Mixing History and Politics at St. Anne's

My husband and I attended a lecture at St. Anne's in Littleton, MA last night on the historical roots of the present day religious conflicts in the Middle East.  The parish priest, Fr. Clifton Thuma, presented Ishmael and Isaac in the Modern day - Common Roots, Conflicting Branches.   He is clearly a learned man with a vast amount of historical information at his fingertips, but overall I found the lecture to be an odd and unsatisfying mix of history and leftist politics.  I"m thrilled that the church offers lectures - Catholics don't do enough of that- but the politics were a bit much. 

Fr. Clifton gave an overview of the roles of various European countries in the Middle East since the late 1700's, as well as U.S. involvement there.  His delivery was low-key and mostly factual, but there were quite a few statements made that I found jarring, such as "The U.S. invaded Iraq for the oil" and "George Bush was an oil man, his father was an oil man, his grandfather was an oil man."   The gentle parish priest was quietly voicing the slogans of the radical left.  Can it be that this man believes that there's some kabal of oil companies that was behind the invasion of Iraq? Apparently so.

He touched upon the issue of Turkey entering the European Union, saying that there was no denying that the history of Turkey was part of the history of Europe, and he criticized those who have reservations about Turkey being an EU member.  But there are plenty of economic and demographic reasons to be wary of Turkey joining (and overwhelming) the EU.  Pope Benedict himself has spoken out against it. When he was Cardinal Ratzinger, he said:

"The roots that have formed Europe, that have permitted the formation of this continent, are those of Christianity. Turkey has always represented another continent, in permanent contrast with Europe. There were the [old Ottoman Empire] wars against the Byzantine Empire, the fall of Constantinople, the Balkan wars, and the threat against Vienna and Austria. It would be an error to equate the two continents…Turkey is founded upon Islam…Thus the entry of Turkey into the EU would be anti-historical."

There were other jarring comments

• History shows us that we can't export democracy to the Middle East (Is democracy only for Westerners?)
• The Iraq War was a mistake and will likely be a failure (lots of Iraquis beg to differ, as does Victor David Hanson)
• The U.S. can't just use military means in the Middle East (we're not!)
• The U.S. economy is in poor shape, the middle class is declining (neither remotely true )
• Yes, terrorists fly planes into our buildings, but we bombard their countries with Coke and MTV (Ouch! the dissonance is hurting me!)

It felt surreal to me, the leftist/almost Marxist thinking that wove in and out of an otherwise erudite, comprehensive lecture on the history of the Middle East.  He closed with a quotation from the Koran, and reminded us that Christians are directed to love our enemies.  OK, I'll try to love my enemies, but I won't let them kill me or overrun my country or civilization. 

Comments

[Yehudit]

I've seen similar things in Jewish lectures. Everyone cites the Muslim rule fo Spain as a Golden Age for Jews, but they never cite the other Islamic countries at other times that were hell for Jews.