Monday, April 18, 2005

Pious and Corrupt

I don't know whether we should be heartened by the fact that corruption among politicians who claim to be religious and pious is not confined to our region... Over in the good old US of A.. it's reaching epidemic proportions as a number of "moral values" politicians, both Christian and Jewish, are exposed in a series of scandals, as the greedy, power-grabbing monsters they really are..

The parallels to Kuwait are scary. Here's an excerpt:
"The values alleged so far in this scandal - greed, hypocrisy, favor-selling, dissembling - belong to no creed except the ruthless pursuit of power. They are not exclusive to either political party. But the religious trappings add a note that distinguishes these creeps from those who have come before: a supreme righteousness that often spirals into anger and fire-and-brimstone zealotry that can do far more damage to America...."

The article may require registration to read, but it should appear on the IHT site very soon.

11 comments:

  1. Mushmushi... you reminded me of something I read by Thomas Paine, in the introduction to his book "The Age of Reason", written in 1794!!. Whether I agree with him or not is not the point, but it does make one think.. Note that he uses the phrase "Turkish Church" in reference to the Ottoman Empire (i.e. Islam)

    "I believe in one God, and no more; and I hope for happiness beyond this life.

    I believe in the equality of man; and I believe that religious duties consist in doing justice, loving mercy, and endeavoring to make our fellow-creatures happy.

    But, lest it should be supposed that I believe in many other things in addition to these, I shall, in the progress of this work, declare the things I do not believe, and my reasons for not believing them.

    I do not believe in the creed professed by the Jewish church, by the Roman church, by the Greek church, by the Turkish church, by the Protestant church, nor by any church that I know of. My own mind is my own church.

    All national institutions of churches, whether Jewish, Christian or Turkish, appear to me no other than human inventions, set up to terrify and enslave mankind, and monopolize power and profit.

    I do not mean by this declaration to condemn those who believe otherwise; they have the same right to their belief as I have to mine. But it is necessary to the happiness of man, that he be mentally faithful to himself. Infidelity does not consist in believing, or in disbelieving; it consists in professing to believe what he does not believe
    "

    OUCH!!

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  2. Pious and Corrupt= Oxymoron!

    But ya3ni basically they're Hypocrites.

    Anyway, this article works nicely in conjunction with my latest post.

    I found this line to be particularly pertinent:
    "..a supreme righteousness that often spirals into anger and fire-and-brimstone zealotry that can do far more damage.."

    Please check it out Zaydoun :) (although I should warn you it's not a "fun" read) :P Anyway your input would be appreciated.

    Gigi, invitingly

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  3. Oh great.. so now whenever a new subject comes up for the blog, it's because I couldn't stand the heat from the previous one.

    FCM.. Did I miss that class in Blogger 101?!

    Gigi.. I'll check it out pronto

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  4. Funky Cool Medina:

    سكــــت دهـــــرا و نطـــــق كــــفرا

    ReplyDelete
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    ReplyDelete
  6. Hi Matt... thank you very much. By all means, please add my blog to your spot. I can't say no to free publicity!

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  7. kuwait passion..

    شكراً لتعليقك ومداخلتك القيمة التي قرأتها 3 مرات تحت 3 مواضيع
    ;-)

    لا أختلف معك أبداً في أسباب تقهقر التجمع الليبرالي، وما انتخابات 2003 في الروضة الا خير مثال على عدم التنسيق وافتقاد الرؤية... لكن ألا تعتقد أن جزء كبير من المسؤولية يقع في التضييق بل القتل المتعمد من السلطة وقوى الظلام والفساد التي تحتمي بالسلطة؟

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  8. Your choice to quote Thomas Paine is interesting - are we hinting for a revolution Zaydoun ;)

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  9. Oh look..
    Kuwait Passsion was here too?

    And I thought I was special!:/
    lol

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  10. Shosho.. not a revolution. Just a call to use the brains that God gave us

    Shurouq... I think Kuwait Passion went on a blogging spree (or blitz) and dropped his comment everywhere.. Very clever!

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  11. it's not the suitibale place to paste this here, but i'm wondering where is " Abu Hafs " ,, also his blog is not "FOUND" !

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Keep it clean, people!