01-11-2007, 11:31 PM
In some ways some Christians/Jews/Muslims actually have a messianic belief in this clash. Some sense of inevitability. Some may even enjoy it.
There is a strain of Christian thinking that believes that the religion is strengthened during times of stress. They hark back to the Roman Persecution and the oppression of Christians as a sort of Golden Age. The readily visible aspect of this is the frequent proclamation of the end days due to this catastrophe or that.
For instance the Christian cross nailing realistic tableu's or the wearing of crown of thorns, or in more modern times the belief in extended fasts. There is a masochistic strain of enjoyment in such physical brutalization. The Christian faith has also a deep undercurrent of belief that, "..they are most right when the others persecute them the most..".
As I watch Bush ignore the overwhelming majority in the US as he prosecutes a war with an approval rating of 20% or less, I wonder if at the back of his born again ego he actually relishes this clash and the pain of enduring as a enjoyable sensation. "Yea though I walk through the valley of death.." and all that, literally. Straight path to heaven for both sides.
There is a strain of Christian thinking that believes that the religion is strengthened during times of stress. They hark back to the Roman Persecution and the oppression of Christians as a sort of Golden Age. The readily visible aspect of this is the frequent proclamation of the end days due to this catastrophe or that.
For instance the Christian cross nailing realistic tableu's or the wearing of crown of thorns, or in more modern times the belief in extended fasts. There is a masochistic strain of enjoyment in such physical brutalization. The Christian faith has also a deep undercurrent of belief that, "..they are most right when the others persecute them the most..".
As I watch Bush ignore the overwhelming majority in the US as he prosecutes a war with an approval rating of 20% or less, I wonder if at the back of his born again ego he actually relishes this clash and the pain of enduring as a enjoyable sensation. "Yea though I walk through the valley of death.." and all that, literally. Straight path to heaven for both sides.