See No Evil

Last Sunday the weekly TV program "60 Minutes" had a piece on the Patriarch of the Eastern Catholic Church, also known as the Orthodox Church. The bishop is the world leader of Orthodox Christianity with over 300 million followers worldwide. As I pointed out in my last post on this blog on the history of the Byzantine Empire, after the Ottoman Muslim Turks conquered what was Asia Minor in Roman times, the Muslims have been on a genocide against Christians. This is the area where Christianity was born, the seven early churches of the New Testament are all here. Today, it is reported that there are 4,000 Christians left in modern Turkey.

One of my parish priest, Fr. Tom, who spent time in Turkey as a US Air Force Chaplain said that he had to get permission from the town mayor to ring the church bell. Suffice it to say, if you're Christian in a Muslim country you're the same as a lamb in a wolf's den. Among the things that the Christians of Turkey cannot do is to operate a seminary. The last seminary was closed and it is against the law to operate it.

Which leads to my question: What happened to the Christians of the world that they let this genocide continue? The United States is a close friend of Turkey. The fact that they persecute our fellow Christians is never mentioned. What about the Europeans? They're about ready to admit Turkey into the European Union. No questions about Muslim persecution of Christians - never mentioned. Can you imagine what would happen, for example, if the U.S.A. persecuted Muslims in America? The Muslims killed a bunch of innocent people and burned some towns when a Danish newspaper published a cartoon they deemed "offensive," but we do nothing when the Muslims kill and persecute our brothers and sisters. There some things in life that I will never understand; or am I in a different planet?

Divided We Fall

Have you ever wondered why Christians are so divided? It is estimated that there are over 38,000 Christian denominations in the world. The very first and greatest division in Christianity happened in 1054 AD when the Roman church split with the eastern church over some minor differences, one of them being when one word, filioque, was added to the Nicene Creed, in what became known as the Great Schism. This was not only the beginning of the end but the fatal blow to Christianity as a unified religion. The first deleterious consequence of this split happened in 1453 with the fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Muslim Turks. Constantinople, today known as Istanbul, was the capital of Christianity since 335 AD. The Cathedral of St. Sophia in Constantinople was the greatest and most grandiose Christian Church in the world. With the fall of Constantinople, the last vestige of the Roman Empire ended forever; Christianity lost half of its geographic territory and was seriously wounded.

The Eastern Roman Empire was more commonly known as the Byzantine Empire after the fall of the Western Empire, around 476 AD. The fall of Constantinople marked the end of a Christian era and the elimination of Christianity in a large part of the world. Imagine what it would be like today if we lost all of Europe to a Muslim power. Today you know The Byzantine Empire as the modern country of Turkey. Turkey was known as Asia Minor in Roman days and was the cradle of Christianity. We are still paying the price today for the loss of the Byzantine Empire. The Muslims gained not only a large area of land the size of a continent, but they gained enormous political and military power that they still exercise today.

The Ottoman Empire was one of the world’s strongest and most enduring empires of all time, certainly on par with the empires of Persia, Babylon, Greece of Alexander the Great and the Roman Empire. The Ottoman Empire ended with the end of World War I. With the break-up of the Ottoman Empire, the British became the dominant power broker in the area and they proceeded to cut up the area in a hodgepodge of countries such as Iraq, Palestine, Israel, Syria, and Lebanon. In Iraq, they drew the national borders to include three diverse ethnic groups, the Kurds, the Sunni Muslims and the Shia Muslims, which in turn gave us the problems we have today.

I’ve often wondered out loud how the Western Europeans could let their Christian brothers be conquered without lifting a finger. A very small army from the City state of Genoa, a force of about 800 soldiers, did answer the call from the last Byzantine Emperor, Constantine XI, but the rest did nothing. I’ve often verbalized this rhetorical question, knowing that there is no answer coming. The Muslims did not just start fighting us on 9/11 they’ve been fighting us since the death of Mohammed around 632 AD. A brief summary:

At the death of Mohammed, the Muslims started their military and religious conquest of everything they could take, starting from the area of current day Saudi Arabia. They not only conquered land but also killed all those who refused to convert to Islam. The Muslim conquest was so enormous that it was breathtaking. For example, they conquered not only the entire Middle East and North Africa, but also large parts of Europe, including Spain, Greece, Yugoslavia, Sicily and Southern Italy. They were finally stopped just short of Vienna. Spain was finally liberated from the Muslims in the famous war with the Moors in 1492. The Spanish King, Ferdinand and Queen Isabella, could not approve Christopher Columbus’s exploration of the America’s until the defeat of the Muslim Moors. Sicily and Southern Italy were liberated by Norman-French private armies in 1095, Led by Roger de Houteville, who later became the first King of Sicily, Roger I. In my hometown of Geraci Siculo in the beautiful Madonie Mountains of north central Sicily, there are splendid Saracen ruins such as castles and huge escape underground tunnels. The Muslims in Sicily and Southern Italy were known as Saracens.

Many liberal people today argue that we should never go to war. Yes, technically, that is true, war is very bad, but wars in some cases are necessary. In 1453, Western Europe decided, “war was not the answer.” They let their Christian brothers be slaughtered, annihilated, and have their entire empire be conquered. During the conquest of Constantinople, the Turks murdered anyone that refused to surrender. The defenseless Byzantines were crushed, never to be seen or heard of again. Download Lars Brownworth’s pod cast of the history of The Byzantine Empire called “12 Byzantine Rulers”. Brownworth, a scholar of this area, delivers a compelling tale with great narration that will leave you spell bound; a gem for any history buff.

