WaPo 'On Faith' Contributor Blames Christianity for Oslo Bombing, Shooting
With a post entitled "When Christianity becomes lethal," liberal theologian and Center for American Progress senior fellow Susan Brooks Thislethwaite took to the Washington Post's "On Faith" blog yesterday to indict conservative Christian theology as a catalyst for the terror espoused by Norwegian bomber/shooter Anders Behring Breivik:
Breivik’s chosen targets were political in nature, emblematic of his hatred of “multiculturalism” and “left-wing political ideology.” This does not mean that the Christian element in his ultra-nationalist views is irrelevant. The religious and political views in right-wing ideologies are mutually reinforcing, and ignoring or dismissing the role played by certain kinds of Christian theology in such extremism is distorting.
What exactly are the religious views that reinforce Breivik's radical theology? Thislethwaite laid out a list of views that she believes lead to violence, some of which are orthodox Christian belief or informed by orthodox Christian teaching:
When I consider the theological perspectives that “tempt” some Christians to justify hatred and even violence against others, such as, in this case in Norway, the following perspectives seem especially prevalent: 1) making supremacist claims that Christianity is the “only” truth; 2) holding the related view that other religions are not merely wrong, but “evil” and “of the devil”; 3) being highly selective in the use of biblical literalism, for example ignoring the justice claims of the prophets and using biblical texts that seem to justify violence; 4) identifying Christianity with a dominant race and/or nation; 5) believing that violence is divinely justified to “cleanse” or “purify” as in a “holy war”; and 6) believing the end of the world is at hand.
Such theological views, I have found, are more accurate predictors of where political extremism and certain interpretations of Christian theology will mutually contribute to justifying lethal violence. This kind of specificity is more helpful, in my view, than the term “Christian fundamentalism.” Fundamentalism is a more historical term, dating from the “fundamentalist-modernist” controversy in the early part of the 20th century in the United States, and I find it is less helpful today in understanding right-wing Christianity.
Jesus himself held that his was the only way to be made right with God and preached that no one knows the day or the hour when he would return to judge the living and the dead. But he and his apostles eschewed violence. Thislethwaite, a United Church of Christ minister, certainly knows this: historic, orthodox Christianity is peaceful and nonviolent, leaving wrath and judgment to a holy God who is also merciful.
But more importantly, a review of Behring Breivik's manifesto reveals he's not exactly the devout fundamentalist Christian the media are making him out to be or whom Brooks Thislethwaite seems to believe him to be.
Evangelical blogger Denny Burk today highlighted the relevant portion of the Oslo bomber's manifesto in which Behring Breivik made abundantly clear that he sees himself as a "cultural Christian" not a religious one (emphasis mine):
Contrary to early reports, Anders Behring Breivik is not a Christian. In fact in his 1,518 page manifesto, the perpetrator of the atrocities in Norway has specifically disavowed any real commitment to Christ. In his own words:
A majority of so called agnostics and atheists in Europe are cultural conservative Christians without even knowing it. So what is the difference between cultural Christians and religious Christians?
If you have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and God then you are a religious Christian. Myself and many more like me do not necessarily have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and God. We do however believe in Christianity as a cultural, social, identity and moral platform. This makes us Christian (p. 1307).
Behring Breivik himself went to the pains to insist he's not a religious Christian. He's not engaged in a theologically or eschatalogically-inspired view of spiritual warfare that involves the use of physical violence to attain religious ends.
The Oslo bomber's manifesto undermines Brooks Thislethwaite's argument. Hopefully the Chicago Theological Seminary professor will issue a mea culpa, although if she doesn't, it's probably because it was too tempting to attack American evangelicals as potential terrorists:
The religious element in terrorist extremism cannot either be ignored or overblown. It is an important part of the whole equation. In this Norwegian case, conservative Christianity and right-wing, nationalist political ideologies mutually reinforced and tempted each other, and the acts of a person like Anders Behring Breivik were apparently the result. Looking closely at theological interpretations can illuminate how the mass killing of people to accomplish a political end can be justified as right and even a moral imperative in the eyes of individuals and groups wanting to impose their political views through violence.
