Thursday, October 04, 2007

A More Peaceful Meeting with Mahmoud

We all watched as Lee Bollinger, the esteemed President of Columbia, was forced to save as much face as he could for providing Mahmoud Ahmadinejad the golden opportunity of legitimizing himself in front of Middle East audiences. So, Bollinger, ever the motivated man, let the stooped little ape-leader have it with both barrels by calling him "woefully uneducated" and a "a petty and cruel dictator."

This presented leftists with a no-loser scenario by being able to applaud either Columbia's decision to offer the furry little guy the podium under duress, or to simply applaud the gibbonesque leader out of spite for Israel. (Some probably cheated and applauded for both.) There were plenty of back-slapping opportunities to go around.

Not at all amused by Bollinger's stunt the Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) stepped forward to soothe the murderer's feelings with some heavy petting at a meeting arranged by the MCC that followed the Columbia tizzy. From CAMERA.org:

Prominent Christian leaders recently showed deference to the leader of a regime that murders its opponents and practices Jew-bating on an international scale at a low-profile meeting with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The meeting was organized by the Mennonite Central Committee, a group which, like Ahmadinejad, openly questions the legitimacy of a sovereign Jewish State in the Middle East.

While attendees went out of their way to extend courtesies to Ahmadinejad, one participant obliquely chided Jewish leaders in the U.S. for refusing to participate in “dialogue” with a Holocaust denier who has called for Israel to be wiped off the map.

The leaders met with the Iranian president after he addressed the United Nations on September 26. According to The New York Times, Albert Lobe, executive director of the Mennonite Central committee told Ahmadinejad “We meant to extend to you the hospitality which a head of state deserves.”
Many within the Mennonite Church are so inclined to embrace peace that they have simply lost the ability or the discipline to confront evil. As some within the church openly advocate a one-state solution to the Middle East crises (a solution that will ostensibly rid the Middle East of Jews forever) other Mennonite representatives slobber over the very hand of the most vocal Holocaust denier on the planet.

7 comments:

RightMichigan.com said...

We read the scriptures and ask, how could those people have been so foolish, so naive, so want to stray from the path so clearly laid out by our Lord and Savior?

And then we read articles like this and remember... this age isn't so different than that.

--Nick
www.RightMichigan.com

Anonymous said...

To read more info. about this meeting that MCC sponsored with President Ahmadinejad go to

http://mcc.org/news/news/article.html?id=256

Blessed are the peacemakers!

Roug said...

Blessed are the peacemakers. No argument there.

But I believe that a peace achieved by freedom loving men with guns will long outlast a negotiated peace with evil dictators.

War is an ugly thing. It is not the ugliest of things.

Anonymous said...

Rougman,

I wish I were as sure of myself as you are. You have quite a series of blogs, clearly stating your belief system.

Like you, I enjoy guns (but not pistols) and hunting. Like you, I attended (and attend) church, and read my Bible. Like you, I studied the Gospels, wrote papers on them and formed my belief system based on that study.

Unlike you, my reading of the Sermon on the Mount indicates that "Love your enemies" means that I need to love all my enemies, not just those that I've propagated close to home. Even if they persecute me. "Blessed are the meek" means to me that perhaps being the one in power isn't all that it's cracked up to be. "Blessed are the peacemakers", in light of the Love for enemies and being meek, seems to be more about not fighting than about creating peace via fighting men with guns.

I have a hard time repressing feelings of rage and revenge, partly, I realize, because they are so easy to cater to. That's a big shortcoming for me, one of so many that I could never tell you them all. Fortunately for all of us, God's grace has me (and you) covered, even if I'm wrong about all of this.

So, I hope you don't consider me an enemy now, because I actually like what I remember of you. And Love you. And I hate to think what you would do to me if I was an enemy, verbally or otherwise! :)

Go Fairview!
Go Eagles!
Go God's Kingdom!

Go rdon

Roug said...

Great to hear from you Go rdon!

I am certainly not going to argue with Christ's word. I am reminded of a "Far Side" cartoon where God is one of three contestants on a Jeopardy like game show. Needless to say, God was winning handily and the other contestants were getting a bit miffed.

I do think that state's have responsibilities, and these responsibilities include the protecting of citizens.

My argument in this situation was with the MCC for engaging in a dialog with a fascist murderer that would accomplish nothing positive but would help to legitimize Ahmadinejad internationally and to discourage liberty movements internal to Iran. I am all for dialog when there is something to be accomplished. Here there wasn't, and it was ultimately harmful.

As far as my verbal abuse goes, I always ratchet it up when talking about Ahmadinejad who routinely refers to Jews as pigs and apes. He can do so while quoting the holy texts. But, seriously, look at his picture. It looks like he was separated from Lancelot Link at birth. Who is he to call anyone else an ape?

I have great respect for the Mennonites. You will never find a kinder or more honest group of individuals on Earth, except, of course, for the ones that cheat in softball.

Enemy? No way. However, I still have a scar on my nose from you. Anything that happens in the future will be nothing more than evening the score.

I hope you have time to read the blog on occasion and comment.

By the way, how many enemies have you propagated close to home?

