Syrian Rebels Ransack Christian Churches
June 27, 2012 8 Comments
I don’t pretend to know what’s going on in Syria, but I’ve learned enough by following these and such armed conflicts, that matters are not always as they seem:
NATO-backed thugs desecrate places of worship
Paul Joseph Watson Prison Planet.com Wednesday, June 27, 2012
Shocking images have emerged which show the aftermath of Christian churches ransacked by NATO-backed Syrian rebels, illustrating once again how western powers are supporting Muslim extremists in their bid to achieve regime change in the middle east.
A photograph provided to us by a Christian woman in Homs, scene of some of the bloodiest clashes of the conflict, shows a member of the Free Syrian Army posing with a looted Catholic cross in one hand and a gun in the other while wearing a priest’s robe.
“Everyone knows simply removing these garments from the church is a sin. The priest is the only one who wears them too. They even pray before putting them on. Him posing in front of the funeral car as well is disgusting to the max,” our source told us.
“They destroyed the church and went in to film it. I know this for a fact.”
“The Robes can only be worn by Deacons or Priests or Sub-Deacons, and they a Christian man wouldn’t hold a Cross in one hand and a gun in another,” the woman adds
Another image shows a ransacked church in Bustan al-Diwan (Old Homs).
While Syrian rebels busy themselves ransacking Christian churches, they also rallying around the Al-Qaeda flag just as their counterparts did in Libya…
More here.
About Fr Stephen Smuts
Cue in the Liberals in the West, whining about how there is no God, Christianity is a silly superstition, and that we should welcome The Religion of Peace.
It makes it hard to be a Christian, but I suppose that is my own cross to bear.
I shall be honest; these sort of heathens make me -feel- that it is justifiable for Crusaders to come again and fight these sons of pigs. But that’s just my anger at their desecration of a holy place of Christians. They are children of God, though they err, and Jesus died even for them.
This would be a good chance to correct their error. Of course, the questions is “how?” I don’t think anyone in this blog is willing to drop what they’re doing, and go over there and get shot.
I admire a Christian who can stop these men by words alone, but I doubt that any preaching or debate would be listened to by men whose only language is spoken with bullets and violence. The dwindling population of Christians in the Holy Land is proof. The mass exodus of ancient communities of Christians from Iraq is proof. THIS particular incident is proof.
What makes it frustrating is that NATO is involved! I am reminded of those Americans who used nuclear weapons against Japan, and happened to drop one of them on Japan’s largest concentration of Japanese Catholics! It is sickening to the stomach!
Perhaps there’s nothing we can do but to pray. Even if it’s a small act, it’s better than despair and anger. Maybe this is what is meant when St. Paul wrote “We preach Christ crucified.”?
Btw, the first Adam Bomb dropped on Japan by the American military, was at Hiroshima, and the second at Nagaski. And both of these great cities were Naval ports, and something of military targets. But the whole point however was to get the Japanese to quit the war. They were asked after the first bomb to surrender, they did not, but after the second it was the Japanese emperor himself who made the call over the Japanese military leaders, to surrender. One of my Irish great Uncles fought the Japanese in the British Army in Burma, he always said, it took the Adam Bomb to defeat them! And the early purposed first American assault on mainland Japan thought that on the first day over a 100 thousand men would be killed for the Allies. Personally, I believe the Adam Bombs actually saved later loss of life on both sides. Again the thought was the war could last perhaps another two to three years if mainland Japan had to be invaded.
As the grandson of a Filipino soldier who was literally blown apart by grenades at the hands of Japanese soldiers (and posthumously received a Purple Heart as a consequence) I have a lot of reason to feel justified in what happened at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. But then, there’s a discordant and uncomfortable feeling about how the “moral victors” inflicted something as terrible as the atom bombs- that it wasn’t much better than the sort of crimes the Japanese inflicted upon my people. The only difference is, the former was fast and impersonal, so it appears merciful and far from cruel. The latter case was more honest and illustrative of how depraved human beings can be.
I agree that the atom bombs would have prevented more bloodshed, but we have to admit how cruel war is in any case and the fact that it was ended by something close to independent from human will (Soldiers following orders) and something as detached as the act of merely pushing a button or pulling a lever disturbs me. As if the clean and certain result of easy human death is the conscience hiding from the traumatic experience of personally ending a person’s life. A soldier can discriminate because he has a conscience. The atom bomb doesn’t care if you’re a child, if you behave well, if you’re a good person, or if you disagree with politics or philosophy that caused the conflict.
The only reason I brought up the usage of the atom bomb on the Japanese is the comparison of NATO troops supposedly trying to make things better, but not doing anything but wreaking unintended consequences on the last people who have anything to do with the conflict. In the case of the Japanese, it was those Catholics whose only fault in deserving to be bombed was that they were born in Japan and were taught to be obedient to the Emperor.
This is why, returning to the subject of Muslim terrorists desecrating Christian holy places, despite my anger and feeling of justification in hunting them all down and doing inhuman things to them, this is not the way of Jesus. Were I to kill them, I’d have to use my bare hands, not by pushing a button, because that seems more honest in destroying what God has made and deemed good. The feeling of anger and vengeance will subside, as many other things do, and then people will rebuild what was destroyed. We also have to admit that these looters and murderers most likely don’t know any better. Our Lord’s words on the Cross come to mind: “Forgive them, Father, they know not what they do.”
Yes, certainly we live in a fallen world! But, I am no pacifist myself, though war is part of a sinful world, and we are all sinners. Btw, the whole Adam Bomb project was not some sterile affair, Oppenheimer figured out what was coming, especially after the first bomb test in Los Alamos, New Mexico! (Where, U 235 and plutonium were first assembled into blombs). Indeed the so-called coming of age for humanity in great death and weapons! When comes the next nuke, and for whom? No, I have come to hate all war, but sometimes evil can only fight evil, at least in the sense of weapons. But we must always ask the moral questions, first! But hey, I was a combat Royal Marine, and I am the wrong guy for these questions. And btw, NATO isn’t worth beans! I like what the American Teddy Roosevelt said: Walk softy but carry a big stick! This is still good advice for countries that are Judeo-Christian, at least to my mind.
Btw, “Ioannes” I have been to both the Philippines and Japan. The Philippines is huge, and has some beautiful places! And I have been to the so-called Peace-Park in Hiroshima too, the only place of the remnants of the A-Bomb. Indeed sobering! In fact I met an older Japanese lady who was in Hiroshima during the bomb, her mother and Naval Captain father did not survive, but she as a young girl happened to be bathing, so she survived. This was many years back now, that I was there, and met her. An amazing woman she was! Now I am sure she is before the Lord!
I am sure you are proud of your grandfather, that generation fought like hell against the Japanese! Their memory still surrounds that country! I just happended to have seen the movie MacArthur, in fact just yesterday, with Gregory Peck playing MacArthur…awesome movie!
This is disgusting, but it isn’t clear that this is the ‘Free Syrian Army’ – most reports suggest it is gangs seeking profit. Also, the Free Syrian Army is being purposely undermined by those who support Al Qaeda and, as a report in the Sunday Times made clear, those sympathetic to Al Qaeda wish to destroy the FSA.
Please don’t play into their hands by equating all those rebelling against this atrocious regime as being the same.
The ‘Arab Spring’ spells death and dhimmitude to Christians wherever it occurs. See also Egypt.
Oh, the Copts. My heart goes out to them! To think that they’ve lost their beloved pope at this particular moment in history!