Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?

By Julie Robison

Last Tuesday evening, I saw ‘Of Gods and Men’ at the only theater in Cincinnati showing the excellent French film, based on a 1995 true story. There were only three other people in the theater with me, and none of them cried like I did during the latter half of the movie. The monks’ triumphs over their own desires, and their overpowering love of God through darkness and desert, brought true grace to flow in a desperate situation.

"love is eternal hope" --five stars, see it.

‘Of Gods and Men’ is about a small group of Trappist monks who live in Algeria, serving a mostly Muslim village by providing health care and friendship. Their very familiarity with the people is what prompts more disruption in the community when radical Muslim terrorists begin inflicting terror and killing Croatians, Muslim women not wearing the burqa, and those who protested against their regime. The scene of Christmas night, the fateful night when the terrorists went to the monastery, showed the true caliber of the monks. In an effort to reach common ground, one monk referenced the Qu’ran to remind the leader that Christians and Muslims are brothers under one God, not enemies.

The monastery’s relationship with the government was significantly less cordial, and the “might makes right” attitude pervades the actions of the overly aggressive military force against the peaceful monks. When one monk prays over the body of one of the Muslim terrorists whom he is being forced to identify, the disrespect for the dead and human life is evident through the passive-aggressive anger of the government official. It cannot be surprising, then, that the monks’ lives were not respected either.

It is no coincidence, in my mind at least, that Osama Bin Laden was killed on May 1, 2011. In the Roman Catholic Church, May 1 was Divine Mercy Sunday—and who can be more in need of God’s divine mercy than the mastermind behind the ruthless attack on September 11, 2001, affecting thousands of souls? The celebrations of the man’s death prompted P. Fredrico Lombardi, the Director of the Holy See Press Office, to release this statement:

Manners in a Mob Mentality

by Julie Robison

The Wall Street Journal reported that "A frenzied mob incensed by a Quran-burning ceremony in Florida overran the United Nations office in northern Afghanistan's largest city on Friday, killing at least seven foreigners and several Afghans, U.N. and Afghan officials said. The attack was the most deadly for the U.N. in Afghanistan. Friday's death toll in Mazar-e-Sharif exceeded that of the October 2009 Taliban assault that killed eight people at a U.N. guest house in Kabul."

Gentle Readers, Miss Manners would like to pose a question: Do you think burning a Qu'ran in America is comparable to yelling "FIRE!" in a theater?

Terry Jones, a preacher in Florida, burned another religion's sacred book on March 20. He put the Qu'ran on trial (which, as an inanimate object, I am sure it did a stellar job defending itself) and then sentenced it to death by burning. Jones burned; Muslims learned... nothing. Cue the "Death to America" chants! Five days later, two Christians were killed; and that was only the beginning of the overseas retribution.

Increasing Persecution of Christians

by Bradley J. Birzer

While North African and Middle Eastern Christians have long suffered at the hands of Muslims, the last six or so months seem to have been especially brutal. 

Does anyone else see the irony in the fact that Obama unilaterally decided (from Brazil of all places) to take sides in the Libyan Civil War, but he’s made no mention of the persecuted Christians throughout the same region of the world? 

Some recent headlines and links:

From Reuters today--Ethiopian Christians attacked: http://blogs.reuters.com/faithworld/2011/03/24/ethiopias-religious-divides-flare-up-in-muslim-attacks-on-christians/

From Fox, late February of this year--Egyptian military attacks Coptic monasteries:

http://nation.foxnews.com/egypt/2011/02/28/egyptian-forces-attack-coptic-monastery

What about the fact (oh, those pesky facts) that the Egyptian army destroyed those monasteries armed with weapons stamped “Made in America,” paid for by U.S. taxpayers?

Or, how about this: no westerner ever expects to read headlines such as “Christians destroy Mosque” or “Radical Christians Attack Muslims”? 

Ah, Islam. . . . bringing the world closer to the Apocalypse, one step at a time since 622AD.