Thursday, June 16, 2005

Thursday Miscellaneous Pope Blogging

I'd taken a bit of a break from the Papal Primers and I apologize. But, this post of Ezra's which was in response to a non-doughnut related joke insipiring post from foodtubicus maximus K-Lo, has made me realize I should get back to the blogging. And, perhaps, a Pope related post can explain my position.

The Original "Dear Leader", Pope Urban II.


By the way, he was...French

In 1094 or 1095, Alexios I Komnenos, the Byzantine emperor, sent a message to Urban II, asking for assistance of western europe against the Seljuk Turks. By this time the Seljuks had conqured nearly all of Asia Minor from the Byzantines. Taking a trip back to his native soil in France, at the council of Clermont Urban addressed a large crowd and and turned this into a way of uniting western europe, and he hoped all of christendom and urged everyone to march to the aid of the Greeks and to recover Palestine from the Muslims (it had been conqured a few centuries before).

Their are a few surviving accounts Urban speech, which, unlike the New Testiment, were actually written by men who were there to hear the speech. Given what stemmed from the speech it may be the most effective speech ever given, a portion:

Let those who have been accustomed unjustly to wage private warfare against the faithful now go against the infidels and end with victory this war which should have been begun long ago. Let those who for a long time, have been robbers, now become knights. Let those who have been fighting against their brothers and relatives now fight in a proper way against the barbarians. Let those who have been serving as mercenaries for small pay now obtain the eternal reward. Let those who have been wearing themselves out in both body and soul now work for a double honor.


In other words, stop killing each other and go kill the infidel! Christians versus Muslims! Within months tens of thousands of Christian crusaders, both nobles and knights and commoners were marching from Europe toward the Holy Land, with the occasional side trip to kill jews, muslims, or eastern orthodox christians.

That was 1095, by the Summer of 1099, Jerusalem and much of Palestine had been conquered by Western Christians.

Nine-Hundred and ten years later...

Most every utterance of Lopez and her ilk stems from "they hate us" so let's "kill 'em", and not precisely either, no it is an entire condemnation of the entire muslim world by a bunch of insulated, inexperienced and/or bitter loners, with virtually no experience in Islamic culture except what a bunch of similar thinkers tell them. They should be the LAST people ever consulted about anything, yet history seems to be replete with examples of such thug-thinking being the choice -- of both Christianity and Islam.

We've really progressed haven't we.

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