Cowardly Pope "Profoundly Respects" Murderous Muslims

Chill, would you?

You seem to have little understanding of the very dangerous and absolutely necessary game the Pope is playing. He personally is putting his life on the line as well as endangering the lives of the clergy he is responsible for and his flock which numbers over a billion people. He is laying the foundation for a grand turn of the Catholic Church and has been doing so for some time now.

You have to first of all understand that the geopolitical game, for a Pope, is a sideshow. It is a secondary line in the symphony that is Catholicism. He is seeking as a primary line to awaken the world an especially to reawaken the West to Jesus and, as an aside, to write in his own blood if necessary the important message that we need to awaken to the dangerously distorted message that Islam brings.

The man is a warrior fighting a battle that you can barely perceive. Give him the respect he is due. When he says he respects Islam he says nothing wrong. After all, the crusaders certainly respected Saladin. Such respect is not an occasion for conversion but, perhaps, one for dialogue.

TML: Strange, but it appears that the Pope is doing the exact opposite of what you suggest. (Though I don't know what you mean by "grand turn".)

1. He isn't putting his life on the line, he's trying to save his butt by backpedaling.

2. He seems very reluctant to call Islam's message dangerous or distorted. Even fearful.

3. You seem to be perceiving his "respect" differently than how he has described it. He isn't saying he respects them as a formidable opponent, but rather that he respects Islam as a fellow-traveler that shares many of the same goals and aspirations as Christianity (which it clearly does not). Read the quote up there again and ask yourself whether or not Islam is committed to even one thing on the Pope's list.

I would say that this quote:

"profound respect for the great religions, particularly for Muslims, who worship the one God and with whom we are committed to defending and promoting together social justice, moral values, peace and freedom for all humanity."

Shows that the Pope is either ignorant (which I highly doubt) or he is trying to appease the Muslim wrath. Muslims don't worship the same "one God" as Christians and definitely don't share the same values, not in any sense of the word or in any context on any level. He is playing a dangerous game trying to ride the fence. We should just call it like it is: Islam is a cult and sham.

I guess you could say this is a parallel to the Vatican's muted resistance or reaction to the Holocaust when it was ongoing.

Like others have said, I think it is just an attempt at self-preservation, not just for the Pope, but his entire flock around the globe. Unlike our diplomats, the clergy and nuns don't have a team of Marines to protect them at foreign missions.

Bush hasn't gone all politically incorrect with the Muzzies either. Until our gov't is ready to fight a real, brutal "clash of civilizations" against all of them, our leaders can't say anything that'll piss off the "moderate" Muslim leaders (think Pakistan and Jordan) that we're allying with and buying oil from. That's why he says Islam isn't the enemy, but "extremist Islam" is.

I dunno if I would call this cowardly yet. This Pope is a smart guy. It could be the first move in a rope-a-dope strategy or something.

TM Lutas: you're exactly right... Michael, you should show some respect for the Pope. His words are saving innocent lives whether you like them or not. No I dont like them either, theres a part of me that wants the pope just to lay it on the Muslims and let them know that Mohammed was a false prophet and that the entire religion is a sham and purely evil and pretty much only an idiot would believe in it... But without even insulting the false religion you saw what kind of violence these Muslims did. Just dont go around bashing the pope and calling him a coward just because you disagree with his actions.

The grand idea the pope was promoting was this: Christians are not devoted to God enough, but Muslims are irrationally devoted. He was trying to emphasize the good thinking of Christians and the strong faith of Muslims. He did not anticipate he backlash.

Now he is trying to do damage control, and it's sad to watch.

Tim: Yes, the easiest thing to do when facing a bully is to submit so he won't hurt you. I don't think this is a great plan for the long-term though, unless you want everyone to convert to Islam. Sometimes you have to fight for what you believe in, even if people get hurt or killed.

Michael Williams - One billion people don't turn on a dime. The "grand turn" I referred to was the psychological and practical preparations needed for a new phase in confronting Islam.

As for risking himself, if you haven't noticed, he has been getting death threats and being warned off going to Turkey. He's going to Turkey. He's not making a great big fuss over how brave he is by doing it. He's just going. I have no doubt that very emotional people are saying to him on a frequent basis that he's signing his own death warrant by doing so. But he's going.

For a Catholic, all non-Catholic messages are dangerous to some extent. The dangers of going outside the visible Church are so much a given that, again, I think you just might be missing that message.

Islam is dangerous in this sense but he's not going to emphasize Islam's danger to the soul over anything else that might send one to Hell. Nobody's sins are privileged even if harping on a certain set short term makes for good war propaganda. The game he's playing has more scope and must stand the test of time.

The grand prize is to open islamic countries as a venue where evangelization and conversion can occur without threat to life and limb for either pastor or new christian. An Islam that could tolerate that is one that isn't going to tolerate crashing planes into buildings.

We shouldn't be trying to corner Islam so we ultimately have to commit genocide. We need to always offer a way out, an honorable escape so that those that die really did choose it. This is *important* over the long term.

The truth is that day-to-day muslims are not all crazy knife wielding explode-a-dopes and we do an injustice if we ignore that. Muslim policy on respecting one's parents, on pornography, on extra-marital sex may differ in terms of what to do about it but there's agreement that they're all problems. Don't ask the Pope to commit injustice by ignoring such common ground. When such things have happened in the past, it's never ended well.

6Kings - Actually what the Pope is doing with that quote is building a bridge so that muslims may cross it and become christians. He's saying "here's what you don't have to give up if you switch" and making that list the entirety of what many muslims see is good in their own faith.

reagan80 - I suggest you read a bit more of the Papal statements of the time. Mit Brennender Sorge is probably a good place to start. Just a sample:

11. None but superficial minds could stumble into concepts of a national God, of a national religion; or attempt to lock within the frontiers of a single people, within the narrow limits of a single race, God, the Creator of the universe, King and Legislator of all nations before whose immensity they are "as a drop of a bucket" (Isaiah xI, 15).

We are not there yet with respect to Islam that such a statement can be made. The ground must be prepared. Benedict XVI is doing the prep work for his own, or a later Pope's statement.

David Diel - It's not so much damage control as pacing control. The Pope wants to progress his argument at a certain pace. The muslims are attempting to disrupt the pace, accelerating things before he is ready. So he cools things down to his own pace and moves forward to plan.

This sort of activity is similar to Al Queda's attempts against the US. They attempt to create so many fronts that they can concentrate forces on one front and win while we are spread too thin to counter everywhere. This is why we are not in Lebanon. This is why we are not in Darfur. I hate the fact that people are dying in Darfur but I won't lose the broader war over it. The Pope is faced with similar choices.

TML: I hear what you're saying, but what about the people who are threatened now? Sure, it would be nice to evangelize Muslims (I was praying for that just last night), but there are people being oppressed and going to hell now, as well as a grave threat to our civilization now.

Michael Williams - Sorry for the delay, I've been tied up. The short answer is war sucks and sometimes you're tasked to do holding actions. Sometimes holding actions last to the last man.

For too much of the Eastern Church It's tell the Spartans time. It's been tell the Spartans for *centuries*. I come from this section of the Church. I read my history and know what's going to come down on our heads.

But even christians can say molon labe. As I said from the first, Benedict is playing a very dangerous and necessary game.