Today, most Christians will not even cooperate with each other even when they agree. For example, they rarely cooperate to end abortion, even though they agree on the dignity of life. Recently, a group of Protestants and Catholics did cooperate with the signing of the Manhattan Declaration. I urge all of you to sign this declaration by clicking on this link. Some people grumbled that they would not sign it because they claim that some liberal Christians signed it. What? How can you fail to cooperate with someone who is on your side? The Manhattan Declaration is a great move since it marks one of the first time that Christians have decided to cooperate. Together they can accomplish things like political power to prevent liberal domination of the abortion issue in law. Apart they can have little effect. Being divided is exactly what the opposition wants. Divided we fall, united we win. We must learn from history or we will be condemned to repeat it as it was pointed out in my first post on this blog.

“Peace in our Time” Obama and the Coming Iranian Train Wreck

Within a few days of my first piece on this blog, “Why History is Important,” I received my December 7, 2009 issue of “The Weekly Standard” magazine. Upon opening the magazine I found a story written by a German political scientist, Matthias Küntzel, titled “Obama’s Search for Peace in Our Time.” The article is an uncanny comparison to what I discussed in “Why History is Important” and why we will repeat history rather than learn from it. It looks like President Obama either has not studied history, or has failed to learn from it. Click on the link above to read this important article.

The Küntzel piece details the history of how the “5 +1” powers, France, Britain, China, Russia + Germany and the United States have appeased Iran for the last 10 years and how the Iranians have played the “5+1” powers like a champion yoyo player rocks the baby. Küntzel is especially hard on his own country, Germany, on how they have impeded any sanctions for their friends, the Iranians.

Just when the Europeans were tired of Iran’s intransigence and wished to start meaningful sanctions, the United States got a new President, Barack Obama, who’s strategy is to appease, be nice, apologize and twist himself into a pretzel just to gain favor with the Iranian thugs and world opinion. To quote Küntzel: “Whereas George Bush denounced the Islamism of the Iranian regime, his successor attempts to ingratiate himself by offering compliments and apologies. Whereas before it was the Europeans who packaged their failures as successful “dialogue,” now it is Washington that does it.” This is no surprise since Obama campaigned on the promise of being anti-war, anti-Bush and so convinced of his ability to convince anybody that he will hold out till hell freezes over for negotiating with Iran to stop their nuclear program. As with our friends and neighbors, some people will never learn; the only problem is that when the leader of the strongest nation in the world does it, we will pay a heavy price.

War and the Nature of Man

Victor Davis Hanson is a great scholar of ancient history. In his latest article on Imprimus, the Hillsdale College publication titled "The Future of Western War," he makes a great case about how war is in the nature of man and part of who we are. Now this, in no way glorifies war, but discusses our human nature and how it is in our human nature to make war. When I was a child, I recall that I would think about whether I would end up in a war, since my dad had been involved in one, the Italian invasion of Ethiopia in 1935, and in World War II. I wondered whether that would also be my fate. Sure enough, although I was in a world completely different that I was born in, the hills of Sicily. As a child of 12 years old my family moved from Sicily to Los Angeles, California. In 1968 I found myself in Saigon, South Vietnam in the U.S. Army. My fears had come true. I was now in a war just as my father had been.

I highly recommend this article by Dr. Hanson. Very true and revealing of the heart of men.

Why History is Important

Besides the Book of Proverbs in the Bible, my favorite proverb is one made famous by the Spanish Philosopher George Santayana: “Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it." I believe that this is one of the most important lesson anyone can learn in life. It is important in our personal life and in the life of any family, nation, peoples, tribe or group of people. In your personal life, I’m sure that each of us has learned many important lessons just by our experiences; things that we want to repeat and things that we would never repeat. Now, if we fail to learn such lessons, then we will repeat them, whether it’s a relationship, a political philosophy, or a business strategy.

One of the most important lessons in our recent history is the famous meeting between British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain and Adolph Hitler in September 1938, which produced the famous “peace in our time” agreement. Chamberlain was an honorable man who had gone through the worst war in world history, World War I, and he did not want another one less than 20 years later. After Hitler invaded the Sudetenland in Czechoslovakia, the Europeans were very worried about an all out war with Germany. Determined that he would do whatever he could to avoid war, Chamberlain went to Germany to meet the Führer in September 1938. Hitler signed an agreement with Britain that, in exchange for peace, Czechoslovakia would give up the Sudetenland and Germany would be allowed to keep parts of Poland that they wanted. Chamberlain returned to England and proclaimed that he had achieved “peace in our time.” See this You Tube video of Chamberlain proclaiming“ peace in our time.

In summary, Chamberlain had given Hitler part of Poland and part of Czechoslovakia, the Sudetenland, if he would not make war on the rest of Europe. We refer to this as appeasement, meaning giving in to a bully so that he will leave you alone. As the world well knows, Hitler had no intention of abiding by this agreement, which he had signed. The next year, 1939, he invaded Poland and Russia and World War II exploded. Here is where I go back to the quote from George Santayana mentioned earlier. Have we learned from history or are we repeating the same thing? In politics, for the most part, those who are of the left always argue, “war is not the answer.” They always argue that diplomacy is what we need and it is the only way to solve problems. Now, I agree that diplomacy should be used, but there is a limit to what it can do.

Giving in to bullies never works. Starting from your childhood bully down the street, to a world bully such as Hitler, Saddam Hussein, Kim Jong-il, the North Korean dictator, we’ve learned that you can never appease them. For the last 20 years the United States has tried to appease Kim Jong-il to no avail. The same can be said for the Ayatollahs of Iran, or the tyrants of Palestine, Syria, Cuba or Venezuela.

History is important because it teaches us lessons in life that we can never learn from books, lectures or flowery eloquent rhetoric. There is a saying that children should be allowed to make their own mistakes because that will be the way they learn. If mom and dad tell them they will not learn, but experience will be a better teacher. Again, if we fail to learn from history, we are condemned to repeat it.