www.byzcath.org Forums News & Events Church News A Cheer and a Half for John Walker Lindh

This is a very intriguing and surely to some, a controversial column. The mention of Athos and Constantinopolitan theological fistfights put a smile on my face.

A thought-provoking piece on true religious devotion (even if the object of devotion is evil) vs. the watered down Americanized consumer religiosity of modern society. Any comments?

In IC XC
Samer

http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig/o-jones2.html

A Cheer and a Half for John Walker Lindh
by Owen Jones

Back when Miss Jean Brodie was in her prime, sending our idealistic youth to take up arms in strange lands in defense of lost causes was reason to rejoice. We were still producing romantic political heroes. And that was good news for American "progressives" of the �30�s.

The brigade of American volunteers fighting fascism in Spain also produced a cottage industry in the entertainment realm, garnering Pulitzer Prizes, fiction book awards, and Oscars. It enriched politically conscious artists, from Pablo Picasso to Gary Cooper. Somehow the aspect of it being a lost cause only added to the romantic grandeur.

Poor John Walker Lindh. He�ll receive none of the benefits accruing to an older generation of American idealists. He may have gone a step too far, by mixing it up with a bunch of radical religionists. In latitudinarian America, keep your religious causes in the mainstream if you know what�s good for you. He also seems to have suffered from a serious case of bad timing. By being born about a thousand years too late.

Personally, I would like to know more about John Walker Lindh, also known by several Muslim names. I would like to hear it from his own lips, although I doubt his attorneys will allow him to take the stand, and I seriously doubt that the New York publishing world is bidding on the rights to his personal war memoirs. I�ll have to be satisfied with the predictable incantations from the political right and left, and from America�s religious moralists who tend to triangulate politically along the same right/left fault lines.

The president made the politically correct comment that he was a poor, misguided young man. Journalists and pundits on the right ponder the applicability of the death penalty in his case, while delighting in the rich ironies between his liberal, Marin County upbringing and his spiritual home with the Taliban. Meanwhile, the left doubts that two reliable witnesses can be found to testify against him.

I suspect most Americans are willing to buy the poor, misguided youth argument. It�s something they can identify with, have in fact used themselves to justify a number of things they wish they could take back. But America is not exactly in the repentance business. "Poor, misguided youth" sounds nice and therapeutic, and gets us all off the hook for our own egregious sins euphemized into youthful indiscretions. It�s an argument that has become so effective that we deliberately refuse to grow up. It comes in handy all the time. It�s even used by presidents on occasion to excuse their very adult sins.

In the end there will be some kind of trial, with Defense and Justice looking for a way to dispense with the thing as quickly and easily as possible so that John Walker Lindh can receive the Solomonic justice that is rightly his due: exile to his home back in Marin County where he can wait on tables at Starbucks, attend weekly therapy sessions as per court order, and argue tenaciously with his mom on visitation days about why the Taliban were justified in destroying ancient Buddhist monoliths. Which means he�ll be a religious schizophrenic like the rest of us. We Americans really know how to punish people for their sins.

Which leads to my confession. I sort of admire John Walker Lindh. He deserves a cheer and a half for some things no one seems to have considered. First is his conversion to Islam. Who among us is willing to take on such a rigorous commitment of regular prayer, fasting, and self-denial? My Protestant friends worship for an hour or two a week while comfortably seated on their behinds. My Catholic friends attend Mass on Saturday afternoon so as not to interfere with their Sunday tee times. Few of my Jewish friends are kosher. And my Orthodox friends sound more and more like Episcopalians with each new buy signal from their broker.

Putting dogmatic questions aside for a moment, try going through the Muslim ritual for one week and then tell me it�s not something of worthy note for this effete kid from Marin County to have achieved. But that apparently was not enough. Not being content with an Americanized version of Islam, he embarked on a journey to Pakistan to learn the Koran in its original tongue.

