See if you can guess who wrote this and delivered it on television Christmas evening (videos available on YouTube). The more perspicacious among you may recognize the source or remember the event. My posting of this message may offend some TYWKIWDBI readers, but I hope it will prompt some deeper reflection in others - especially at this time of year.
"[God] created every human being with the ability to reach the heights of perfection. He called on man to make every effort to live a good life in this world and to work to achieve his everlasting life…
Jesus, the Son of Mary, is the standard-bearer of justice, of love for our fellow human beings, of the fight against tyranny, discrimination and injustice…
"Now as human society faces a myriad of problems and a succession of complex crises, the root causes can be found in humanity's rejection of that message, in particular the indifference of some governments and powers towards the teachings… of Jesus Christ.
"The crises in society, the family, morality, politics, security and the economy which have made life hard for humanity and continue to put great pressure on all nations have come about because… some leaders are estranged from God…
"If Christ were on earth today, undoubtedly He would hoist the banner of justice and love for humanity to oppose… terrorists… the world over…
"Today, the general will of nations is calling for fundamental change… demands for a return to human values are fast becoming the foremost demands of the nations of the world.
"The response to these demands must be real and true. The prerequisite to this change is a change in goals, intentions and directions…
"We believe Jesus Christ will return… and will lead the world to love, brotherhood and justice.
"The responsibility of all followers of Christ… is to prepare the way for the fulfilment of this divine promise and the arrival of that joyful, shining and wonderful age…
"Once again, I congratulate one and all on the anniversary of the birth of Jesus Christ. I pray for the New Year to be a year of happiness, prosperity, peace and brotherhood for humanity. I wish you every success and happiness."
Give up? The answer is at the Belfast Telegraph. Reposted for Christmas 2011.
Actually I am not surprised. It sounds a lot like something Hugo Chavez might gave said. The part about believing in the return of Jesus is a bit confusing given the source. I feel we ought to try taking him at face value for once. Threats don't seem to have accomplished much and we're so overextended now that they're just pathetic anyway.
ReplyDeleteI'm not a Muslim, but my understanding is that Muslims recognize and respect Jesus (and revere Mary), and that Islamic teaching states that Jesus ascended into Heaven, and that he will return from there in the "last days" to fight the anti-Christ. This seems to parallel some Christian rapture theories.
ReplyDeleteThis isn't the least bit weird. I knew Muslims revere Jesus in some way. And it makes sense that the head of state would put out an ecumenical holiday message- our president does the same thing.
ReplyDeleteBut this doesn't jive with the message pounded into our heads daily: IRAN = EVIL. AHMEDINEJAD = EVIL.
The only really horrible thing I've heard about Ahmedinejad is that he denies the holocaust. It doesn't follow that we should assume all Iranians feel the same way- George W. didn't speak for all americans, did he?
Ahmed' is a loon, but there is NO shortage of countries with horrible leaders and horrible governments. The only ones that get constantly demonized are the ones who don't subserviently ask "how high?" whenever the US says "JUMP!" Hugo Chavez is another great example. Besides not liking the US, I fail to see the problem with him.
Judaism, Christianity and Islam are all monotheistic Abrahamic religions and they have many people places and histories in common. I think we confuse the propaganda and political narratives of our supposed leaders with reality and accept them as truth even when we have recent proof that their self interest or the interests of their wealthy contributors are their true motivation. It may be that the President of Iran has such interests as well, but this greeting reveals that he is perhaps more aware of the commonality of the world religions than most of our American politicians. It's hard to disagree with his assertion that our leaders actions aren't particularly as Christian as they would like us to believe.
ReplyDeleteThis is a long tradition of the Channel 4 Alternate Christmas Message, (alternate from The Queens Speech)
ReplyDeletehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alternative_Christmas_message