It is absolutely critical that Christians not turn away from the Christian theological elements in such religiously inspired terrorism. We must acknowledge these elements in Christianity and forthrightly reject these extremist interpretations of our religion. How can we ask Muslims to do the same with Islam, if we won’t confront extremists distorting Christianity?
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Comments
OK how many times do we have to say it......
Submitted by OldJarhead77 on Tue, 07/26/2011 - 1:03pm.
THIS EVIL MAN............ THIS CORRUPTED SOUL..... THIS FOUL DISPICABLE MURDERER IS NOT A CHRISTIAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
QUICK! LET'S HAVE A RE-WRITE!
Submitted by Herbster on Tue, 07/26/2011 - 12:45pm.
Can we get a re-write on this screed? Wherever the word "Christian/Christianity appears can we substitute the word, "Islam?"
Now THAT would be interesting. How about it, Mrs. Thistlewhistle?
OK, the guy fears Muslims ...so he kills Christians
Submitted by Red Jeep on Tue, 07/26/2011 - 12:50pm.
or non-Muslims......and children...because of Christianity?!?!?
That type of Pretzel Logic, should hurt to think.
Geez.
Because we all know that
Submitted by motherbelt on Tue, 07/26/2011 - 12:48pm.
Because we all know that Christianity tells its adherents to go out and kill non-believers.
\sarc off.
Ms. Thistlethwaite should be ashamed of herself for the contortions she goes through in order to fabricate a Christian/Islamist equivalency.
One has to be careful to separate Christianity from the Old Testament. The New Testament is about Jesus and the NEW Covenant.
It's a lot easier for the MSM
Submitted by killa37 on Tue, 07/26/2011 - 12:53pm.
It's a lot easier for the MSM to find ONE so-called 'Christian'............and ride the 'evil, lethal' accusations to the bank - than it is for them to find MILLIONS of REAL Moooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooslems......and call them the same thing.
killa, a weekend for the religion of peace
Submitted by Agnostic on Tue, 07/26/2011 - 1:09pm.
2011.07.24 (Aden, Yemen) - An al-Qaeda suicide car bomber sends nine local security personnel to Allah.
2011.07.24 (Naushki, Pakistan) - Sectarian Jihadis open fire outside a mosque, taking down five laborers.
2011.07.23 (Kohat, Pakistan) - An 8-year-old girl is taken apart by a mortar fired by Islamic militants at a village hosting a peace committee.
2011.07.22 (Greshk, Afghanistan) - Religious fundamentalists kidnap and hang the 8-year-old son of a local policeman.
2011.07.22 (Baghdad, Iraq) - Two people are killed by shrapnel when fundamentalists bomb a liquor store.
2011.07.22 (Surjani, Pakistan) - A Shiite doctor is shot to death by Sipah-e-Sahaba Wahhabis.
8 year old boy hung
Submitted by Red Jeep on Tue, 07/26/2011 - 1:30pm.
http://weaselzippers.us/2011/07/23/8-year-old-boy-is-hanged-by-the-taliban/
I'm sure that you could do
Submitted by killa37 on Tue, 07/26/2011 - 1:30pm.
I'm sure that you could do this 24/7/365...............but that's OLD news to the MSM.........they've got their own agenda to push.
Actually, KIlla,
Submitted by UpNorth on Tue, 07/26/2011 - 1:38pm.
it's NO news to the LSM. All the news that's fit to ignore.
ARGH!
Submitted by Free Stinker on Tue, 07/26/2011 - 1:44pm.
Please, it's 24/7 period. 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, (and not 365 weeks a year)
/// Sarah Palin Fan since July 11, 2007 /// خال
But Free, there aren't 365
Submitted by killa37 on Tue, 07/26/2011 - 6:40pm.
But Free, there aren't 365 weeks in a year....at least not where I come from.
