A Message of Faith

Fire of Liberty
While I've been carrying on and on about the various happenings within the US and Iraq, I forgot to say something about Pope Benedict XVI's homecoming in Germany last week when he attended the six day World Youth Day festival in Cologne. Though the media noted that some 400,000 individuals attended this celebration of Christianity and the homecoming of the new Pope in Germany, they seemed to overlook the Pope's meeting with an ecumenical mix of fellow Christians as well as Muslims on the problems that confront the faiths of Abraham. Though some individuals tried to skew the Pope's meeting with these individuals as a condemnation of the Muslim faith, I'd have to say he was approaching the situation as a man of G-d who is able to differentiate good from evil. Here's what Jabeen Bhatti had to write in the Washington Times about the meeting with the Pontiff:

Yesterday, Benedict urged Christians and Muslims to learn from mistakes of the past, alluding to the Crusades, which began in 1095 and lasted for hundreds of years.

"How many pages of history record battles and even wars that have been waged, with both sides invoking the name of God, as if fighting and killing the enemy could be pleasing to Him?" he asked. "The recollection of these sad events should fill us with shame, for we know only too well what atrocities have been committed in the name of religion."

The pontiff urged Muslims to take responsibility for teaching their children and to "guide and train them in the Islamic faith."

"Teaching is the vehicle through which ideas and convictions are transmitted," he said. "Words are highly influential in the education of the mind. You, therefore, have a great responsibility for the formation of the younger generation."

There no moral relativism with this man, he's has decided to wade into waters that few dare to dwell and tell people things that they might not want to hear. I just wish that more religious leaders within the Muslim faith would find the courage to stand up to the members of their own faith who continue to promote jihad. We'll see though. At least we can hope.