Anonymous said...

I remember that collision, clearly perpetrated by you, as if it were only 25 years ago. The ball had been hit to left left-center, 10 feet away from me, and you came running all the way over from center, hogging the ball as usual, beating me to it by mere feet. After you dove for the ball and MISSED IT, I was simply standing three feet in front of you telling you that you had fallen and missed it, that it was by me and to hurry and get up and get it. As I was trying to line you up for your throw home since the guy was already almost past first at that point, all of a sudden you exploded off the ground and plowed into me as if I was in your way (I forgive you). Were you trying to run down and tag the runner? (Weren't you one of the slower ones in high school? And here I mean mentally, since you had some track records I think.) After you "dropped the ball" again, I'm pretty sure I picked it up and threw the guy out on a screaming rainbow bouncer to 3b. In other words, I covered for you. You're welcome, though I don’t quite remember a thank-you.

Has anyone ever told you that you bleed like a baby? That's what I was trying to say to you at the time, but since my breath was knocked out of me (I forgive you), perhaps it sounded to you like, "Are you alright?" And the blood wasn't red, white and blue, just red - what's up with that? If I happened to apologize, I apologize, but probably I didn't.

I'm still playing fastpitch, and have hit over the Mendoza line at least 3 times in 23 years. I believe my lifetime average in the Fairview league was 1/92 (counting errors as hits). Those pitchers put just a little more effort on it when I was up. But thanks to you I tell my guys honestly that I was an impact player.

I think the MCC's argument would be that unless there is communication, there can be no peaceful resolution, and that communication does not automatically imply acquiescence. Indeed, at the meeting the MCC leaders told President Ahmadinejad that his denial of the Holocaust and the suffering of the Jewish people were unacceptable. By broadly writing that meeting with him indicates the MCC and Mennonites in general have lost the ability or the discipline to confront evil is misleading, in my opinion.

You mentioned that he was slobbered over, yet he is the president of a country, and even captured generals are given deference on the battlefield. I doubt that he would listen to anyone who would spit in his face. The way it was handled, he not only knew that he would be listened to (not necessarily agreed with), he was willing to listen (though not necessarily agree). It's a two-way street.

You put yourself on the line with your blog and articles *cough*trysomehumor*cough*, so I appreciate the chance that you give for smarter people, or at least those still with hair, to disagree if they want. That's what it's all about. Even my girls don't agree with me about most things: bedtime, tv time, eating their venison, makeup, that gray hair is actually a sign of wisdom, that they should have been boys, that girls shouldn’t “just want to have fuh-un”, even the fact that I'm their favorite biological Dad in the world. So I accept that others have different opinions (I don't like the makeup thing on 12 year-olds, less so on my 12 year-old, but on balding middle aged men still living in their hometowns, the jury is out), and I appreciate that you do too.

Any time you want to play some ball, look me up and I'll make it happen. We played the Roscommon Twisters (One guy from Alpena, no one else within 60 miles. Apparently they know about your softball skills?) this past summer down here, and we bled like babies, so you'd feel right at home.

Enemies? None – or I’m blissfully unaware. Maybe my neighbor, who doesn’t seem to like my dogs fertilizing her lawn. She’s just crabby and doesn’t even like me fertilizing my own lawn. I try to explain to her that I grew up rural, and you can’t take the woods out of the boy.

Maroon bleeds from MY veins,

M Go Blue
Go rdon

Roug said...

Go rdon,

The sad tragedy about the whole sordid softball affair is that the town doctor was raking in a lot of extra cash by giving his thug son permission to bloody all the neighborhood kids. Do I need to tell you that socialized medicine would take care of all of that?

My tone in the post might make it seem to readers that I find MCC somehow willfully in cahoots with Ahmadinejad. I suppose my use of the phrase "slobbered over" could convey that. I need to clarify that I do not believe MCC is acting in bad faith--they are trying to do what they feel is right. However, what they are doing is damaging.

It is widely recognized that a vast majority of the Iranian population is ready to break away from fundamentalist Islamic rule. There is widespread unrest in today's Iran. When American groups meet with Ahmadinejad the meeting is used as a propaganda tool against dissident Iranian groups and to discourage dissent. While the full text of these meetings might be available to Americans, it is not available to the average Iranian. They see still pictures of their thug in chief being respected by Christian groups.

The tenuous regime of Iran is in a race against time. It needs time enough to get its nuclear weapons program in operation before domestic groups attempt to overthrow it. Once it gets the weapons it is free to deal with the dissidents in, should we say, a more forceful manner without fear of retaliation.

To Ahmadinejad, this dialog that MCC pursues, represents time. The more he gets to hobnob the better his prospects for survival are.

These respectful dinners do not exist within a political vacuum and they have an impact far beyond the good taste of potato salad and apple pie. (Two of my Mennonite favorites, by the way.)

Also, I might add, Ahmadinejad gets a good laugh when people allow him to manipulate them.

These meeting do no good. They do great harm.

If you like, I'll give you the last word. Unless you say something that torques me off, in which case I will ban you and go tell some of your cousins.

And seriously, Go Blue? Get back with me in a season or two.