But killa, the 7 is days.
Submitted by Free Stinker on Tue, 07/26/2011 - 6:47pm.
But killa, the 7 is days. Why add the 365? That's straight from The Dept of Redundancy Dept.
Is the 365 supposed to mean something that 24/7 doesn't ?
/// Sarah Palin Fan since July 11, 2007 /// خال
But killa*
Submitted by cajun2 on Tue, 07/26/2011 - 8:15pm.
Slow down, review, preview, edit, then save.
The phrase, 24 hours a day---
Submitted by matthewdean on Tue, 07/26/2011 - 8:37pm.
seven days a week, 365 days a year (or 52 weeks a year); may sometimes be used as a way to stress never ending totality.
Or, in the case of most politicians, never ending worthlessness.
MD
Jeez.............was this
Submitted by killa37 on Tue, 07/26/2011 - 9:00pm.
Jeez.............was this whole thing that big of a deal??? Maybe I should have said 'all the time', or 'never-ending', or 'incessantly............or something like that??? I can't get too wrapped up in this type of thing - it's not that big of a deal.
Sorry to anyone who got upset about it...............
killa---
Submitted by matthewdean on Tue, 07/26/2011 - 9:31pm.
no big deal; heard the phrase, just as you used it, many times.
MD
24/7
Submitted by Free Stinker on Tue, 07/26/2011 - 10:09pm.
But 24/7 already means never ending . . .
/// Sarah Palin Fan since July 11, 2007 /// خال
Free---
Submitted by matthewdean on Wed, 07/27/2011 - 1:04am.
Occasionally ya gotta have some underlined emphasis. :o)
MD
their deconstruction
Submitted by jazzact13 on Tue, 07/26/2011 - 12:55pm.
The postmoderns on the left have their deconstruction of this event (I think the more accurate term for it, though, is 'spin'), and they will run with it as long as they can. And since they do not believe in truth, whatever they say or believe is truth for them.
"Thoroughly worldly people never understand even the world; they rely altogether on a few cynical maxims which are not true."
Chesterton, Orthodoxy
Darwinism
Submitted by Mutantone on Tue, 07/26/2011 - 12:59pm.
Darwinism was his stated reason for the attacks which is counter to the so called Christian concepts that WaPo seems to want to focus on
Well, it's true in a roundabout way.
Submitted by Quasi-socialist on Tue, 07/26/2011 - 2:54pm.
He's a Darwinist. He is protecting Europe as the cradle of Science (though ironically enough we had to steal enough technology from the Turks, to get started) and the culture of Christianity which he credits for secularism. So yes, Science and secularism are his ideals--and gives some credit to Christian culture for having birthed them.
It's pretty clear that Christianity is only second to him in importance.
It's obvious that he was NOT a Christian
Submitted by c5then on Tue, 07/26/2011 - 1:01pm.
In his writtings he makes no claim to be a Christian but makes up something called a "cultural christian" with no theology behind it.. He calls himself a "Darwinist" and says that he subscribes to "Darwinism". If that isn't leftist progressivism then nothing else is. He even says that he has some of the same beliefs as the Nazis. The Nazi party was the German "National Socialist" party. Not on the right side of the political spectrum, but on the far, far left side.
In fact the best way to describe him and others like him are masqueraders or wolves in sheep's clothing. The left just take any opportunity to impugn Christianity even, amazingly, members of the media who claim to be Christians themselves.
Their howls of hypocrisy speak volumes about themselves.
Madison and Jefferson and Franklin built a Republic - Roberts killed it!
The Clash of Civilizations
Submitted by Galvanic on Tue, 07/26/2011 - 1:06pm.
What Thistlewaite ignores is that these conflicts are between cultures and not solely religions. Religions are a major and vital component of culture, whether it be Christianity in Europe and North America, or Islam stretching from the Mahgreb to Indonesia.
