A Christian Liberal is NOT an oxymoron.

Posted by XT on December 18th, 2007 in Progressive Faith

Anne Applebaum has a point about the recent news cycle. International pressure was sufficient to get the Saudi King to pardon a rape victim for being in public with a non-related male. But the King did not say the sentence was wrong – in fact he said just the opposite – and future rape victims can only hope that the international press takes up their cause.

But while Applebaum is (rightly) fixated on the failings of the women’s movement to advocate for this woman, her sisters in Saudi Arabia, and Aqsa Parvez in Canada, she is missing a horrible part of the story in Saudi Arabia. The non-relative male that accompanied the Saudi Arabia rape victim was also raped – and also sentenced to prison for being in the company of a non-relative female. Oh yeah, he was also sentenced to receive 90 lashes. This is far beyond feminist movements. This is basic human rights and legal jurisprudence.

Applebaum hits the nail on the head when she points out that the Saudi royal family has been able to hold onto power by twisting the Islamic faith so that it supports – well, whatever they say it does. The House of Saud is legitimized upon the shoulders of the work of Muhammad ibn Abd-al-Wahhab. al-Wahhab is an interesting fellow and his place in Islamic history is probably best likened to that played by Dr. John Owen or, more recently, Jerry Falwell.

The goal of all three men was to “purify” their respective religions. Their legacy is probably best captured by this paragraph from the Wikkipedia entry on al-Wahhab:

To many Muslims of the Salafi persuasion, ‘ibd al-Wahhab is a significant luminary in the proud tradition of Islamic scholarship. A great number of lay Sunni Muslims regard him as a pious scholar whose interpretations of the Qur’an and Hadith were nevertheless out of step with the mainstream of Islamic thought, and thus discredited. Many scholars regard him as a pious scholar who called people back to worship of Allah according to the Qur’an and Sunnah. Others, often Sufis, regard him as a one who stopped at nothing to gain power and manipulate others.

These men were – and their modern followers are – fundamentalists in the purest sense of the word. Their view is to return to the simplest possible literal interpretation of holy scripture. The idea that a rape victim would be punished shouldn’t be so shocking to the people who claim that America is a “Christian nation” because the Bible demands punishment as well. If anyone doubts what America would look like if the far-right Christianists would gain sufficient power, then all they have to do is to look as far as Saudi Arabia. The only difference is that the formal justification of oppression would be based on a distortion of the teachings of a different historical figure.

The meteoric rise of Mike Huckabee should give pause to anyone who thinks that our home-grown Taliban has lost any muscle in our political system. Having finally rejected Rudy’s liberal Catholicism, Mitt’s Mormonism, and unable to get a handle on what Thompson actually thinks, the religious right has boosted a former baptist minister into the running in Iowa and South Carolina. And watch out for the religious right’s muscle in vote-heavy California and Florida.

As Fred Thompson is finding out, you can’t combat bad theology by refusing to talk about it. Mitt Romney is fending off Huckabee simply because he is willing to talk about his faith, even if many Republicans still consider him to be a cultist. The only successful way to overcome fundamentalist movements is either by military power – as we might have done in Afghanistan had we not gotten sidetracked into Iran – or by showing their theology to be a hollow mockery – which is what Jesus did (and why he was killed by his own people).

This this is just hysterical rhetoric? When New Jersey repealed its death penalty this week, it was criticized from politicians affiliated with the religious right. Meanwhile, Europeans celebrated the outbreak of Enlightenment by turning a former bloodsport arena into a shining testament to human rights. What else do you call it if the “secularists” show more concern for justice and humanity than those who put on the name of a religion of love and redemption?

Me, I call it “enough”. It’s time the public voice of faith in America moved into the 21st Century.

Technorati Tags: Anne Applebaum, Saudi King, Aqsa Parvez, 90 lashes, Islamic faith, al-Wahhab, John Owen, Jerry Falwell, Mike Huckabee, public voice of faith

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