Now, I don�t know where your travel agent sent you on your last adventure vacation, but an extended stay in Pakistan is not for the faint of heart. Nor is the study of Arabic. Has John Walker mastered the glottal stop? Try it some time. I don�t mean to sound glib on this point. He seems to have mastered something beyond the ken of our best CIA and DIA agents, who complain that they have precious few "assets" available to decipher the intent of our new terrorist enemies, let alone their dialect.

Finally, discontented still with his own lack of serious commitment, John Walker decided to take up arms in defense of the Taliban, which he describes as the only true defenders of Islamic law.

Although we expect to hear volumes about how unhinged John Walker became after his exhaustive brainwashing sessions with the Al Qaeda, the truth is that these are truly heroic efforts by a young idealist which, if employed on behalf of some politically correct secular cause would now be winning him interviews with Rosie O�Donnell. The only argument of any merit against his actions, quite apart from the technical issues relating to the Constitutional punishment for treason, is of a purely theological nature. John Walker Lindh chose to throw in his lot with heretics, and that�s where he went astray. But he will never be prosecuted for heresy. Heaven forbid.

The question for me is whether it is worse to be a religious heretic than it is to be a secular American where all heresies are deemed to be equally orthodox, and nothing is worth fighting for or against. But this is my own case of bad timing. I long for the good old days in Constantinople where you could have an honest fist fight in the local taverna over the true meaning of homoousion.

Whether John Walker Lindh can articulate his pilgrimage from quintessential American know-nothing to someone who found something worth fighting and dying for remains to be seen. I�ll just have to speculate for the time being. I think he was responding to something inchoate that percolated up inside of him, born of a broken heart.

In America, a young person�s heart is generally broken by the age of eight or nine. His mind is not permitted to wander to far off worlds, especially if they are spiritual in nature. He is not permitted to ask any difficult questions that might suggest deviationist tendencies. He may be told that he has to attend church, but he would be seriously discouraged from taking it too seriously. There are absolutely no options for a truly religious vocation. There are no options if you happen to be of a spiritually sensitive nature. You are given the answers to the test in advance and you qualify for advancement if you answer correctly on six out of ten true-false questions. Ninety per cent, according to the Gallup Poll, say they believe in God and ten per cent don�t. Virtually a hundred per cent would say that God has little or nothing to do with anything, if they answered honestly. If the question were asked.

If anyone is to blame, it is not the secularists. It is the Christians who have forgotten what it was like for Athanasius or Anthony of the desert, or the many thousands of wealthy, educated Romans who said to hell with the world (and the political state which claimed divine status), and went to the desert to wage war against the demons. Today you can join the Navy Seals and that�s about the nearest thing. Outside of Islam that is, which, for all of its faults, is an honest to God heresy that is at least trying to be true to its roots. I hope they lose. But I�m not sure who�s winning.

The late German-American philosopher Eric Voegelin once predicted the interior break up of the Soviet Union because, as he said, no one believed in Marxism anymore. He was right when all of our best minds in foreign intelligence were dead wrong. He also predicted a spiritual revival of mankind, but he was less precise on the dating. He said it was inevitable because you cannot go against human nature forever.

I don�t know if we will see a spiritual revival in my lifetime. I suspect I will have to be content to live with my broken heart. But if I do see a spiritual revival it will not come from the likes of our current religious leaders. It will come from people like John Walker Lindh. When the time comes it will be obvious to all. There will be thousands, if not millions, of John Walker Lindhs who are sufficiently discontented with the world to do whatever it takes to transcend it. They will flee the cities for the desert, they will deny their bodies sex, creature comforts, even food and water, and they will pray unceasingly. They will allegorically take up arms and wage war against the demons, just like it says we are all supposed to do.

Meanwhile, I trust God is maintaining a small, vigilant rear guard so that when the time is ripe, they will be there to lead us away from all of the heretical nostrums that prey on our broken hearts and our schizophrenic psyches, and steer us in the right direction. I hear there may be a few of them left on Mt. Athos, but unlike John Walker Lindh, I don�t have the courage to buy a ticket.

January 10, 2002

Owen Jones [send him mail] is a freelance writer (which means he's starving) and working on his second political suspense novel. He's not an expert on anything and doesn't want to become one although he's read all of Eric Voegelin's stuff at least twice.

