The Race For Souls (Weekend Thread)

'The Adoration of the Name of Jesus' by El Greco 1578-80, National Gallery, London

 

The term, 'Southern Christians' needs our attention and Spengler's reminder of Philip Jenkins' fascinating book, 'The New Faces of Christianity: Believing the Bible in the Global South' is indeed timely. (You must read the entire article, and in particular the second page)

It is timely, because in these foreboding times, clarity of vision is of supreme importance, not least so as to overcome any feeling of despair, but instead, to refocus on how each and everyone of us can do his or her best to forge a better world for our children.

Programs, like the series at the Carnegie Council called 'The Resurgence of Religion in Politics', help us recapture the all important strategic overview, especially, when we are granted a rare understanding of the grand motivator, which is driving key strategic decisions of foe and friend alike:

The fact is, that the race for souls in the most populous parts of the world is won by Christianity.

The distinguished Professor of History and Religious Studies at Pennsylvania State University, Philip Jenkins doesn't tell us what spurs Thug-In-Chief Ahmadinejad, but his statistics do:

In fact, if you want to project the countries in the world that will have the largest numbers of Christians by 2050, here's one projection. At the head of the list would still be the United States, followed, in no particular order, by Brazil, Mexico, Nigeria, the Congo, Ethiopia, the Philippines, and China. Let me give you a list of the countries that were not included in that list: Britain, France, Spain, Italy. Is anyone here old enough to remember something called "Western Christianity?" [...]

Well, if this was just a change of geography, a change of ethnicity, then it would be interesting. But I'm suggesting that it is rather more than that, because   the kinds of Christianity that are growing in the Global South—a term by which I mean Africa, Asia, Latin America—are different from what we are used to in the Global North. They are much more enthusiastic; they are much more supernatural-oriented; they have much more of a belief in trans-stream vision, prophecy. [...]

The sooner we understand that our Thug-In-Chief is performing to all Muslims across the globe, we realize his ambition to counter Professor Jenkins' projections.

Anti-Western rage fueled the 1979 Iranian revolution, and Mr. Ahmadinejad has tried to rekindle its energy by spreading Iran’s influence beyond its borders. Battling Washington, chiding Arab leaders and claiming to promote the Palestinian cause have made him extremely popular on the streets from Cairo to Morocco. [...]

Others see an even more ambitious post-Iraq agenda reflected in Mr. Ahmadinejad’s high profile on the issues of Jews, the Holocaust and Israel.

“It is for public consumption in Arab countries,” said Mustafa El-Labbad, editor of Sharqnameh, a magazine specializing in Iranian affairs and published in Cairo. “It is specifically directed toward deepening the gap between the people and their regimes and toward embarrassing the rulers so that the regional power vacuum, especially after Iraq, can be filled by Iran.”

Or, you could call it Phase-1 in his master plan. Controlling Middle Eastern Oil supplies by toppling one regime after the other, is the starting point in his quest for the creation of a global, Shi'a dominated, caliphate (don't miss Andy McCarthy's succinct summary of Arthur Herman's action plan against the Mullahcracy).

Asia, and China in particular, depend on Arab Oil; a dependency, which our Thug-In-Chief certainly intends to put to good use (all it take is a Chinese UN-veto to ensure the continuing slaughter of Christians by Muslim Jihadists on the African continent). For his vision to succeed, he must reverse the rise of Christianity amongst his favorite demographic, the poor in the South; those, who can be most effectively inculcated with Islam's murderous teachings, namely Jihadist doctrines. Professor Jenkins continues:

Let me stress one word. When we look at the emerging Christianity which will be such a force in the 21st century, there is one word I stress: poverty. The average Christian in the world today is a very poor person, inconceivably poor by American or European standards.

If you look at the world's poorest today, then I suggest a rather surprising observation. The largest single religion among the poorest is not Islam, it is not Hinduism. It is Christianity. The problem of extreme poverty in the world is, above all, a Christian issue. This radically affects the way in which people read the Bible, a book which was written by and for a very poor community.