But it is not the Christian religion that commands its adherents to kill the outsiders. Murderers like this guy aren't on some sort of holy crusade; they are striking out against what they perceive to be a threatening culture, and in this case, that intruder happens to have a predominantly Islamic face, while the culture he thinks he's defending is predominantly Christian.
She's a what?
Submitted by expatriot on Tue, 07/26/2011 - 1:23pm.
If the United Church of Christ is turning out ministers like this, they need to receive refresher training. If anyone can show me where in the New Testament it espouses anything even closely related to her contentions I would appreciate it being shown to me.
Breivik is a fruitloop who contends that he attacked his own people because of the invasion of Islam. Wouldn't it be better to go after the Muslims? Just sayin'.
See my reply below.
Submitted by HockeyKid on Tue, 07/26/2011 - 3:57pm.
The UCC is definitely united, may be called a church, but has nothing to do with the Christ revealed in the Bible. They are more about "build your own God" theology than anything else.
"Beauty is only skin deep, but liberal's to the bone." - me
Some perspective -
Submitted by almostacowboy on Tue, 07/26/2011 - 1:24pm.
I find it interesting that Thislethwaite is a minister in the United Church of Christ - a church which claims (from its website), "Christians from other traditions, including the Roman Catholic Church, have found a home in the UCC, and so have gay and lesbian Christians who have not been welcome in other churches. Thus the United Church of Christ celebrates and continues a broad variety of traditions in its common life."
I wonder why they left out followers of Black Liberation Theology (which is based on Marxism) like Rev. Jeremiah Wright's Trinity United Church of Christ - which just happens to be the largest church affiliated with UCC? Well, you just can't include everybody, I guess.
"Christians from other traditions"? I guess that means like the "tradition" of not adhering to the Word of God. I guess I just have a problem with "churches" that expect God to conform to their ideas of what constitutes an acceptable lifestyle instead of them conforming to God's Word. I'll admit it's a lot easier.
Knowing the history of the UCC,
Submitted by HockeyKid on Tue, 07/26/2011 - 3:54pm.
and having been exposed to its "theology", I can tell you they are one step short of Unitarian Universalism in their acceptance of anything and everything, so long as you hang the word "Christ" on it somewhere, and don't say it's better than what anyone else believes. They are without question among the deceivers warned of in the Bible.
(And no, Ms. Thislethwaite, I don't hate you, though I do hate your teachings. I realize that's hard for you to grasp, but give it a try.)
"Beauty is only skin deep, but liberal's to the bone." - me
You can only undermine an argument
Submitted by Quasi-socialist on Tue, 07/26/2011 - 2:37pm.
when somebody makes one. She was 0 for 6 on her Progressive bugaboo list about Christians, as far as what applies to Breivik. Really, the left can resume worrying about people claiming to have the one and only truth when they stop likening AGW skeptics to Holocaust deniers.
WaPo "Anti-Faith"
Submitted by Boil It Down on Tue, 07/26/2011 - 2:56pm.
One piece after another in the "On Faith" of the Washington Post illustrates their obvious contempt for the faithful. They may as well rename it "Skeptical On Faith" or "Anti-Faith". At least the truly faithful are re-affirming their convictions when their faith is attacked and insulted by WaPo. -bidn-
So she blames Christ for these murders?
Submitted by MightyMouth on Tue, 07/26/2011 - 3:11pm.
Really? Christianity becomes Lethal? This woman is a stupid as they come.
Breivik
Submitted by grumpyoldb on Tue, 07/26/2011 - 3:36pm.
Breivik is not a Christian. He is a Quisling. Nothing more than a traitor to everything the people of Norway (and the rest of the civilized world) stand for.
Belief system => body count
Submitted by Pilgrim1949 on Tue, 07/26/2011 - 3:51pm.
Belief system of Mao -- atheist -- and the eventual body count of the Cultural Revolution?
Belief system of Stalin -- atheist -- and and the eventual body count of his purges?
Belief system of Pol Pot -- atheist -- and and the eventual body count of the Killing Fields?
...not to mention the body count of the misunderstanders of the Religion of Peace (producing many small pieces of bodies scattered across a large area)...
