Standing with Islam in New Zealand

Things Are Not Always What They Seem

There has been a lot of interest in Islam's presence in New Zealand, post the Christchurch massacres.  How may the people of God exploit this has become an interesting issue.  For one thing, it's a good opportunity for Christians to get their theology straight on a few issues.

It is helpful to distinguish "ordinary" Islam from "radical" or "conservative" or "extremist" Islam.  The fact is that "ordinary" Islam in New Zealand does not take the Koran, the hadith, or Sharia law all that seriously.  True, "ordinary" Islam may refer to the Koran and the hadith and recite texts as part of their rituals.  But in reality they do not call for, nor appear to believe in, marital polygamy, for example.  They do not appear to believe in cutting off the hands of thieves.  They do not practise Islamic divorce where the declaration of the husband  "I divorce you" is said to constitute a bona-fide divorce.  They do not practise genocide, nor wish to be associated with violent acts done in the name of Allah such as those seen in the Middle East and Central Africa.

In many ways they may be be called "nominal" Muslims--in the same way that several decades ago, most New Zealanders considered themselves to be Christians.  They were Christians in name only, but who rarely practised their faith in the day to day.  Many professing Muslims are like this, we believe--when one considers what the Koran, the hadith, and Sharia Law actually teach.

Only Secularists Enjoy Human Rights--It Would Seem

Militant Secular Humanists Can't Help Themselves

Here is a piece from The Hill which echoes the militant secularists' abiding prejudice against Christians, Christianity, and the Christ Himself.  In this case, the animus toward Christians has been occasioned by the wife of Vice President Mike Pence, who is to teach at a Christian day school.  So far, so good.

But the school requires of its teachers and administrators (and, by implication, its pupils and their parents) loyalty and fidelity to the Messiah and His creed.  Not only must their own beliefs be in concert with the Messiah's, but their teaching must also be consistent with His Word.  But the freedom human rights normally accorded all citizens of the United States are stripped away by the secular critics, whose tolerance extends only to those who agree with them.  Apparently freedom of religion applies only to the secularists and their ilk.

Vice President Pence responded to critics questioning his wife’s new job teaching at a school that prohibits LGBT students and faculty by saying attacks on Christian education are “deeply offensive.”  Pence spoke with EWTN host Lauren Ashburn in an interview airing Thursday for the Catholic news program about the backlash following Karen Pence announcing she's taking a job at Immanuel Christian School in Springfield, Va.

The Impotence of Humanism

One Man's Treasure Is Another Man's Trash

Well, well, well.  Who would have thought it.  The so-called Pride Parade has been torn apart.  That came out of left field.  The pretext for the Grand Dissolution has been the planned presence of the NZ police (in uniform) marching along with the grand Parade.  How did that Grand Dissolution happen to an event supposed to celebrate inclusiveness and tolerance by all to all?

It turns out there is an ostensibly "radical" group whose ideology calls for the complete dissolution of the Police.  Why?  Because in the view of this radical group's world-view violence begets violence.  Since the Police and the prison system use violence they must be declared VERBOTEN when it comes to their associating with the Pride Parade.

Here is a brief summary of the beliefs and ideology of  People Against Prisons Aotearoa ("PAPA"):

The God of the West

The Pervasive Influence of Humanism

Society is shaped by humanist concepts such as existentialism, a philosophy which emphasises individual existence, freedom and choice.  It expresses the view that human beings live in an irrational universe, that life has no essential purpose and that we must make our own meaning by exercising personal freedom and choice.  People with this worldview believe that they are not answerable to anyone but themselves.

In such societies people pursue experiences, pleasure and instant gratification.  It is all about the here and now, and looking and feeling good. 

Other terms can also be used to describe aspects of a humanist society: narcissism (to love oneself above all else); hedonism (the pursuit of sensual pleasure and avoidance of any discomfort); relativism (having no absolute truth); and postmodernism (living according to what you feel is right for you).  In societies which are influenced by these ways of thinking, where right and wrong are considered merely relatives, some injustices and sins are ignored or overlooked and some are even celebrated. 

The Church has not been immune from this and there are elements within the Church that have been influenced by this prevailing humanist culture.

[Patrick Sookhdeo, The New Civic Religion: Humanism and the Future of Christianity (MacLean, Virginia: Isaac Publishing, 2016),  p.94.]

The "Freedom" of Secular Humanism

. . . And In the Darkness Bind Them

Secular humanism and atheism commenced their campaign to "rule them all" by appealing to tolerance and liberty.  People, we were told,  should be free to embrace causes and ethics which recognize and respect atheist and humanist beliefs in the public square.  The first step represented a "feel good" stage.  The opposition was cast as illiberal and stingy.  In particular Christians were cast as bigots, narrow minded, and holding to outdated, non-scientific beliefs. 