Jenkins' research explains also otherwise often hard to understand motivators for us 'civilized' Christians, that are guiding our friends at the Vatican, most of all the Holy Father, in matters of abortion, birth control and homosexuality: 'Southern Christians', and in particular those in sub-Saharan Africa reject, what Spengler terms, the 'issue of syncretism'.

The Christian problem of having one's cake and eating it, too. Christians too often wish to keep one foot in their Gentile past and another in the Kingdom of God. This dichotomy, I have argued on previous occasions, ultimately doomed European Christianity.

The Vatican knows, that it must resist liberal re-interpretation of biblical doctrine to avoid losing appeal to millions of Southern Christians and potential converts - over 6 million Muslims convert to Christianity every year.

Despite the fact that Muslims by virtue of being poor and uneducated are much more reproductive than others, Islam as a religion is not growing but dying fast.

More and more Muslims are discovering that the violence evinced by some of their coreligionists is not an aberration but is inspired by the teachings of the Quran and the examples set by its author. Muslims are becoming disillusioned with Islam.

No small surprise, especially when you read the whole transcript of Professor Jenkins's lecture; you will understand why both the Old and the New Testament have such a strong appeal in poverty stricken, predominantly agrarian communities in Africa and Asia; and why our Thug-In-Chief is in such desperate need to whip up hype to distract from his domestic morass (let me just mention the fast spreading news of the already widely known hypocrisy on Iranian streets, which basically reduces Islamic clerics to nothing more than dirty little pimps), why he is afraid that he is loosing the battle for souls.

I leave you in hope that like me, you too take courage from more myth destroying gems courtesy of Professor Jenkins:

One of the most important changes around much of the world in the last decade or so has been the spread of sub-replacement fertility. [...] In the last twenty years, the birth rate in Iran, for example, has fallen from six children per woman to two. So the United States now has a higher fertility rate than Iran.

Most Muslim countries in the Near East and North Africa are now rapidly approaching European birth rates—Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco. All these countries are now heading basically for Spanish and Italian rates—not just without government encouragement, but despite government encouragement in many cases to do the opposite. The places that still have the very high rates in the Muslim world are places like—well, you can guess—Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia, the Gaza Strip.

So that [the spread of sub-replacement fertility] is spreading as a global factor right now.

No wonder, why Thug-In-Chief Ahmadinejad and his fellow Islamofascists are so hell-bent on keeping at least Iraqis, Afghans, Somalis and Palestinians under their draconian yoke - otherwise, who would be left to strap their suicide belt on, other than some of our disgruntled academics...

Comments

[Andrea]

Ghost Dansing - I initially found your long post engaging, until I read the absolutely glaring error that in effect destroys your entire premise. You said, "Unlike Christianity or Judaism, Islam has no ritual of sacrifice, nor does it need one, for the sacrifice that Islam demands is that of the Muslim himself" ... but in fact Muslims just finished celebrating Eid al-Adha, or Feast of Sacrifice - it was on December 30th this year, the day Saddam Hussein was killed (which has angered many Muslims. I will admit what doesn't but perhaps it was not the wisest course of action) Anyways, I digress....

Here is some informationon Eid al-Adha: "It is the most important feast of the Muslim calendar. It concludes the Pilgrimage to Mecca. Eid al-Adha lasts for three days and commemorates Ibraham's (Abraham) willingness to obey God by sacrificing his son. Muslims believe the son to be Ishmael rather than Isaac as told in the Old Testament. Ishmael is considered the forefather of the Arabs. According to the Koran, Ibrahim was about to sacrifice his son when a voice from heaven stopped him and allowed him to sacrifice a ram instead.

The feast re-enacts Ibrahim's obedience by sacrificing a cow or ram. The family eats about a third of the meal and donates the rest to the poor."
,

[Alexandra]

LilMissIndie,

Thank you. This is such a multi-faceted, multi-layered, fascinating subject that I sincerely hope we can dig deeper. The main links should be read in full, they really are a brilliant read.

[LilMissIndie]

In the last twenty years, the birth rate in Iran, for example, has fallen from six children per woman to two. So the United States now has a higher fertility rate than Iran.

