The Black Madonna

By a whisker

After my estrangement from my wife had begun, for a time we were still in contact while she had the children and I was trying to set up a home in another state. It was when she informed me that had converted and been baptised in the Mormon religion that I told her I could not tolerate her keeping the children any longer. After a few more weeks I brought them to live with me. (The whole story is a little more detailed, but perhaps not appropriate here.) Before I could pick them up, she had already brought them to several Sunday school classes at her new church. Since she eventually dropped Mormonism to become a Muslim, I often wonder if she would have tried to raise our children in that faith as well.

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Today's editorial in the Chicago Sun-Times makes me shudder to think what the results of that would have been.

What is happening in some American mosques, including a few in the Chicago area, is deeply disturbing. In certain Islamic schools, textbooks spit vitriol against Jews, Christians and other non-Muslims: "Be disassociated from the infidels, hate them for their religion." In mosque publications, America is the "Abode of the Infidel." The idea of human and civil rights is heresy. Working women are immoral.

These views are extreme, they promote violence and they are being espoused right under our noses. We knew this was happening in France, Germany and England but we didn't know the extent of the problem here. It is not happening in all mosques or Islamic schools, by any means, but in those select ones funded by the Saudi government to disseminate the fanatic Wahhabi-style Islam that has its demagogic roots in Saudi Arabia.

The Center for Religious Freedom just issued a discomfiting report looking at the spread of hate propaganda in America by Saudi Arabia. The center collected 200 books and other publications from mosques across the country and spent the past two years analyzing them.

"The Saudi textbooks and documents spread throughout American mosques preach a Nazi-like hatred for Jews, treat the forged Protocols of the Elders of Zion as historical fact, and avow that the Muslim's duty is to eliminate the state of Israel," writes Nina Shea, the Center's director. In addition, they "instill contempt for America because the United States is ruled by legislated civil law rather than by totalitarian Wahhabi-style Islamic law." Woe to Christians who should be actively hated because they stir up images of crusaders and colonists and because they are "enemies to Allah, his Prophet and believers." Woe to Muslims who advance tolerance and human rights -- they, too, are infidels. Woe to homosexuals or heterosexuals who have sex outside marriage -- it is considered "lawful" to kill them.

As we recall today that we are but dust, please say a special prayer for the children who are not able to get a decent education, especially those who are treated as less than dust in their indoctrination to a faith that teaches them to hate and murder their fellow man, and to commit suicide while doing it.

But by the grace of God, those are not my children.

hattip: Cox & Forkum

Is my chalice too half-full?

An article from FOXNews reports that the parents of faithful Catholics want a homosexual couple's adopted children expelled.

The group demanded that St. John the Baptist School in Costa Mesa accept only families that pledge to abide by Catholic teachings, the Los Angeles Times reported in Sunday's editions. Church doctrine opposes gay relationships and adoption by same-sex couples.

"The teachings of the church seem to have been abandoned," John R. Nixon told the Times. "We send our children to a Catholic school because we expect and demand that the teachings of our church will be adhered to."

First of all, perhaps these parents weren't aware of all the Jewish kids who are (and for many years have been) enrolled in Catholic schools. Their parents, like many Catholic parents, want their kids to get a decent education, and respect the job Catholic parochial schools do. But when Jewish parents are strong in their faith, they might not have a problem sending their child to Catholic school, even as it immerses them in Catholic tradition and doctrine. It's just a matter of teaching the child to respect another person's beliefs while standing true to one's own.

And here's my problem with these parents. The children in question are spending 30-40 hours a week with teachers, students, and administrators in a school run by a faith that teaches that homosexual conduct is a sin. These children certainly aren't going to get that message at home. The parents and children of this school have a unique opportunity to practice their faith by inviting these men and the children they are rearing to continue to learn and understand the Catholic faith - while firmly rejecting the homosexual lifestyle they embrace.

The church should be stronger than this. It doesn't need to ostracize these people to prove the point. In fact, by failing to welcome the people while rejecting the sin, the other parents are doing far more harm than good. To those who don't understand the Truth of the Catholic teaching, they probably appear bigoted and judgemental. That's the only way the homosexuals win in this situation.