and Country, Christian Right and the Military, Religion and Nationalism, Christian Right No Comments

Marsh, Evangelicals against the Iraq war, The Boston Globe, July 8, 2007