The UK provides a case study of how this has unfolded and played out in the West.  Marriage and family was the first battleground.  At first, under the cloak of freedom, toleration of homosexuality was gradually extended throughout the UK.  In 1967 homosexual acts were legalised in  England and Wales (subsequently extended to Scotland in 1980 and Northern Ireland in 1982.)  In 2001 the age of consent for homosexual acts was lowered to 16 years old. 

The acceptance of homosexuality and homosexual acts was then fleshed out (still under the banner of liberty and freedom).  In 2002 the Adoption and Children Act allowed unmarried and same-sex couples to adopt children.

Clutching At Paper Straws

What Do Soros and Merkel Have in Common With Neville Chamberlain?

"See no evil, hear no evil".  So much of the West's response to Islam falls under this rubric.  Why has a generation appeared which is fixated upon overlooking what is obvious: Islam is a violent religion.  One reason would be that there are few in the West who have bothered to read the Koran--Islam's holy book.  Another is that Islamic violence does not fit in with the myths of humanism.  It is necessary for the maintenance of those myths that Islamic believers be regarded as "just like us" and if treated in a humanitarian, humanist manner they will quickly become both both humanitarian and Western (there is fundamentally no distinction between the two).

Secondly, there is a Marxist overtone that Western elites want to impose.  As part of humanist dogma, national governments are subject to nationalism--which, we are told--plays to ignorant, nativist fears, prejudices, and divisions amongst men.  Internationalism, however, escapes from such prejudices.  It looks with fondness upon mankind as a species, in the abstract.  When a human being is properly supplied with redistributed wealth all of the ignorance, nativist fears, and prejudices will fade away.  Islamic violence, we are told, is a hangover from days of tribalism and nationalist excess.  When properly exposed to humanism, and removed from nationalism, the Islamic believer will thankfully and willingly sign up to Humanist Manifestos I, II, and III.

As a consequence, most Western humanists operate in a cone of naive myopia.  They are like Neville Chamberlain in the run up to World War II.  His pacifism required, not only that he not give due recognition to Nazi nationalism, but that he act towards the Nazi's and Hitler according to the principles of his pacifist beliefs.  He was a significant contributing factor to Hitler's rise and domination of the German armed forcesy.  "Peace in our time" became the absurd myth driving Chamberlain's diplomatic dealings with Hitler.  Angela Merkel and George Soros fall into this kind of folly.  They (along with many others) are the Chamberlains of our age.  When it comes to Islam they are determined neither to see, nor hear, evil. 

Meanwhile, reality is starkly different.

"For We Are Not Ashamed . . . "

Defying the Religious Establishment of our Day

Belief in God or gods is inevitable.  In this sense, all mankind is religious.  Secularism is an attempt to roll back this inevitability, and modify thought and action into a belief in Man.  The end result promulgates yet another religion: Humanism.  

This new religion, fashionable in the previous century, is unwinding at a rapid pace.  Humanism is so dumb that it can invent seventy different human genders, and insist that society profess and confess them all.  It's a human right to have my particular self-selected gender respected and acknowledged; it is also my right to embrace gender-fluidity: that is, my gender this hour may be quite different to what it was an hour ago.

The Apostle of the one, true Living God declaimed sin-wracked humanity in the following terms: "professing to be wise they became fools". [Romans 1:23]  But all religions, Humanism included, have the opportunity to present their systems of belief and theologies to the watching world.  Angelo Codevilla presents some of the unholy laws of Humanism:

The Death of Life in Belgium

Too Heavy To Be Borne

In June 2015, The New Yorker published an article by Rachel Aviv, entitled "The Death Treatment:
When should people with a non-terminal illness be helped to die?"

It is a long article, but a very necessary read for anyone who wants an insight into the mindset of secular humanism.  While the article deals specifically with the death culture in Belgium, it implicitly confronts every secularist in the West.  It also exposes what happens when a culture makes death a matter of human wilfulness.

We encourage everyone to read the full piece.  But, below are some excerpts--with a brief commentary.

 In Belgium, euthanasia is embraced as an emblem of enlightenment and progress, a sign that the country has extricated itself from its Catholic, patriarchal roots. Distelmans, [a euthanizer] who was brought up as a Catholic and then rejected the Church, told me that his work is inspired by an aversion to all forms of paternalism. “Who am I to convince patients that they have to suffer longer than they want?” he said.

When a human being is made the final and absolute authority in all things--as secular humanism does--all must bow before the sovereign.

Letter From Europe (About Complicit Silence)

European “Humanists”: Embarrassment or Silent Sympathy

Dawkins’ attack on disabled persons

Posted on September 5, 2014 

By J.C. von Krempach, J.D.

