Seán Ó Conaill: The Blasphemy of Christian Imperialism in 2022
The Blasphemy of Christian Imperialism in 2022
Seán Ó Conaill has posted the following article on the Association of Catholics in Ireland (ACI) website.
“We see many of the Euro-Atlantic countries are actually rejecting their roots, including the Christian values that constitute the basis of Western civilisation. They are denying moral principles and all traditional identities: national, cultural, religious and even sexual. They are implementing policies that equate large families with same-sex partnerships, belief in God with the belief in Satan.”
This total misreading of ‘Western civilisation’ – and the attempted co-opting of Christianity to the cause of a new Russian imperialism – is required reading by the Russian army elite who invaded Ukraine on February 24th 2022.
The words of Vladimir Putin, dictator of Russia in 2021, these are a blasphemous excuse for the ongoing reign of fire on civilians, including children, in Ukraine.
Link to full article:
https://acireland.ie/the-blasphemy-of-christian-imperialism-in-2022/
Seán Ó Conaill: The Blasphemy of Christian Imperialism in 2022
Christian imperialism is alive and kicking in Putin’s mind. Among its stars are the Empress Irene, who had her own son blinded (patroness of a major church council defending icons), Basil II, the Bulgar-Slayer, who had a whole army blinded (a saint in Byzantium, a devil in Bulgaria, similar to Cromwell for us; Edmund Gibbon refers to his monstrous act of cruelty as ‘a subtle and exquisite revenge’), and Tsar Peter the Great, Putin’s hero, who built Putin’s home town St Petersburg on the bodies of thousands of slave labourers.
But we can still put George W. Bush in first place among Christian emperors of our century, with his glorious ‘crusade’ against Iraq and his inspirational bible verse for every day of his war there.
Seán Ó Conaill: The Blasphemy of Christian Imperialism in 2022
Gibbon: ‘In the beginning of the eleventh century, the second Basil, who was born in the purple, deserved the appellation of conqueror of the Bulgarians…. His cruelty inflicted a cool and exquisite vengeance on fifteen thousand captives who had been guilty of the defence of their country. They were deprived of sight; but to one of each hundred a single eye was left, that he might conduct his blind century to the presence of their king. Their king is said to have expired of grief and horror; the nation was awed by this terrible example; the Bulgarians were swept away from their settlements, and circumscribed within a narrow province; the surviving chiefs bequeathed to their children the advice of patience and the duty of revenge.’
Seán Ó Conaill: The Blasphemy of Christian Imperialism in 2022
Thanks, Joe for that brief and timely intro to the sanctity of Emperor Basil II – as well as the reminder of Dubya’s ‘crusade’. As I recall, the latter had to bone up on what the Christian European crusades were when offered the word for his ‘relentless’ response to 9/11.
Pope Urban II and his reported resentment over how much of the world was occupied by Islam in his own time is another story (1095). As is the notion that having denied himself the use of the sword first time round, Jesus is bound to turn up one of these days to show just how good he could be with that implement.
How enticing does Armageddon seem – so long as one can enjoy the spectacle without being enveloped in it!
Seán Ó Conaill: The Blasphemy of Christian Imperialism in 2022
At last a church leader (albeit retired) who speaks with a clear voice:
Rowan Williams’ letter to The Times, headed ‘Failure of the Russian Church’ (seen on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=10158505278742344&set=a.58792917343 )
More on Kirill: https://religiondispatches.org/kirills-sermon-may-be-bad-preaching-and-even-worse-theology-but-its-a-top-notch-rejection-of-liberal-democracy/?fbclid=IwAR1KAnP0_nc6_rMubOoQswZ5IDiFU4JkCrn_U8O8yIj4DNe-todYWjutHMc