Posted by
peripheral on Wednesday, December 10, 2008 6:53:28 AM
From My Perspective - - -
The
strict definition of intolerance is: “A refusal to allow to others the
enjoyment of their opinions, chosen modes of worship, and the like;
want of patience and forbearance; illiberality; bigotry; as,
intolerance shown toward a religious sect…” This is a current issue
that has been discussed and acted upon by the United Nations. The focus
of this body is Religious Tolerance. The subtlety to this action is in
the cleverness of the writing of the resolution.
In
a review and editorial, Loren Green, Fox News Religion Contributor uses
the headline, “Combating Religious Intolerance With A UN Resolution?”
and notes: “It
probably slipped most people’s notice. It wasn’t a big story. It was a
little routine vote at the United Nations on a resolution called
“Combating Defamation of Religion”. It passed — for the ninth year in a
row. The resolution, on the surface, seems almost a no-brainer for the
General Assembly. Of course, people should be respectful of other
religions. But that’s not exactly what this resolution says. Many
member nations, including the United States, as well as several non-profit groups like the Becket Fund and the Washington-based American Center
for Law and Justice, see the resolution as the proverbial wolf in
sheep’s clothing. The Combating Defamation of Religion resolution was
introduced and promoted by the 57-member nations of the Organization of
the Islamic Conference (OIC). The OIC has lobbied since 1999 for the
plan. According to the American Center for Law and Justice, the resolution is based on the Cairo
Declaration of Human Rights in Islam, which states that all rights are
subject to Shariah law, and makes Shariah law the only source of
reference for human rights. However the resolution was amended to
appeal to a more diverse group. Drafts of the resolution in early
October would have made it a criminal act and violation of
international law to “defame another religion.” Although the drafts
were amended to say all religions, only Islam is mentioned by name. And
the U.S. lobbied specifically to remove any reference to it being a criminal act…”
One
could ask: “Where is the danger, and what is the subtlety?” It’s
interesting that secularists quickly noticed the implication if the
Resolution passed in its original form. “One
U.S. Ambassador commented a few weeks ago how divisive this issue is:
The resolution could criminalize free speech, and that it’s a cover for
criminalizing domestic free speech. The point is: if a resolution by
the world body criminalizes speech even speech that defames and is in
bad taste, then International Law could potentially brow beat and
trample on the U.S. Constitution. That’s why the U.S. voted
“no.” The resolution is non-binding. There’s no international body to
enforce it. But it does set a tone of what is and is not acceptable.
The U.S. official said, it would give countries the ability to pass
anti-free speech laws if it criticizes a religion, it would make it
difficult to proselytize or share your faith unless you practice a
State approved faith, or could make you fear changing your religion.”
Consider
these things with me - - Green continues: “…you say, “That can’t
happen”, or “that would be ludicrous”. The fact is it’s already
happening. Christians and other minority religions in predominantly
Islamic areas or countries are being persecuted to barbaric levels.
Reports from Nairobi, Kenya say that one aid worker was beheaded in
September for converting from Islam to Christianity; the Iranian
government has already passed a bill calling for execution on the basis
of apostasy (anyone converting from Islam to another religion), and of
course we’ve seen the violence that erupted over the Danish cartoon of
the prophet Mohammed…” One problem is that there are so many “brands”
of Christianity in circulation. The only Commission by Jesus Christ is
succinct: “Go…Make Disciples of all nations…Baptize them in the name of
the Triune God – Father, Son, Holy Spirit – and Teach Them to obey
everything I have commanded…” The point should not be missed that The
Church has fumbled the ball and Islam has retrieved it and is
succeeding in the Going…Making Disciples…and…teaching them everything
in the Koran. The bold step is to have the World’s Deliberative
Assembly prohibit The Church and Christians the opportunity to recover
the advantage in sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the ends of the
earth, and to silence that message and messengers of it.