Well, we know that TIC Ahamdinejad is well aware of that, is indeed worried, and is encouraging Iranians to have more children (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10663272).

Alexandra, welcome back. Your excitement at being able to take part in your own blog comments is evident in your "tone". This post is just crackling with energy!

[Ghost Dansing]

Thanks for the clarification gringoman... see, here now I thought you were simply being sexist. :)

[gringoman]

From GD,....and why is gringoman always making reference to male body parts?

From gringoman:... GD, Even if that were a question for you to be asking Alexandra--- which I believe it is not--- you should understand that gringoisms like "Ahmanites," "deracinated gentiles," "Mullah Bomb," "Madeleine Notsobright," "Kim So Ill," "Schicklegruber" etc etc are not references to male body parts, no matter what you may think or fantasize. If you need further assistance, check with a reliable dictionary. If that still doesn't settle it for you, go to wikipedia, especially if you can find any of it that's been professionally edited.

[Ghost Dansing]

Thanks Alexandra... Since we were talking about conversion, missionaries, El Greco in Spain and religion I was going to discuss the Reconquista... but then I heard that song on XM radio and thought... WOW... human issues really don't change that much over large expanses of time... and here we are, 21st Century Space Monkey's still doing wars, blaming God and misunderstanding our own religions.

Somebody get me my club... and why is gringoman always making reference to male body parts? If he thinks for one minute that females cannot display aggressive tendencies... well, he should just study a little more about Madelaine Albright. Testosterone is not the savior of civilization that he suggests.

Anyway... I should have said something about the Reconquista... and maybe the Inquisition, because the Iberian peninsula is so kewl:

"The Reconquista (English: Reconquest) was the process encompassing almost 8 centuries, by which the Christian kingdoms of northern Hispania (modern Portugal and Spain) reconquered the Iberian peninsula from the Muslim and Moorish states of Al-Ándalus. The Umayyad conquest of Hispania from the Visigoths occurred during the early 8th century, and the Reconquista is commonly considered to have begun almost immediately in 722, with the Battle of Covadonga, and completed in 1492, with the Conquest of Granada...

In the High Middle Ages, the fight against the Moors in the Iberian Peninsula became linked to the fight of the whole of Christendom. The Reconquista was originally a mere war of conquest. It only later underwent a significant shift in meaning toward a religiously justified war of liberation (see the Augustinian concept of a Just War). The papacy and the influential Abbey of Cluny in Burgundy not only justified the anti-Islamic acts of war but actively encouraged Christian knights to seek armed confrontation with Moorish "infidels" instead of with each other. From the 11th Century onwards indulgences were granted: In 1064 Pope Alexander II promised the participants of an expedition against Barbastro a collective indulgence 30 years before Pope Urban II called the First Crusade. Not until 1095 and the Council of Clermont did the Reconquista amalgamate the conflicting concepts of a peaceful pilgrimage and armed kight-errantry.

Spanish Reconquest. Monasterio de Uclés.Cuenca. Spain.But the papacy left no doubt about the heavenly reward for knights fighting for Christ (militia Christi): in a letter, Urban II tried to persuade the reconquistadores fighting at Tarragona to stay in the Peninsula and not to join the armed pilgrimage to liberate Jerusalem since their contribution for Christianity was equally important. The pope promised them the same rewarding indulgence that awaited the first crusaders.

Later military orders like the order of Santiago, Montesa, Order of Calatrava and the Knights Templar were founded or called to fight in Iberia. The Popes called the knights of Europe to the Crusades in the peninsula. After the so called Disaster of Alarcos, French, Navarrese, Castilian, Portuguese and Aragonese armies united against the Muslim forces in the massive battle of Las Navas de Tolosa (1212). The big territories awarded to military orders and nobles were the origin of the latifundia in today's Andalusia and Extremadura, in Spain, and Alentejo, in Portugal."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reconquista

Don't forget to look at the You Tube I posted with the lyrics... the performance is much better than simply reading the lyrics cold.

