Protests against Pope Benedict XVI

We have all seen on TV and read in the news, the Muslim world and others are outraged at the Papal's speech. (Read transcript of the Pope’s speech here from the Vatican’s website). When reading this transcript it dawned on me, the Pope was preaching more about Islam than he was about Christianity. Some of the dialect I had a hard time understanding, but over all I felt that a lot of what the Pope said was based on quotes by emperors and scholars. Something bothers me though; I feel as if a lot of what the Pope said was hypocritical. The Pope was quoting an “edition” written by Professor Theodore Khoury and apparently it was a description of dialogue carried out by Byzantine emperor Manuel II Palaiologos. In the dialogue he quotes this emperor as stating “Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached”. Now lest we all forget, this emperor ruled the Byzantines and these where times of violence and war. Mostly the Byzantines fought to increase the size of there kingdom driving forces into different Islamic nations. There was a lot of hatred for each other during this time. I feel that if this emperor is going to advise whomever he is talking to that Islam is a faith led by the sword; he need only look at the so called “Christians” of his time. Ruled by kings and emperors most of these empires carried out the will of there rulers rather than of God.


My thought is how untimely this all is, without hesitation the Pope quotes a ruler who is man rather than our King, Jesus Christ. Although during the times of Jesus there was no Islam, Jesus on many occasions told us how to treat our enemies, to treat them as have them treat us. I wouldn’t think that Jesus would have us quote an emperor; I feel that he would have us teach his gospel. The Pope said many accurate things, but I believe in a nature that is sure to offend many people. We need to spread the love of God’s kingdom, not the opinions of men. We need to lead by example, not by intellectual speeches designed to provoke other nations and faiths. This world is in a constant state of war, we have not seen peace for a very long time. Mostly the ideals of people are all that these wars are fought over. The rich rule the kingdoms of this world, but the Kingdom of Heaven is ruled by Our Lord and Savior. Jesus said many times that the Kingdom of Heaven is one of peace and love. Although the people of Islam may be overreacting quite a bit, we need to show love and kindness as Jesus would, rather than just saying we are better than you.