Mosul Museum: first the bad news, perhaps

February 28th, 2015 by Charles Cameron

And let’s not forget the Christian tradition of iconoclasm, both Orthodox and Protestant, either:

The torture and martyrdom of the iconophile Bishop Euthymius of Sardeis by the iconoclast Byzantine Emperor Michael II in 824, in a 13th-century manuscript

The torture and martyrdom of the iconophile Bishop Euthymius of Sardeis by the iconoclast Byzantine Emperor Michael II in 824, in a 13th-century manuscript

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Posted in Archaeology, Charles Cameron, christianity, iconoclasm, iraq, IS, ISIS, Uncategorized | 2 comments

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  1. Lexington Green:

    February 28th, 2015 at 10:07 pm

    Christian iconoclasm occurring centuries ago is irrelevant. No reason to forget it. No reason to remember it either.
    .
    The destruction of the Musul Museum and of the Bamiyan Buddhas shows that this type of destructive vandalism is alive and well among some Muslims, who armed and have the means an will to cause a lot of havoc and destroy irreplaceable things that belong to all of humanity.
    .
    The idea of being even-handed by citing events from centuries ago lends no clarity at all to the current conflict. Why do Christians of today have to apologize for events which occurred centuries ago when these savages commit crimes today which they would never dream of committing.
    .
    This is not complicated. Christianity NO LONGER engages in iconoclasm or murdering unbelievers or engaging in bloody intramural conflicts over differing theology. Literally centuries have elapsed since those things occurred except in isolated pockets. The Pope is not issuing fatwas, or calls for a new crusade. The Methodists are not calling for the destruction of mosques and the Unitarians are not burning Korans or crucifying Muslims. The Missouri Synod Baptists are not beheading Muslim children and laughing and jeering as they toss the bloody severed heads to their screaming, weeping parents.
    .
    Islam, today, now, has many millions of people who support these actions, including nations and groups with billions of dollars to promote them and hundreds of thousands of young men eager to engage in them, even, and sometimes enthusiastically, at the cost of their own lives.
    .
    One set of facts is historical. One is contemporary.
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    One set of facts is relevant to the current conflict. One is at best a distraction.

  2. Charles Cameron:

    February 28th, 2015 at 10:32 pm

    Hi, Lex:

    Why do Christians of today have to apologize for events which occurred centuries ago when these savages commit crimes today which they would never dream of committing.

    They don’t — nowhere have I asked anyone to blame them, nor them to apologize. These ideas are utterly foreign to me.
    .
    We read in your comment on another of my posts:

    We just need to know that ISIS reads the texts the way it does, believe them to be divine commands, and acts accordingly. Knowing this, we are better able to plan whatever military response is necessary to defeat them, and hopefully destroy them entirely. This is both theoretically and practically an easier task than debating them.

    It may be the easier task, but as someone I rea recently put it, defeating IS / Daesh militarily is a very different thing from defeating the apocalyptic ideology that drives both IS and others — if I run across the quote, I’ll bring it here. How to use that understanding? Not in debate, I think. But that’s another discussion, and one that with any luck I’ll arrive at in due course. Understanding their motivations is, I will argue, very useful — and knowing that one’s own culture has at times held similar positions may be one way to facilitate that understanding.