[gringoman]

This post and much of the commentariat have inspired gringoVision to a new description for the gringoman.com link to ATB. Not that the previous one was inadequate for All Things Beautiful: 'Alexandra von Maltzan means it.' Still, more could be said, and now it will be. The new tag:

Alexandra von Maltzan's Christian miracle: Western Civilization re-discovers both its visual splendor and testicles.

[Alexandra]

So here's the thing Ghost, I think to myself "Do I let you goof off like this and fill up a page with lyrics momentarily breaking off dialogue, or do I simply delete? Then I realize where would we be if we didn't have our resident liberal keeping our 'libertarian-conservative leaning towards bellicose' views in check, and making sure that we don't all end up killing each other...and then I delete anyway. Well, perhaps not this time.

[Ghost Dansing]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=feT7bzBhkLI&mode=related&search=

Many years ago he looked out through a glassless window.
All that he could see was Babylon.
Beautiful green fields and dreams,
And learn to measure the stars.
But there was a worry in his heart.

He said,
How could it come to this?
I'm really worried about living.

How could it come to this?
Yeah I really want to know about this.
Is it like today?

Then there came a day.
It moved out 'cross the Mediterranean.
Came to western isles and the Greek young men.
And with their silver beards they laughed
At the unknown universe.
They could sit and guess God's name.

Then there followed days of Kings, Empires and revolution.
Blood just looks the same when you open the veins.
But sometimes it was faith, power or reason as the cornerstone.
But the furrowed brow has never left his face.

Then there came a day, man packed up,
Flew off from the planet.
He went to the moon,
Now he's out in space,
Hey, fixing all the problems.
He comes face to face with God.

How could it come to this?
I'm really worried 'bout my creation.
How did it comes to this?
You 're really killing me, you know.
It isn't just today?
Is it like today?
Is it like today?
Bang!

Lyrics By World Party
"Is It Like Today"
http://www.completealbumlyrics.com/lyric/113318/World+Party+-+Is+it+like+today%3F.html

[Ernesto Ribeiro]

"Ahmadinejad chooses a logical group... the poor, they are who he might be able to convert to his radical type of Islam."

Michael,

The poor always the "logical group" chosen by Jesus, too.

But the ISLAMIC poor are SO able to convert to his radical type of Islam AS the middle-class 19 terrorists of 9/11. AND the rich Masters of Evil leaders of Al-Qaeda.

The "radical type of Islam" is accessible by EVERY social class. The REAL requirement for being a terrorist is the same: EVIL.

[Alexandra]

John,

El Greco was in Spain at the time, and although there are no records suggesting this, the painting would most probably have been commissioned for Phillip II, suggesting the figure to be an important Spaniard, if not the King himself.

[72nd TCS]

Alexandra,

Thank you for the link to Spengler.  A new one on me, but he seems to be well worth careful attention. Also, the faithfreedom.org report of Al-Jazeera's interview--Al Qataani bemoaning the wave of apostasy to Christianity-- was heartening.  Isaac S. now has the link to the full Arabic version.  I hope he can do something with it. Any scrap of good news from that part of the world deserves full exposure.

By the way, who is the central character--in ruff and black cloak--in the El Greco? Bears a passing resemblance to Titian's portrait of Charles V?

[Alexandra]

Wahrheit, good to see you we've missed you....

Red Violin,

This is so up your street, I hope you had the chance to read the links in full. This was one of those posts I could easily have made into three or four posts, with these incredible links. You will find interesting the one I refer to in the comment to Alex below.

Thanks Alex,

I love the Caravaggio on your site, he really is one of my very favorite old masters. Btw, I hope you had the chance to read the entire Spengler I linked to, and a couple of the other links like the one referring to the sale of the Muslim women under "....basically reduces Islamic clerics to nothing more than dirty little pimps" and the link to "over 6 million Muslims convert to Christianity every year"

[Alex]

Hey Alexandra,

I have just recently been introduced to your blog and, like many others, it has become my favorite website. I'm glad to see that you are so prolific, this tells me that I don't have to wait weeks for new material like at other blogs.

I sure hope you and Jenkins are right about the vitality of Christianity in the Southern Hemisphere, and the decline of Islam. I am convinced that Islam is a 'religion' (I'd prefer to call it a cult) of hate. You know there is something wrong when imams can justify their ideology with words from the Koran.

