Two different sources on my regular morning reading list picked up on speeches by Anglican Archbishop and Nobel Prize winner Desmond Tutu at a UN conference in Qatar and a World Council of Churches conference in Brazil. One focused on Tutu’s “willful ignorance” in matters relating to the cartoon jihad over images of Mohammed printed in Denmark. The other focused more on the theological content of the address.
John Hinderaker at Powerline referred to Tuto as “the appalling Bishop Tutu” for taking a line of moral equivalence between the occasional vocalizations of Christians and Jews toward media types who hurl insults and the random killing and rioting in multiple countries over a handful of cartooons, killing of individuals who had nothing to do with those cartoons. He seems to think the Danish government had more to apologize for than murderous mobs. Tutu is quoted:
''Had relationships been different, one, the cartoons might not have happened, or if they had, they probably would have been handled differently...'Imagine if the subject had been the Holocaust and it had been treated in a way that the Jews had deemed offensive and the reaction of the Danish government and international community had been as it is now."
The writer correctly sees a horrifying foolishness in the very question:
"'Imagine'? 'Imagine'? Does Bishop Tutu really not know that this happens all the time? Is he unaware that Iran is, in fact, sponsoring a Holocaust cartoon contest, the reaction to which has been a big yawn? This is willful ignorance.
Tutu blundered further into historical silliness…
"He lamented the negative stereotyping of Muslims and wondered why North Ireland's Protestants and Catholics, the Oklahoma City bombers or even the Nazis had never been labeled ''Christian terrorists.'''
This brought the inevitable response from Hinderaker...
"Well, let me see if I can think of a few reasons. One, the Nazi leaders were atheists or pagans, not Christians. Two, none of the individuals cited purported to kill in the name of Christ or Christianity…Three, no Christian priests or ministers advocate murdering those of other faiths. That's "none," as in zero. Same with Jewish rabbis."
Tutu wants peace and "justice" at the expense of truth and reason…and that carries over from truth about the basic facts of what is happening in the news of the day to what is happening in the spiritual realm.
Parker Williamson reported on Tutu's speech to the WCC at Virtue Online
"The Rev. Desmond Tutu, archbishop and primate of Southern Africa, has weighed in with World Council of Churches leaders who seek to have the council transcend Christian boundaries. 'After all,' said Tutu, 'God is not a Christian.'"
One wonders what Tutu means. Do the words of Christ “No one comes to the Father but by me” have any objective meaning at all? Tutu goes on to embrace universalism further and more explicitly.
"Jesus, it appears, was quite serious when he said that God was our father and that we belonged all to one family, because in this family all, not some, are insiders. None is an outsider - black and white, yellow and red, rich and poor, educated and not educated, beautiful and not so beautiful, Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu, atheist, all belong, all are held in a divine embrace that will not let us go - all, for God has no enemies."
Is this the Jesus who cast the moneychangers out of the temple? Is this the Jesus who said it is better to be cast into the sea with a millstone around the neck than to lead a child astray?
More came at a later press conference…
"I have said that God is not a Christian," said Tutu. "Some people chewed me up for saying that, but I believe it. Some like to think that we Christians have the duty of protecting God. But I wish these people could meet the Dalai Lama. He is a holy person, incredible. We are the ones who keep trying to put limits on God, but God gives the incredible gift of grace."
Hey, the Dalai Lama may be a nice guy, but does that mean that the basics of Christian faith can be simply discarded?
"God is the God of all...We are too prone to excommunicate. God welcomes all of us. Today we Christians have moved a long way toward understanding that we don't have a corner on the God market. Once we said that all who are not Christians are pagans . We must do away with social apartheid in the world. Religion is like a knife. You can use it for cutting a sandwich or to kill."
I had always thought that the role of a “bishop” was to guard the deposit of faith as proclaimed by the apostles and documented in the scriptures. As I read the early church documents, it seems the role of the bishop is supposed to be essential to the church. It is easy to see why evangelicals are so skeptical of Episcopal structures when those in such lofty positions holding the title of "Bishop" can so easily and visibly proclaim a completely new vision of the world and the faith with impunity.
It was Tertullian, I believe who asked "Do we prove the faith by the man or the man by the faith?" This was a massive failure.
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