Copyright � 2002 LewRockwell.com

Three cheers for http://lewrockwell.com ! And I agree with this story. I read it earlier today. Owen Jones is Orthodox.

http://oldworldrus.com

[ 01-10-2002: Message edited by: Serge ]

From the article: "I long for the good old days in Constantinople where you could have an honest fist fight in the local taverna over the true meaning of homoousion."


The author should participate in Byzantine forums. At least nobody actually gets punched.

If being a secularized American means working a decent job, living a normal life, and not bothering anyone else let alone taking up arms against one's own society, I will pick secularized American religion any day.

Johnny Walker may have had "principles" but his principles were *wrong*. So who cares what principles he had? Adolf Hitler had principles. Joseph Stalin had principles. They were wrong, too.

Give me a bland, boring, mainstream American Protestant culture over those principles any day.

anastasios

A cheer and a half to Owen Jones for his complementary---though back handed---article on Islam. (I certainly cannot endorse his error that Islam is evil, although Talibanism certainly is.)

Across the Western world, an average of 300-400 souls convert to Islam per day.

Most of these resurrected souls are refugees from the mediocre and effet- faux religion described in the article. Many of them came to Islam (especially the Europeans ) when they realized that Christianity, in most European countries, is essentially an anachronism, despised by the descendents of those who were once her most zealous champions.

Serious minded "idealists," like Cat Stevens, a/k/a Yusuf Islam, would have to journey elsewhere to find a highly disciplined and zealous faith to replace the mediocre "religion" they were determined to leave behind.

As an outsider looking in, I can say that my experience of the last twenty years of seeking the same level of desire, zealotry, commitment, and self-sacrifice that I knew was readily observable within Islam, was never found within the Christianity that I experienced as a seeker. The experience brough me back to Islam,
the faith of my birth (and rebirth).

Half of the members of our community are converts. They all tell the same story and share the same observations, which essentially replicate my experience and observations.

These are my personal observations.

Abdur

Dear Abdur,

Salaam.

Serious minded "idealists," like Cat Stevens, a/k/a Yusuf Islam, would have to journey elsewhere to find a highly disciplined and zealous faith to replace the mediocre "religion" they were determined to leave behind.

Technically in Orthodox eyes Yusuf Islam apostasized — something that carries a heavier penalty in Islam than in Orthodoxy — but the man and his religion have earned my respect.*

The one thing about Suleiman (n� John Walker Lindh)'s story I don't admire is not that he was willing to take up arms against the secular West — perhaps in the end time the true remaining Cathodox may do the same with what's left of Second Amendment rights (either that or go really, truly underground) — but that AFAIK he didn't hold a job and earn his fare or pay his bills abroad — the dad in Marin County did.

*As you know, I agree with the Russian priest who said Islam is the Mormonism of Orthodoxy.

http://oldworldrus.com

Personally, we don't know how to handle peace. We learn our values only during war times. Look at all the American flags bought, sold, and flown since Sept 11. One will always have a tendancy to fight and kill in a culture where one doesn't know peace.

What are the choices? A dull, often lackluster desire to be religious in a fast-food, channel-surfing, no responsibility world where nobody ain't gonna tell me what to do and believe ... or a culture that doesn't respect itself or each other and so they must kill as a regular way of life.

The lost souls who seek after Islam will inflate the ranks of Islam as did those in the Byzantine Empire did because it was the state religion. Islam will defend itself to the death as did Constantine's descendents; and then someday a prophet will raise his voice in the middle of the Islamic countries and we will witness a pop and a fiz. It only takes one leader to renounce his faith in Islam to start a whirlwind. But that is assuming they don't kill him first.

Once Islamic countries stop their bloodshed and live peacefully with themselves and enjoy real wealth, the too will eventually dump religion. Once Hollywood and Disney gets established in Afghanistan, Iran and Iraq and have a field-day bashing Islam and its founder without reproach, it will only take one or two generations for fasting, pilgrimages, and daily prayers to start getting in the way of their life-style.