But the post made my day (it was a rough one). Thanks for allowing me to go to bed happy. Keep up the good work!

Alex
wwww.vaduboard.blogspot.com

[Red Violin]

Most excellent post, Alexandra. Reading your essay reminded me of what Khomeini in almost all of his speeches use to say, "Islam is in danger". In fact, many people in Iran are converting either to christianity or zoroastrian. Thank you for reminding us of the big picture.

[Mike Anderson]

Alexandra:

Glad you liked the ATB description on my blogroll, but I must confess I swiped it from Gerard van der Leun at American Digest. He put me hip to your site, and I immediately added it to my Bloglines.

I was so taken by the Rubens illustrating your previous post that I went searching for online images and found the Web Gallery of Art (http://www.wga.hu/) -- stunning!. My statistics students will be getting a healthy dose of the Italian Renaissance for the next few years. Thanks for the prod.

[Ghost Dansing]

There are some very interesting anthropological comments regarding African receptivity to Christianity, provided in the book review found on the far end of Alexandra's URL. http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Front_Page/HL12Aa01.html

BOOK REVIEW
A new Jerusalem in sub-Saharan Africa
The New Faces of Christianity: Believing the Bible in the Global South by Philip Jenkins

Reviewed by Spengler

..."The disintegration of tribal society provides part of the explanation. Another, and more profound, reason for African affinity to the Old Testament may be the influence of North American evangelical currents in African conversion. The missionaries sent by colonial powers - Catholic, Anglican, and to a lesser extent Lutheran - have been overtaken by denominations of North American origin, notably the Pentecostals, who now number 350 million worldwide. US evangelical Christianity, I have tried to show, is unique in its identification with Israel, for Americans selected themselves out from among the nations, and crossed the oceans to come to a New Land in emulation of the Tribes of Israel crossing the Jordan into Canaan."

"Evangelical Christianity centers on the rebirth of the individual out of his sinful, Gentile origin into Israel, into the People of God, by the miracle of Christ's blood. The prestige of American Christianity more than the mere primitivism of African life may explain why Africans have so little trouble with the Old Testament."

"Africans' appreciation of the concept of blood sacrifice is a source of wonder for Professor Jenkins. He observes:

'Only readers in a culture familiar with sacrificial tradition are in a position to appreciate fully the numerous allusions to this practice throughout the New Testament. A quick search of the New Testament produces over 90 uses of the word "blood", not counting cognates or related concepts such as altar and lamb, so it is scarcely an exaggeration to describe the text as soaked with blood.

...Appropriately, evangelical religion, with its central notion of being saved in the blood, has exercised immense appeal in modern Africa. Recall the impact of hymns like the "Tukutendereza Yesu", the song of the blood of the lamb.'"...

"One dies a vicarious death in order to secure eternal life," I wrote under the title The blood is the life, Mr Rumsfeld! (October 12, 2005): (Spengler)

Unlike Christians or Jews, whose religions are based on vicarious sacrifice, Islam demands the self-sacrifice of its adherents, in keeping with its essentially militant character. Revealed religion puts blood at a distance; Abraham sacrifices a ram and spares his son Isaac, and God sacrifices his own son in order to spare humankind. That is why blood in Judaism became taboo, to be handled only by the priest or his surrogate, the ritual butcher. Usually a Catholic priest administers the Eucharist. Unlike Christianity or Judaism, Islam has no ritual of sacrifice, nor does it need one, for the sacrifice that Islam demands is that of the Muslim himself.

To sacrifice one's self for one's kind is the sine qua non of pagan cultures; revealed religion (Judaism and Christianity), unlike Islam, exempts the individual from this terrible requirement. Islam represents the last defense of traditional society with its demand for self-sacrifice of every adherent, uniting the tribes into the ummah whose definitive sacrament is jihad. Christianity lifts the mortal decree for those who repudiate traditional society, that is, abandon their own ethnicity for a new and universal ethnicity, namely that of Israel."