Turtle Bay and Beyond

Following the world-wide astonishment and outrage over British “humanist” Richard Dawkins’ rant that mothers giving birth to children who have been diagnosed with Down Syndrome are acting “immorally”, we are surprised to find that neither the British Humanist Association (BHA), nor the European Humanist Federation (EHF), nor the International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU) have found it necessary to clarify whether they agree or disagree with this statement.

Mr. Dawkins is not only a well-known evolution biologist, but also pontificates as a promoter of “humanism”, “reason”, and a “scientific world view”. It is for this reason that BHA gave him their ‘Services to Humanism’ award in 2012. In fact, it seems that Mr. Dawkins is getting the same award every other year, given that already 2009 one could read that BHA and IHEU had jointly awarded him a prize for his merits in promoting reason and science across the world.

False Prophets

A Prescient Judge Points the Way

A judge in Downunder has caused discombobulation and outrage at his suggestion that there is nothing principially wrong with incest.  That incest should be advocated from the bench ought not be surprising to Christians.  When secular humanism becomes the regnant religion, anything that can be done will be done--and will likely be endorsed and approved.  The reason is that the ethic of secular humanism runs, "I am the master of my fate; man is the measure of all things; nothing human is foreign or absolutely wrong." 

When this ethic is applied consistently to sexual mores nothing is implicitly forbidden.  Explicit prohibitions are ignorant, primitive, time-bound prejudices and subject to change by the next more-enlightened generation.  We are in the middle of just such a sea change.

The secularists are actively pushing the boundaries.  But The Daily Telegraph in the land of Oz has been so outraged, it has called for a judge to be sacked. Why?  Because the judge has suggested that there is nothing wrong with incest, only sexual and physical mechanics which can easily be controlled.

Standing for Nothing; Falling for Everything

Secularist Paper Tigers Confront Islam

The prevailing view of religion in the West can be characterised as one of condescending ignorance.  Religion is something belonging to a primitive past.  It is made up of superstitions, myths, and fanciful errors without any basis in truth or reality.  To extend tolerance and civic freedom to religions is considered an act of indulgence--putting up with childish notions, ideas, and behaviour until those involved in a religion grow up and become true moderns--that is, materialistic, atheistic, and humanistic.

This world-view has two Achilles heels.  The first is the failure to understand that Western secularism is indeed a religion in its own right.  A religious anti-religion.  It is a cosmology, and ultimate belief system, with no authentication outside of itself.  This places Western secularism in a vulnerable position.  It is founded on rationalism, but its rationalism cannot defend or authenticate its own position.  It is ultimately, therefore, an irrational system that is viciously circular.  It can collapse more quickly than Ukrainian Defence Forces in the Donetsk.  Because its protagonists and defenders remain unaware of its vulnerability at this point, it constantly leaves itself open to ridicule and rejection--which, given the vaunting arrogance and pride of the secular humanist religion, hurts.  That's the first Achilles heel.

The second is its befuddled, double-minded attitude towards other religions.

Gratuitous Prejudice

Established Religion

We have a kind of faith in the nature of people that we do not have in the botanical processes of nature itself--and I use the word "faith" in its full religious force.  We really do believe that all human beings have a natural telos toward becoming flowers, not weeds or poison ivy, and that aggregates of human beings have a natural predisposition to arrange themselves into gardens, not jungles or garbage heaps.

This sublime and noble faith we may call the religion of liberal humanism.  It is the dominant spiritual and intellectual orthodoxy in America today.  Indeed, despite all our chatter about the separation of church and state, one can even say it is the official religion of American society today, as against which all other religions can be criticized as divisive and parochial. 

Irving Kristol, "Thoughts on Reading About a Number of Summer-Camp Cabins Covered with Garbage," The New York Tims Magazine, Nov. 17, 1974, p.38.

Humanist Militants

 Emergent  Self-Consciousness

There are plenty of signs that secular humanism is becoming more demanding, more militant.  We are now at the "side with us, or shut up" stage.  We stand on the verge of the next stage: "side with us, or we will shut you up".  A cluster of secular "truths" are becoming so fundamental that militant devotees of humanism now regard them to be self-evident.  Amongst these are oddities such as global warming, saving the whales, homosexual rights, trans-gender rights, and homosexual "marriage".  For humanist militants, all these are now "settled".  Debate no longer tolerable .  If you don't subscribe to these self-evident truths, you are a heretic, a danger to the body politic, and must be forced to conform or, if not, silenced. 

One of the early apostles of militant secular humanism is John Dewey.  The humanist manifesto is set forth in his book, A Common Faith, written way back in 1934. [John Dewey, A Common Faith (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1934.)]  Paul Vitz observes:

John Dewey concludes his book, A Common Faith with an exhortation to make humanism an active "common faith": in humanism "are all the elements of a religious faith that shall not be confined to sect, class, or race.  Such a faith has always been implicitly the common faith of mankind.  It remains to make it explicit and militant. [Paul C. Vitz, Psychology as Religion: the Cult of Self-Worship (Grand Rapids: Wm B. Eerdmans, 1977), p. 37.]

