On Democracy and the Middle East

Jan Fleischhauer from the German magazine Spiegel suggests that President Bush’s hope for a democratic Middle East may not be as ridiculous as some thought.  It may be too early to tell, but he just may have been right.

Painful as it may be to admit, it was the despised former US President George W. Bush who believed in the democratization of the Muslim world and incurred the scorn and mockery of the Left for his conviction.

Everyone was sure — without knowing any Muslims — that the Western model of democracy could not be applied in a backward society like Iraq. Everyone knew that the neo-conservative belief in the universal desire for freedom and progress was naïve nonsense. It is possible that the critics were right, albeit for the wrong reasons. The prospect of stability and order seems to be at least as important to many people.

We can only hope that the desire for freedom will triumph in the end. Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood have also put the blame on the US and Israel, though in the reverse order. To them, Mubarak is a “Zionist agent” and should therefore be destroyed like the Zionists; next in line are the “helpers” from the US.

As for the actual revolution, it appears that the Arab youth are not taking to the streets to burn US flags and call for the death of Israel, but to overthrow their own government.

It remains to be seen how long that continues.

Source: Fleischhauer, J. (2011). George W. Bush’s Liberal Legacy. Retrieved fromhttp://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,743994,00.html

On Taking Fire for Faith

Interesting story from the L.A. Times re: Alabama’s new governor Robert Bentley.  He is taking heat for expressing his Christian convictions.  Here is a snippet.  You can read the full story by clicking the link below.

Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley told a church crowd just moments into his new administration that those who have not accepted Jesus as their savior are not his brothers and sisters, shocking some critics who questioned Tuesday whether he can be fair to non-Christians. “Anybody here today who has not accepted Jesus Christ as their savior, I’m telling you, you’re not my brother and you’re not my sister, and I want to be your brother,” Bentley said Monday, his inauguration day, according to The BirminghamNews. The Anti-Defamation League on Tuesday called Bentley’s remarks shocking. [Click HERE to read more]

What do you think of his remarks?

UPDATE: Michael Horton weighs in…

Already the new Alabama Governor, Robert Bentley, is embroiled in controversy over comments he made in a church service following his inauguration. At the heart of the controversy are his comments about non-Christians not being his brothers and sisters.

On one hand, the reaction highlights the pervasiveness of religious pluralism.  The gospel proclaims God’s forgiveness in Christ and that all who are united to Christ by faith—regardless of race, socio-economic background, and gender—are brothers and sisters.  That Gov. Bentley’s comments could be excoriated as divisive points up the scandal of the gospel in our culture, with all claims to “no other name” considered incendiary.

On the other hand, the reaction highlights the danger of confusing state office with church office.  What’s a governor doing in a pulpit and what’s a church doing hosting a service celebrating an inauguration?  If non-Christians are a little tightly wound about Christ’s exclusive claims as endangering the public order, maybe it’s not entirely their fault.

It’s ridiculous to assert that Gov. Bentley’s comments violate the First Amendment; to disallow such comments would be a violation, in fact.  However, strictly from a Christian point of view, such unauthorized use of Christ’s embassy for the affairs of civil society ought to be challenged. I doubt that faithful sermons, songs, and prayers in churches this Sunday will undergo similar scrutiny, even though they would be just as offensive to many of our neighbors.  But a governor preaching on inauguration day in his secular office makes it even harder for us to convince our neighbors that the gospel triumphs through Word and Spirit rather than through the sword of state.