[ 01-10-2002: Message edited by: Edwin ]

Abdur,

Where do you get the data that 300-400 people a day in the west convert to Islam? That would be 110,000 people a year.

I don't believe that Islam is a more "fulfilling" religion. I don't observe any higher proportion of "observent" Muslims vs. "nonobservent" ones. Every religion has its devotees vs. nominal members dichotomy. Reminds me of Americans who go to India to get "enlightened" and then realize that a majority of the Hindus in India are superstitious or secularists who care nothing about "enlightenment" and laugh at Americans and Europeans who go to India for that purpose!

Orthodox Christians and Byzantine Catholic Christians have conversions from mainstream Protestants seeking more. But then we lose members to evangelical Protestants "seeking more." Conversion has nothing to do with how "fulfilling" a religion can be. I could create the religion of anastasiosism where we drink lots of Dr. Pepper and worship goats (my favorite animal) and I would be "fulfilled."

Does that mean I would be divinized, though? Answer: NO.

Islam is a very simple religion to follow, because you are in a box: The greater Allah is, the lesser you are. GOd could never have become a man, because that would be "low" for him. Do the 5 pillars, and if your good outweighs your bad, you're saved.

Christianity is based on love between God and man, and an intimate union, where good works flow from the love, and draw us closer in. It is a different concept then Islam.

now are there Christian sects that deny the above? Yes. Are there Islamic sects that emphasize love of God and man? Yes. But as a whole does Islam have the means by which this love can be actualized--the union of God and Man in Jesus Christ, and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit? No.

anastasios

I agree with Anastasios -- be principled, but pick the right principles, please! I don't have a lot of respect for people who are simply principled, fighting for what they may consider to be -- however deluded -- a higher cause. That's an apologia for fanatacism, ISTM -- something which has never done any religion any good, in my opinion.

I don't think that the Hitler and Stalin analogies are directly on point -- I think these two, and particularly the latter, were more cynical than ideological, although they were masters of using ideology to their own personal benefit. It may apply to members of the Waffen-SS, however, or to some of tha various religious fanatics who have tormented humanity down through the ages.

Brendan

Abdur,

I wonder what would happen if the Islamic countries allowed an authentic freedom of religion? Will all the Closet Christians come out? How common is it for Muslims to attend Christian/Orthodox services on the side in the Balkans? You see, Abdur, this country does involve itself with keeping its people 'in-line' under a particular religion. Americans who convert to Islam have a right to choose a faith of their choice. Islam, like its friend, Fundamentalism, cannot tolerate such freedom.

New Secularism in the Arab World
http://www.secularislam.org/skeptics/secularism.htm[/URL]

Jihad, the Arab Conquests and the Position of Non-Muslim Subjects
http://www.secularislam.org/jihad/index.htm

[ 01-10-2002: Message edited by: Edwin ]

Anastasios,

In Europe, Muslims are building more mosques than Christians are building churches. In Great Britain, churches are being converted into mosques; mosques are not being converted into churches.

My figures are from a source that I consider reliable, but even if they are not exact, Islam in increasing in Europe by the thousands, year by year. Obviously, these converts have a story to tell---one that is positive vis a vis Islam. But 100,000+ per year sounds reasonable to me, considering the facts.

A few points:

Fighting, or holy wars, is not---I repeat NOT--- a "regular part" of the life in Islam. The majority of Muslims have never engaged in warfare against the West---accept in a spiritual sense---and do not rise in the morning with the thought of engaging in "jihad." For 99.9% of Muslims, 'Jihad" is a much more mundane affair that is spiritual in intention and practice,i.e., will I watch the ball game this afternoon or will I fulfill my commitment to read and pray the Qur'an. That is the typical "jihad," and certainly not atypical.

The majority of Islamic countries are at peace with one another.

"Allah is closer to you than your jugular vein." Islam is a personal and intimate relationship with Allah.
There is much more to Islam than what the Christian fundamentalists refer to as "works righteousness."

Fulfilling the Five Pillars is not an assurance of salvation; that is a gross oversimplification of Islam. One does not have to search any farther than the Qur'an to see that Islam is also a religion of grace and Allah is also a merciful Lord who saves by grace.