Almost a hundred years after Dewey was writing and nearly forty years after Vitz was diagnosing the increasingly religious nature of pop psychology, humanist militants are in the majority and now bold enough to demand control.

She'll Be Right, Mate

Secular Humanism's Enlightenment

One of the great battles of our time wages in the realm of education.  Education--both what is taught to the next generation and how it is to be taught--reflects the dominant religion of the day.  This is inevitable.  The dominant religion of our age is secular humanism: its doctrines have been inevitably insinuated into our schools. 

One of the characteristics of secular humanism is that it has rotten, crumbling epistemological foundations.  Which is more important: to know multiplication tables or know how to do the rumba?  Secular humanism has no settled answer to that question.

Abandoning Reason

We Have But One Choice

Abortion is murder.  It is the most heinous crime of the post-modern, Western world.  More than any other issue, it marks the death and destruction of secular humanism.  It represents the clash between two Lords--one genuinely so, the other a usurping wannabe.  On the one side is the Lord Jesus Christ, sovereign of the whole earth, risen from the dead, ascended to heaven, and enthroned by the Living God as King of the earth.  On the other side is Man, self-appointed, self-enthroned, pathetic in usurpation. 

The time for humanist Man to claim lordship and sovereignty over the earth and all that is in it has long since passed.  Four successive humanist empires in the ancient world came and went: Babylonian, Medo-Persian, Greek and Roman.  In Nebuchadnezzar's dream (in Daniel 2) these four successive empires were represented by one giant statue of Man.  Then, in the time of the fourth empire (the Roman), God cut a stone which smashed the empire of Man into pieces.

Man the Measure of All Things

Established Religion

In a previous post we made reference to C.E.M. Joad's testimony as to how his generation rejected the doctrine of original sin.  As G. K. Chesterton once famously observed, when people cease to believe in God, they do not believe in nothing; they begin to believe in everything.  So it proved true in the Twilight Generation in Britain that lived in the first part of the twentieth century.

Writes Joad:

The early years of the twentieth century were years of achievement and of hope of yet greater achievement; indeed, the era which came abruptly to an end in 1914 was one of the most confident and successful in the history of mankind.  [C. E. M. Joad, The Recovery of Belief, (London: Faber and Faber, 1952), p. 47]

What were the dominant beliefs of the time?  What had replaced the belief in Almighty God?  The first was a near universal belief amongst intellectuals and the literati in creative evolution.

The Worker Has Rights

Rotting From the Inside

All of life is religious and religions have consequences.  Secular humanism--whilst formally a non-religion--is no exception.  The Christian testimony to all other religions--including secular humanism--is that they are untrue.  All are deceptive and misleading.  All are vanities.

Because each in their own way rebels against the Living God Who made the heavens and the earth out of nothing by the Word of His power they have bad consequences.  The world is "wired" to exist and function as God made and commanded it to be.  Rebellion against God means rebellion against the created order.  The consequences are never good. 

There are a thousand illustrations of the point, but we will focus upon just one here.

Grand Utopian Projects

 Human Progress and Its Fruit

The quotation below is from David Bentley Hart: it is a brief de-construction of the pathogens in modern Unbelief.  Bowing to the freedom of autonomous human will has resulted in barbaric cruelty and crushing tyranny.  When the human will is regarded as sacrosanct, the State's fangs grow long and sharp.

Idealism becomes ruthless.  The concept of freedom becomes savage.  The autonomous utopias of Man devolve into bloody dystopias. 

Another Western Utopia Unfolds

The Demons Are Coming Back

Libya is no longer in the headlines.  It's all over, bar the torture, the killing, the destruction of human life.  C'est la vie.  Where is the clamour for helping Libyans that once stridently and passionately circled the globe?  Where are Hillary Clinton or John McCain or President Obama when you need them?  Actually we don't need them--and we never have.

What lies before us is another testimony to the folly and stupidity and hubris and idolatry of the West.  Libya is yet another piece of damning evidence indicting the craven humanism of the West and its perverted notion of secular human rights.

When the West takes upon itself the arrogation of rights to intervene and go to war to oust dictators, what arises from the rubble and detritus of war is often ten times worse. 

We are seeing reports start to trickle through on what is presently "going down" in Libya.

Chris Carter, on His Merits

The Opportunities are Breathtaking

At this blog, as our readers know, we are anti-UN.  It is a hopeless, thoroughly compromised institution--as any grand Babelesque edifice erected to the praise of Man will inevitably be--but every now and again we have to acknowledge, the UN shows some smarts, and gets things right.  Praise where it is due, and all that.

Former Labour MP (and government minister) Chris Carter is off to Kabul, Afghanistan to fight corruption.  This, from the NZ Herald: