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Thanksgiving and Turkey Visiting ...

Last week the Pope embarks on yet another historic good will trip, this time to Turkey. There is considerable open hostility towards him right now in Turkey, or any Muslim country for that matter. But that's really not what's news-worthy, even though its what's being reported. Have you thought about “who” is doing “what”? By this question, I'm not trying to focus on the Pope as the head of the Catholic Church or as the symbolic head of Christianity (but he is doing the heavy lifting, isn't he), but rather on Christianity as a faith.

The original flap was about a statement the Pope read which was taken out of context by Muslims, something they do quite often. But the purpose of his comments was to challenge Christians (and in his case, Catholic leaders) to work harder at reaching out to other faiths, and Islam in particular. And that is the real news in this story of his trip to Turkey. The Pope challenged his cardinals and bishops to reach out to Muslims, and now he is practicing what he was preaching. Its not the Islamic faith that reaches out to others, but the Christian faith that has always held that role. Personally, I think what he's doing is extremely brave and extremely foolish. I say foolish because I think he's throwing his pearls to the swines. Muslims aren't interested in free and open dialog, if they were, there would be religious freedom in their countries. But there isn't – not a single one that I'm aware of. But the Christian west does allow for that (yes, we've had our problems in the past haven't we. But tell me the truth, where would you rather live, hum?). And I say brave because he's willingly walking into the Coliseum, which again is a trait of Christianity, not Islam. If you will remember the previous Pope's encounter with some one from Turkey he delivered his greetings with a smoking gun. And I probably don't have to remind you that the Turk was a Muslim, do I?

Christianity is so unlike any other faith. Christianity forgives because God forgave us. Christianity loves its enemies, because while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Christianity turns the other check. I need some help though. Can anyone help me understand what Islam promotes? OK, OK, suicide bombers. ... besides that?

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