Freedom By Religion
The Christian Science Monitor has a fascinating article about the connection of religion to freedom and especially democracy. It is much greater than many people would have you believe. They point out that the Buddhist monks who are leading the marches against the guns of the junta in Burma are but the latest in a long string of incidents.
Last month, when the junta was forced by its bungling to double fuel prices, the people's economic suffering was intimately observed by the monks, who daily interact with the faithful in acts of humility and kindness. Their natural legitimacy has propelled them to lead nonviolent demonstrations aimed at withdrawing support from the regime and to demand democracy. Worldwide, religious leaders from the Dalai Lama to South Africa's Archbishop Desmond Tutu have offered moral support.
Events in Burma are a model, repeated throughout history, of religious movements helping overthrow colonial powers and dictators. Protestant clergy helped spark the American Revolution, with one British commander complaining that "sedition flows copiously from the pulpits." The Vatican II changes of the Roman Catholic Church in the 1960s helped followers in many countries stand up to tyranny. Catholic nuns and priests were on the front line of a "people power" revolution in the Philippines that overthrew a dictator in 1986. Pope John Paul II helped his native Poland lead the way to free Eastern Europe of communism. Soviet dissidents were spiritually nurtured by a few Russian Orthodox priests, helping bring about the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union. In Indonesia, a 30-million-strong Islamic group called Nahdlatul Ulama gave moral support for the 1998 overthrow of dictator Suharto.
That is not to say that all religions are created equal, BTW:
Not all religious movements lead to democracy. The ruthlessness of the Taliban in Afghanistan, the social power of the Wahhabi clergy in Saudi Arabia, and the claim to rule by Iran's clerics reveal a type of Islam that imposes religious values by dictate rather than by the kind of mutual respect that breeds democracy.
The opposite also holds true. The worst atrocities in the 20th century were perpetrated by atheistic regimes. Somewhere between 7 and 10 million starved to death by Stalin in 1933 in the Ukraine. As many as 40 million killed by Mao's regime in China. Pol Pot "only" managed about 2 million.
Religion, World news | Gaius Thursday, 27 September , 2007
By Mwalimu Daudi, Thursday, 27 September , 2007 @ 6:09 pm
Interesting, considering the fact that the mere presence of a Bible in a public school (never mind a silent prayer) is enough to bring dire predictions of “theocracy” from our moral and intellectual betters.
It is possible that Christians might be freedom-loving patriots? Not according to most of the MSM!
Unless your name is Jesse Jackson. Or Al Sharpton.