Strange---Most of the Muslims I know believe that Allah is a loving Lord and would feel quite alienated from the western stereotype of the God of Islam as some type of fierce deity waiting impatiently to cast His children into the fiery pit. The Christian scriptures certainly are straightforward about the pits of Hell! That is an issue not unique to Islam.

It is true that Islam is a religion based on submitting one's ego and self-serving, or narcissistic desires, to the superior character of God, and becoming god-like in one's personal character, via the process.

There are many "theological schools" within Islam. It would be absolutely impossible for one leader to captivate the Ummah Islam and force..or even cajol...the majority of Muslims into submitting to his will or direction. No...I repeat...no single Islamic leader since the 2nd or 3rd century after the Great Migration has been able to perform that magical trick.

Most Muslims leaders realize that the Holy Qur'an has been misused (like the Bible) and has brought some to the abyss of destruction. Muslims must remember that the Qur'an is like a rope: you can pull yourself out of a pit with it, or you can hang yourself. Rope is not good or evil, but how you use it can be!

Many Muslim countries, in both the middle east and Asia, have become technological clones of the West, but have resisted, very successfully, the moral corruption ( with the exception of certain politicians!) and the baser elements of the West without sacrificing Islam, or succumbing to an Islam that is rooted in the "stone age" or vicious Talibanism. But I understand why other religions would want to stigmatize or stereotype Islam. That is a by-product of our success, appeal, and indomitable strength and spirit.

Only God is Great!

Abdur

[ 01-10-2002: Message edited by: Abdur Islamovic ]

[ 01-11-2002: Message edited by: Abdur Islamovic ]

I agree with Anastasios and Brendan on this. There have to be basic and fundamental principles that direct the way that one both prays and lives one's life. The commandments are perfect examples: they aren't quite "laws" in the sense that they guide individual actions, but rather serve as overarching principles that act together in harmony to guide us in our decision-making.

The rub is: Christianity is an adult religion; a religion that requires of its members both prayer and reflection prior to undertaking some task. The "easy way out" folks have a tendency to just point to "laws" and say: "That's It!" [Sort of the type that have the bumper sticker that says: "Jesus said it. I believe it. That ends it."]

And this is the inherent danger of fundamentalism of whatever type. The 'principles' are honored by being put on a pillar; but the REAL instigators for daily life are the "laws" that supposedly come out of the principles. It's much easier to follow what someone tells you is a "law", than to actually have to sit down and think -- and pray [without the TV on].

I am not convinced that this pampered kid from Marin had the mental wherewithal to actually recognize the difference between principles and "laws" and to understand the implications of making choices.

As a teacher of more than a few years, I suspect that he was one of what I call the "contrarians". No matter what anyone says, demonstrates or proves, the contrarian will always make another choice. Loudly. My suspicion is that the contrarians do this in order to gain some attention from others - a way to blast forth from what they perceive as their place in an otherwise bland and anonymous society. I can certainly sympathize.

Like the Goth kids who dye their hair jet black and wear spiked dog collars on the street, they just want to be given some attention. I think that Mr. Walker wanted the same thing. And his parents financed his fantasy big time. (Lucky kid.) They could have saved themselves a lot of money and heartache if they had only been able to get through to him that he didn't have to rebel in this way. Sure, establish an identity of one's own (that's what the teenage years are for), but do it so that you have respect for the PRINCIPLES of the American and the (sorta-kinda) Judeo-Christian civil religion that pervades U.S. culture.

Perhaps it would be best for him to return home and be forced to work at Starbucks and do the weekly therapy thing. (He'd probably HATE it.) But it might also give him a second chance to re-build his identity.

(For the record, under old English Common Law, if a kid was recalcitrant and disobedient, up until the age of 17, his father could flog him, even "untoe death" as a 'correction'. No murder charge. Hmmmmm.)

Blessings!

How many Closet Christians would come out of the closet?

--I don't know. How many are there?

Very few Slavic Muslims would attend Christian services in Bosnia. Considering the fact that 200,000 Slavic Muslims were butchered in Bosnia by "Christians" only a decade ago, most Slavic Muslims would find such an experience unbearable.

I believe in religious freedom, as do most of the Muslims of the West, as well as those of the largest Muslim country, Indonesia, as well as Malaysia; large groups of Shia Muslims in Pakistan and India; Jordanian Muslims; Slavic Muslims of Bosnia, Macedonia, Bulgaria, Russia; Pomaks; Islamicized Greeks; Gypsies; Circassians; Causcasian Muslims; Ukrainian and Romanian Tatars; Chinese Muslims; Cambodian, Burmese, and Japanese Muslims; and Central Asiatic Muslims, WHO COMPRISE THE MAJORITY OF THE WORLD ISLAMIC POPULATION!

Fanatical Arab and Iranian Muslims are THE MINORITY WITHIN THE ISLAMIC WORLD.

Btw: Indonesia is the largest (in population) Muslim nation. No Islamic armies brought the message of Islam to Indonesia: it was brought by merchants and missionaries.

Al'ham'dullah.

Abdur

Let's not forget what the Turks did to the Serbs first, and what the KLA is doing to Serbs now, and what those fanatics in Macedonia are doing to the legitimate government.

Let's not forget what Indonesian Muslims are doing to Christians as we speak. Sudanese Muslims are killing and enslaving Christians as we speak. Fanatical Muslim extremists are engaging in supreme nastiness in Kashmir, India right now (note: I do not support the current Indian government either).

Abdur, your tactic seems to be like this:

1: Yes I agree both religions have fanatics who kill in the name of their religion.

2: Fanatics are not really representative of their religion.

3: "Christian" fanatics are killing Muslims now.

4: Therefore Christians are butcherers of innocent Muslims.

You forgot your own caveat that fanatics are representative of their religion.

You also forgot to mention that the Serbs who killed Muslims are killing in the name of their RACE not religion. Not so with Islam, my friend.

Do I support killing of anyone? No. But I don't accept your attempts to make Muslims look like innocent victims. And if you think I am anti-Islamic, you are wrong again as I am very pro-Islam in India where I was twice for 2 months each time. In fact, i was engaged to a Muslim girl last year.

anastasios

My syllogism is not as global as yours.

The truth is, my reference to Slavic Muslims butchered in Bosnia by "Christians" (note the quotation marks, as in so-called) refers specifically to a question asked me about Slavic Muslims. I did not globalize my answer, as you state, by stating or even implying that "all" Christians are butchers. Never said it...never would.
By the way, Slavic Muslims are a race or ethnic group. Not all Slavic Muslims are religious, but consider themselves to be an ethnic group.* Neither you or I know if (a) Serbs were killing in the name of their race or, (b) Slavic Muslims were killing in the name of Islam, especially when one knows, that the majority Slavic Muslims in Bosnia are secularized. ( See above *)
What NATO, UN, US Congress, World Court, and even Bosnian Serbs who served in the Bosnian Muslim army agree upon is the fact that (a), the Serbs were the aggressors, (the Muslims had no army in the beginning of the hostilities), and (b) the Muslims suffered the vast majority of casualities, and the vast majority of those casualities were civilians. None of this 50/50 fantasy.


Butchery? Butchery is butchery by any other name. Call it what you will.

On some of your other points, I will agree with you because they are facts, not tendentious emotional outbursts.

Indonesia? You are correct about the killing of Christians by Muslims. You neglected to include the fact that Christians also kill Muslims and you failed to point out that these outbursts are isolated, do not involve the majority of Muslims or Christians, do not reflect the ideology of the majority of Indonesians, and you neglected to point out that in Indonesia Christians also kill their fellow Christians. (You probably remember that the most lethal pro-union militias that fought the independence forces in East Tibor were Christian militias. I mean, Muslim Indonesians do not have Portuguese Christian names!) And Muslims kill their fellow Muslims.

But aren't we getting way off topic here and just repeating what is posted elsewhere?

Sincerely,

Abdur

[ 01-10-2002: Message edited by: Abdur Islamovic ]