3.18.2011 CURRENT

worldmag, 3.26.11, p15..shabaz bhatti assassination removes lead voice for pakastani christian population, estimated at 3%..he was the only christian member of pakistan's cabinet and a leading member of the ruling pakistan people's party..note found on his body from osama bin laden's terrorist network..'this is the fitting end of the accursed one which would serve as an example to others. and now with the blessing and aid of allah, the mujahideen will send all of your, one by one to Hell'..unfortunately they have no clue as to Who they are up against..bhatti was aware of the treats against him, and he made a video with a journalist several months ago where he spoke about them..'these taliban threaten me. but i want to share that i believe in Jesus Christ who has given His own life for us. i know what is the meaning of cross and i am following the cross. and i'm ready to die for a cause. i'm living for my community and suffering people and i will die to defend their rights'.

multiple division - janey cheaney p24, is the sun setting on multiculturalism?

if one world leader says it, its a tic. if 2 say it, it's a trend. if 3 say it, it's a tide. and when more prime ministers, legislating bodies and men on the street chime in, we might hazard a guess that the mighty wheels of established public policy are squealing in reverse. specifically, it looks like the decades long european cult of multiculturalism is coming to an en.

german chancellor angela merkel's oct. 16 speech to the youth wing of the chrisian democratic union sounded the first clear note, especially in its most quote line..'the tendency had been to say "let's adopt the multicultural concept and live happily side by side.." but this concept has failed and failed utterly'.

in february, uk prime minister david cameron agreed, in a more nuanced fashion, that 'under the doctrine of state multiculturalism. we have encouraged different cultures to live separate lives, apart from each other and apart from the mainstream. we've failed to provide a vision of society to which they feel they want to belong'. a few days after cameron's speech, french president nicolas sarkozy expressed his own position: 'we have been too concerned about the identity of the person who was arriving and not enough about the identity of the country that was receiving him'. he made the statement in a televised debate, confirming, in answer to a follow up ? , that efforts to accommodate religious and cultural differences were clearly a 'failure'.

broadly speaking, merkel's doubts about multiculturalism are based on economics, comeron's on democratic values, and sarkozy's on national identity. lesser dignitaries have been more blunt. jean-marie le pen, founder of france's national front party, equates the muslim practice of public praying with the nazi occupation. horst seehofer, state premier of bavaria, has said, 'i don't have to recognize anyone who lives from the state, rejects that state, refuses to ensure his children receive an education and continues to produce little headscarfed girls'. last november the easy going swiss voted to ban minarets; in january tolerant swedes elected a significant number of anti-immigrant right wingers to parliament.

patience with immigrants - particularly with vocal or violent radical muslims - is understandably wearing thin, but the pendulum, as pendulums tend to do, may well swing too far to the other side..merkel's speech came only days after a well publicized study reported that 30% of germans believed their nation was 'overrun by foreigners', while 13% would welcome a fuhrer to apply 'a firm hand' to reckless economic and social policies. of such restless mutterings dictatorships are spawned, (note: on the spectrum of governments, moving from right to left you have democracy moving into anarchy which swiftly leads to totalitarianism..we are all close to the far left end at this point..only a revival can reverse this inexorable, oft repeated pattern..we will soon see what God has for us) ..

multiculturism is defined simply as 'respect for other cultures', but, as anyone who's ever suffered thru a diversity seminar knows, the flip side is lack of respect for one's own. that's what ..cameron was getting at in his speech: who can muslim immigrants even begin to identify with british culture when the brits themselves ar busily denying its worth? jahan mahmood, a second generation immigrant who waorks with muslim youth in birmingham, observes that whites and msulims feel alienated from each other - which seems only natural, but mahmood, a historian, insists it wasn't always so or not for everybody.

during the glory datys of the empire, hundreds of thousands of indian muslims voluntarily joined the british army and served with valor. why? because they saw something worthy of serving: the old liberal vairtues of freedom of speech and worship, equal rights, the rule of law. that respect lingers in the noisy streets of the middle east, where people are rebelling in the name of freedom who have never experienced it.

multiculturalism as it's understood today has as much to do with authentic culture as vagas' venetian casino has to do with venice. it's a political invention not a social phenomenon (this corner says nay! it is a well deserved rejection of the 'values' of hypocritical do gooders who point black fingers at others starting in the social context then taking up arms in the political...)
the rootless young men of mahmood's birmingham neighborhood, both english and muslim, are alienated from their own heritage as much as from each other...

p. 28, movie - of gods and men tells the story of french monks murdered in algeria in 1996. the following are excerpts from an interview with henri quinson, a french monk, who helped advise on the script. he left the banking world of paris, gave away his assets and became a monk in a cistercian-trappist order in the french alps. 6 years later he returned to city life to found a parish in a low income immigrant district of marseille, tutoring neighborhood children..

*speaking of the dialogue, it's sparse, but theologically weighty. did you have to expound on the meaning of some of it for the actors and filmmakers? i did. it was a difficult job because some of the actors whold say, 'i'm an atheist'. they weren't really against the christian faith but they knew nothing about christianity. so for them it was really very educational. it's difficult to describe but it was a little bit like lobbying. for 2 months i was with the actors every day - i had breakfast with them, lunch with them, dinner with them. so i did a lot of prying, talking, and in the end everyone really started connecting with these monks, and so really ended up connecting with God. i don't think you could act in this movie without in some way coming into contact with the One these men were giving their lives to.

and in my opinion i was greatly helped by God Himself. for example, i was against an early end of the movie where the algerians find the heads of the monks. i thought it was in poor taste. i thought the families would find it too harsh. why would we end our story with images of hatred, fear, death and despair? i thought we should stick to the monks' point of view. then, the day we filmed the abduction of the monks, it snowed, and the camera captured them disappearing into snow and fog. the way they walked into the cloud of fog, it actually reminded me of the cloud over the tent of the presence of God in the old testament, as if the brothers disappeared into God, which is for me the true story..

when it comes to christianity and islam..? ..christians need to understand the only way out of this clash of civilizations is to live out our faith in a convincing and intelligent way and try to build relationships with real people. some people say you can have a dialogue with islam. no! you can't have a dialogue with theories of theology. you can only come into a relationship with a person. (note: Jesus told everybody to repent for the kingdom of heaven is near and he taught them about the kingdom of God (what it is like there) and He did good for them...and he never turned any away except the sidonian woman with a bit of reverse psychology 'in line with' the doctrine that 'the Gospel be preached to the jew first..then to the gentile.)

how does this model of relationship play out in a modern, secular culture, like, for example, france? i think in europe people still have somewhere back in their memories religious wars and this new violence coming from muslim terrorism only reinforces for them the idea that religion is violent, is against intelligence, is a thing of the past. what we need to do is explain anew what the christian faith is all about. (note: and live it out..) there are different gods and that's actually pretty clear if you understand the behavior of different people who refer to God. there is the loving god of christianity. Jesus' teaching is to love everyone, and that love does not kill other people. some people worship a violent god, but ours tells us we can be free from our sins because of His love. but it (disinterest in christianity) is starting to change in france because when nothing is left except running after $ or women, at some point you discover that maybe the gospel is not a bad thing. it's starting with the intellectual circles here in france which is to me quite startling but very interesting.

what do you hope audiences take away from this movie? if they could discover the loving God i discovered when i was 20, that would be the best thing i could hope for.

the boob tube, show: secret millionaire, p31..the unsung heroes we see helping their neighbors are much more interesting than the millionaires themselves.

two 85 year old twins who help serve meals and give affectionate hugs...their father instilled virtues they carry out. he taught, 'there is but one father and that's the heavenly Father. there is but one race and that's the human race. and don't take the last roll from the dinner table because you never know when someone will come along who's hungry'.

concerning books and the reading of them...janie cheaney and emily whitten have lauched a good book blog called redeemed reader.com aiming 'to help older kids and grown ups with the task of thinking christianly about what they read as well as evaluating and selecting good literature'.