I’ve just read the most thorough and razor-sharp critique of The War on Iraq from a Christian perpective that I’ve ever seen. I always find it really odd that the vast majority of the Christians I know in the UK are adamantly against the war (the anti-war movement always has a very strong church presence – it’s fantastic to see vicars marching with muslim leaders in solidarity against the war) in contrast to the situation in the US where the war is seen as some sort of righteous crusade. It all adds up to one confusing portrait of belief in the 21st century.
Well, now Paul Vallely (Associate Editor of The Independent and
principal author of The Commision For Africa’s report) has written a stunning article entitled ‘The Fifth Crusade: George Bush and the Christianisation of the War in Iraq’, critiqing the crusade mentality of the US invasion of Iraq and the kinds of human rights abuses and gross misjudgements that such a mentality has inspired.
It’s in a downloadable journal called Borderlands (1.8Meg PDF file), which also features a marvellous article by Tom Wright – the bishop of Durham – critiquing the Da Vinci Code. The journal is published by St John’s College Durham – and beyond that, I know very little about it, but they have some world class writers.
And all thanks to it being emailed to me by the marvellous David Dark.
Soundtrack – Jughead, ‘Jughead’ (Matt and Gregg Bisonette, with Ty Tabor from King’s X and Derek Sherinian from Dream Theatre – a genius album, that owes more to the Foo Fighers and The Beatles than it does to any of the band members better known projects)