www.byzcath.org Forums News & Events Church News Horrible Desecration of Serbian Orthodox Church by Soldiers

Ironically, your words quoted above could be used on a Muslim website to prove the violence of Christianity. How are these words any different from those of the terrorists? Can you imagine Jesus saying them?

In point of fact, there is a story in the Gospels that relates to this. The Disciples ask Jesus if they call down fire on apostates. Jesus emphatically denies their request.

Jesus teaches us to love our enemies; Paul teaches us to overcome evil with good.

By the standard established by the Gospel, your words are unChristian and certainly do not express the Gospel.

A long time ago I was taught by a dear professor from Westminster Theological Seminary (a very conservative presbyterian seminary) to engage Muslims. One summer I went into Philadelphia and actually took classes at a mosque to understand the faith so that I can actually talk about the Gospel with my Muslim friends. This professor established a rule in our discussions: "Never compare the worst of another religion with the best of yours." It is unfair, unjust and it enflames passions -- it does not lead to mutual respect, tolerant dialogue or open hearts.

We Christians need to act as Christians -- read the writings of Matthew the Poor. He lived among Muslims and saw firsthand the abuses of the radical and yet he counseled love, forgiveness, dialogue, respect.

As for violence against religious sanctuaries, you should talk about the desecration of mosques by Christians in Nigeria if you are going to compare "apples to apples." The reality is (as your post illustrates) the Christain tradition has its share of violence -- to our eternal shame.

Why? There are radicals who use their religion as an excuse for violence in every religion. Christians should be leaders in showing forgiveness, love, and acceptance. After all, Jesus was!

This just redoubles my commitment to ecumenism. If we don't achieve mutual understanding, we may end up killing each other.

I would think the Christian response to the desecration of the Church would be sorrow (Blessed are those who mourn) and a rededication to nonviolence and suffering love for those who are in error. Certainly if we meet violence with violence we do a disservice to the teachings of our Lord and Savior who told us to "love our enemies and do good to those who hate us."

In truth, there is enough violence on both sides in Serbia and Kosovo. We are seeing the end of a process -- we are witnessing the last acts -- but we have not lived the centuries of oppression that Kosovar Albanians have lived. We have not witnessed the daily ethnic prejudice and racism that they endured at the hands of so-called "Christian Serbs." While this does not excuse their actions, it does help to put it in perspective. And, it should lead us to repentance -- which is always how we should respond.

For a scholarly examination of the situation in Kosovo -- see Monument and Crime: The Destruction of Historic Architecture in Kosovo
Andrew Herscher, Andras Riedlmayer
Grey Room, No. 1 (Autumn, 2000), pp. 108-122

The first page of the article can be viewed here:

links.jstor.org/sici?sici=1526-3819(200023)1%3C108%3AMACTDO%3E2.0.CO%3B2-P -

If you work at a school that has access to JStor, you can view the whole article.

Yes, I do. But is it possible to convert an extremist?

BTW it seems as with the PC crowd today, to have a jihad is considered ok but to do the opposite is considered aggressive. Just look at the international outrage when Israel defends itself, but the sympathy for groups like Hamas when they fire-bomb and launch rockets etc...

When Hamas blows something up (e.g. with child suicide bombers), we are to believe that they are "just fighting for their rights" and nobody condemns this, but when Israel fires upon them, it is considered to be aggressive and is condemned... Why is that?

Here's an interesting article about turning a blind eye to child suicide bombers.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4601244/

Remember in Christian history, this is not the first time unbelievers have descreated Churches. So we can look to our own history to see what our proper response should be. I would encourage you to look at the example of St. Tikhon in light of Bolshevik desecration. He did not encourage Christians to respond in violence but advocated love and forgiveness and especially prayer. Interesting, St. Tikhon was very harsh on the "whites" (the anti-Bolshevik forces) for their adoption of tactics similar to the "reds". He accused them of acting contrary to the Gospel.

St. Tikhon the Merciful and Meek should be our guide in responding to present day atrocities. Holy Tikhon, pray for us.

I have never heard any scholar defend suicide bombings. I have read quite a few scholarly books on the subject and no one to my knowledge in the scholarly community has endorsed suicide bombings as a legitimate act of war.*

As a Christian, I condemn all violence - whether enacted by Hamas or Israel. The taking of human life is a great evil.

*To argue that the suicide bombings are motivated by the frustration of being oppressed is not to defend the bombings -- it it to try to understand why people would be willing to do it.

Here is an excellent link on this subject:

http://www.asianews.it/index.php?l=en&art=10577&size=A

When the Serbian military decided to go after the KLA and their thousands of violent supporters in 1999, they were accused of engaging in ethnic cleansing. When Moslem mobs went on an orgy of violence, killing, burning churches and vandalizing cemeteries it was said they were fighting for self determination and independence. So who's telling the truth ? I think it lies in simple look at the population of the largest city in Kosovo, Pristina. Before the War in 1999 the city had around 40.000 Serbs, 9 years later that number is down to a few dozen.

Are you familiar with Fr. Sava -- the holy Orthodox monk who lived in Kosovo during the war and communicated via email with the world? If you are, then you surely should know that the situation was not as "clean-cut" as you are making it to be. The Serbs did commit awful atrocities against Kosovar Albanians -- there were terrible things done in the name of Christ. Fr Sava talked about finding people dead with their hearts cut out in the form of a cross and he also talked about seeing mosques with crosses spray-painted on their walls. Of course, he also documented the horrors wrought by the Kosovar Albanians against Serbs.

Do you remember the stand taken by holy Patriarch Pavle against the abuses committed by the Serbs?

Why do we have to choose sides? Why can't we admit that there were awful things done by both sides?

If you like things to be "simple," don't look at this situation. There is nothing "simple" about it. This is a good example of what happens when religion becomes tied to nationalism. As the Synod in Constantinople declared, this is a lethal mix!

So I take it she wears a head scarf, goes to the Mosque on Fridays, gives to the poor, drinks no alcohol, eats no pork, fasts for Ramazan (Turkish spelling) and prays five times a day?

I wasn't there, but somehow I doubt it...

Let's not confuse the issues. The Muslim and Christian Palestinians, while their actions are sometimes reprehensible, are fighting for the right to exist and live in the land of their ancestors and to get back at least part of the land that was and still is being stolen from them, through scheming and subterfuge, within the last 40 years ago. They are fighting for their basic civil rights.

The Muslims in Albania are NOT.


Yes! Excellent point. This is exactly what has also happened in the Middle East with the creation of the nation-state of Israel on Palestinian land.