Dare we go on?
Hmm....all I seem to hear is the chirping of Liberal/Leftist/Progressive/Social-Liberation-Theology prols, plaintively echoing in the silence...
"Ye canne change the laws of physics....." but some politicians believe that with the right legislation you can pretend they don't really apply to your own pet projects...
One thing
Submitted by HockeyKid on Tue, 07/26/2011 - 4:00pm.
we can know for certain about the Norwegian tragedy is that, if Norway had a Second Amendment and citizens who exercised that right, the lunatic wouldn't have been able to roam around killing people unimpeded for an hour and a half.
"Beauty is only skin deep, but liberal's to the bone." - me
The cops....
Submitted by almostacowboy on Tue, 07/26/2011 - 5:38pm.
...had to petition a higher-up before being allowed access to a firearm.....as well as a helicopter.
So why doesn't these idiots
Submitted by rbosque on Tue, 07/26/2011 - 4:24pm.
So why doesn't these idiots in the press make the same pronouncements against Islam when they strike? Does this mean the MSM is on the side of Islamic terrorists?
In the final summary...
Submitted by drsamherman on Tue, 07/26/2011 - 4:46pm.
...I would say there is a greater than 60% probability of that Norwegian monster being diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic just like Jared Loughner and Ted Kaczynski. At the very minimum, he is a malignant obsessive-compulsive for writing a rambling 1,500 page self-importance manifesto. There is also the added dimensions of narcissism, sociopathy and other underlying disorders that I see from what has been written about him.
Violent paranoid schizophrenics who commit horrific crimes wrap themselves in purloined rhetoric and excuses. With the extreme dissociation they have from reality, it is impossible to ascribe any motivations to their actions outside of the extreme distortions of reality they suffer.
That monster could just have easily wrapped himself up in a mantra of any given religious or social beliefs. Just as with Jared Loughner, there is NO way to ever reconcile such horror, brutality and inhumanity with any particular belief system because of the extreme nature of their detachment from reality. Trying to pin this on one religion or another, absent the existence of a link to other persons differently motivated or organized, is absurd.
Anti-immigration and anti-muslim nothing new there
Submitted by BTW Biological ... on Tue, 07/26/2011 - 5:28pm.
In that region if Norway, Denmark, and Sweden anti-Muslim and immigration is nothing new. It didn't start with this fellow, he only took to unspeakable levels. The agnostic Geert wilders was so bad that he was banned from the UK. Wilders was apparently this man's hero. Look up any reports on how Muslims felt in the region before the attack. They felt discriminated against. There is always going to be a fuse that will ignite a crazy person's match, but I doubt christianity was that fuse. Considering that he man's bee was with Muslims and immigration.
There is only one problem
Submitted by Dave. on Tue, 07/26/2011 - 5:41pm.
Breivik is not a Christian.
Not even close.
-Dave
Vote for the American in November
Look at this BBC article!
Submitted by FAFournier on Thu, 07/28/2011 - 5:10am.
Sorry if you guys have already pointed mentioned it. I just got on board, searched the site and found no reference so here we go.
Looks like one of the left's heroes fondly refers to himself as a cultural Christian:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/7136682.stm
Looks like the Oslo killer could be linked to Richard Dawkins.
Alternative headline
Submitted by locomotivebreath1901 on Thu, 07/28/2011 - 2:33pm.
Another uber-liberal religious bigot spews cranial diarrhea.
My response:
"How can we ask Muslims to do the same with Islam, if we won’t confront extremists distorting Christianity?"
Miss Susie, Your ignorance of Christian theology is only surpassed by your moral relativism and ignorance of Islam.
Just as violence, oppression and hatred are central to the Islamic trilogy of the hadith, koran and sunnah, they are antithetical to the Christian beatitudes of sacrifice, liberty, and love.
Christianity had a reformation to return to its true root. Islam needs a reformation to cleanse itself from its true root.
Thanks for playin'.