Excruciatingly mellifluent vacuousness from a Catholic "scholar" who should know better (for some excellent Catholic scholars go here and here) versus true scholarship from someone who bases theological analysis on primary texts and not on "the nice Muslims I know". As Spencer suggests, perhaps we should all just go away and read the Qur'an, chapters 1-5 and 8+9 in particular, as a good starting point.
This Doctor of Sacred Theology constructing a litany of baseless inanities - e.g. "true jihad is 'internal spiritual struggle'" - is giving me a first class headache. It makes sense that he once considered converting to Islam. Spencer, as usual, just knows his stuff and is in a class of his own. Have a listen and you'll see what I mean.
You go ahead, I have to lie down...
Spencer writes:~
"Notice how, right at the end of the show when I had no opportunity to reply, Msgr. Swetland essentially reads me out of the Catholic Church for not believing that Islam is a religion of peace, and claims, falsely, that this was not only the view of Pope Francis, but of Pope Benedict XVI and Pope John Paul II. He claims that these popes’ statements on Islam being peaceful are authoritative and guided by the Holy Spirit.
In reality, while the Catholic Church claims to be guided by the Holy Spirit in defining what is and isn’t the Christian Faith, it does not claim some special power or authority to define the nature or teaching of other religions as well. Thus I doubt that Msgr. Swetland is correct in suggesting that papal statements on Islam being peaceful are authoritative for Catholics; what is interesting, however, is that he was suggesting that there is no place in the Church for people with a realistic view of Islam.
If the view that Islam is a religion of peace wins out altogether in the Catholic Church, and it certainly prevails at the highest levels in the Church today, and if it is imposed somehow upon the faithful, then the Church will have enshrined falsehood as official policy. And it is getting very, very close to doing just that."
Fifty minute audio.
This Doctor of Sacred Theology constructing a litany of baseless inanities - e.g. "true jihad is 'internal spiritual struggle'" - is giving me a first class headache. It makes sense that he once considered converting to Islam. Spencer, as usual, just knows his stuff and is in a class of his own. Have a listen and you'll see what I mean.
You go ahead, I have to lie down...
Spencer writes:~
"Notice how, right at the end of the show when I had no opportunity to reply, Msgr. Swetland essentially reads me out of the Catholic Church for not believing that Islam is a religion of peace, and claims, falsely, that this was not only the view of Pope Francis, but of Pope Benedict XVI and Pope John Paul II. He claims that these popes’ statements on Islam being peaceful are authoritative and guided by the Holy Spirit.
In reality, while the Catholic Church claims to be guided by the Holy Spirit in defining what is and isn’t the Christian Faith, it does not claim some special power or authority to define the nature or teaching of other religions as well. Thus I doubt that Msgr. Swetland is correct in suggesting that papal statements on Islam being peaceful are authoritative for Catholics; what is interesting, however, is that he was suggesting that there is no place in the Church for people with a realistic view of Islam.
If the view that Islam is a religion of peace wins out altogether in the Catholic Church, and it certainly prevails at the highest levels in the Church today, and if it is imposed somehow upon the faithful, then the Church will have enshrined falsehood as official policy. And it is getting very, very close to doing just that."
Fifty minute audio.
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