Iranian president asks Bush, what would Jesus do?

Ekklesia is reporting the letter from Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to US President George W. Bush. More than anything, perhaps, it illustrates the gulf between these two leaders, and their respective cultures. Ahmadinejad is clearly a thinker who is concerned with what he sees as right. Bush, by contrast and for all his talk of the importance of his faith, clearly is unable to connect his politics to that faith. It’s sad, and more than a little worrying, that these two leaders seem unable to communicate at all. And it’s also an odd feeling that I actually have much more empathy for what Ahmadinejad is saying.

pax et bonum

Article posted at 08:39am on 15 May 2006
Category: Faith, Links, Politics, Struggling

John,
Of course you have empathy for Ahmadinejad. Take his letter, eliminate all the PBUH and praises of religion, and show it to your liberal friends. Then ask them which points they disagree on.

They won’t disagree about any of it – except perhaps the insinuation that the Holocaust was a myth. The letter is a leftist talking point bulletin, from a man who brutally oppresses his own people. So of course, the letter is glorified by the left.

Ahmadinejad hates Israel, America, and the West, and you aid him in his goals by calling him a “thinker who is concerned with what he sees as right”. Yes, as long as right includes murdering pastors and oppressing and punishing Christians.

Yeah, he’s the guy to glorify. Hate Bush if you like, but don’t let it cloud your mind.

Hammertime () (URL)
9:00pm on 15 May 2006

Hold on a tic, Hammer. I’m not saying that Ahmadinejad is right – far from it. What I’m saying is that I sympathise far more with what he seems to be trying to do than I do with Bush’s response. For all that the letter goes on about the various usual suspects, it’s still a step towards dialogue.

And I find it a terrible thing that a man who portrays himself as Christian (and devout, at that) is apparently unable or unwilling to engage on that level. This isn’t about whether I like Bush or not. It’s the simple fact that a man who has made his faith such a central part of his public persona (to the extent that there are bumper stickers placing him in the Ichthus fish, and “icons” depicting him with a halo) is apparently unable to engage on the level of religion with an Iranian President for whom religion is at least as important.

Ahmadinejad is not a man to be trusted – certainly not to base our whole picture on one letter. His record on a great many things is appalling. But, equally, should we totally disregard this attempt at dialogue? Or should we try to engage on this level when the level of conventional politics has failed? There is plenty to take exception to in the letter (Ahmadinejad’s questioned the importance of the Holocaust before) but equally he makes several points that are hard to deny from a Christian perspective. Right or left.

I don’t want anyone to believe that Ahmadinejad is 100% right. But he’s not 100% wrong, either. I do want Bush to engage in dialogue, because that has to be better than yet another war in the Middle East, which looks all too likely at the moment.

pax et bonum

[John] () (URL)
10:24pm on 15 May 2006