Some would say:

"Religious propitiation and sacrifice - near-universals of religious practice - are acts of submission to a dominant being and dominance hierarchy..."

http://www.secularhumanism.org/library/fi/hunt_19_3.html

And of interest:

"When most people think of Judaism in black Africa, they think of the so-called Falashas, Bet Israel, Ethiopian Jews who have kept the essentials of biblical Judaism despite being isolated geographically from other Jews for thousands of years."

"The Falashas are in fact the tip of the iceberg. Judaism came to Africa long before Islam or even Christianity, itself an early arrival. Hebrews have been in Africa hundreds of years before the exodus from Egypt. So influential was ancient Judaism in northern and eastern Africa that anthropologists have devised a test to tell whether a given tribe or people has Hebraic roots: It does so if males are circumcised at age of 1 or earlier."

"I am from South Sudan, the largely Christian, African portion of the Sudan, which has long been dominated by Arab Muslims to the north, in Khartoum. I am from a tribe called the Madi, and while we did not retain Judaism as thoroughly as did the Falashas in neighboring Ethiopia, I am amazed as I look back at how many of our customs seem to have come from the Hebrew Scriptures."

"Among Christians and non- Christians like, one G-d was worshipped. As in the Book of Leviticus, blood sacrifices were offered or sins. The worst sins required the sacrifice of a sheep, the ones below these a boat, and the "least" sins a chicken. A hereditary group of elders or priests decided which to sacrifice, and presided over these and other ceremonies."

"Dietary laws were practiced; certain animals were "unclean" and could not be eaten. Ceremonial washing of hands was required when leaving home. Certain days of the year were set apart as holy. On such days, all was pledged to the one G-d of the heavens who forgave sins."...

..."The current Islamic regime in Sudan is waging a jihad -- a war of extermination -- against the people and tribes of South Sudan. Almost 3 million of my people have been butchered in a genocide that is worse than anything the world has seen since the Holocaust. Those who know of this underreported slaughter rightly see it as religious in nature -- a war of Islamic imperialism against largely Christian South Sudan. It is also a cultural war of Arab- dominated culture against African culture. And part and parcel of African culture -- at least in this area of Africa -- are the remnants of Judaism."...

JEWISH ROOTS IN SUDAN By: William Levi Ochan Ajjugo
http://www.jewishpost.com/jp0202/jpn202e.htm

[Wahrheit]

Thanks you so much, Alexandra, for this post and the links...the biggest obstacle to the victory of the True, the Good and the Beautiful is not the enemy (Thug-In-Chief Ahmadinejad and the other Cultists-of-Death) but the tendency of some on our side to desapir, and give in to the supposed 'inevitable' triumph of deomgraphics, the 'vital, young Musilim population,' etc.

Perception is not reality. Again, thanks very much for bringing this information to your distinguished readership's attention.

[Michael van der Galien]

Heh. how did you know that I did not have the time to read it in its entirety?

Hmpf. ;)

Will read it now, thanks;)

[Alexandra]

Mike,

Ditto that....Btw, I love your description of ATB on your blog: "a bellicose Christian with a visually compelling site". That's me!

And I love your favorite quote, which is so apt in fact for what we are discussing right now: "In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice there is."

Michael,

You have to read the full transcript of Professor Jenkins to understand the point about the African culture and why the rural, tribal cultural background provides such incredibly fertile soil to receive the biblical seed.

If you have time read it in full, it's not only fascinating, but highly informative.

[Michael van der Galien]

Alexandra,

First shortly, about the post: I have some difficulty grasping his idea that Christianity is more likely to grow when people are poor. It seems to me that those who are poor, are more open to radicalism, the use of violence, etc. As such, Ahmadinejad chooses a logical group... the poor, they are who he might be able to convert to his radical type of Islam.

Secondly, I did not read your blog in a while now (although I did vote for you of course) and I am pleasently surprised yet again by the high quality of your writing. You don't write blogposts, you write prose.

Absolutely great writing skills.

[Mike Anderson]

I KNEW I was doing the right thing, supporting my local missionaries to Africa! I hope I live to see the day when the militant Christian armies of Africa march triumphantly into Mecca.