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1nathanielcampbell
I know it was last week and that makes this "late to the party," as it were; but since nobody else has started a thread about the Al Shabab attack on the university in Kenya, I thought I'd put one together (since we managed to have at least two threads in the first two days for Charlie Hebdo).
So: more than 140 students are dead (the Christians among them specifically targeted). Thoughts?
So: more than 140 students are dead (the Christians among them specifically targeted). Thoughts?
2Jesse_wiedinmyer
Seems to be about as stupid and shitty as this...
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/africa/2015/01/un-muslims-ethnically-cleansed-car-...
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/africa/2015/01/un-muslims-ethnically-cleansed-car-...
3Jesse_wiedinmyer
While we're late to the party, this one seems to spring to mind every time.
4John5918
>3 Jesse_wiedinmyer:
Jesse, I know that is satire, but it actually sums up the feelings of many religious people. Thanks for posting it.
Jesse, I know that is satire, but it actually sums up the feelings of many religious people. Thanks for posting it.
5Jesse_wiedinmyer
Yeah, it's a pretty great piece.
6krolik
>1 nathanielcampbell: If your main point is that these Kenyan Christian students' lives are to be as valued as much as the lives of victims of the Charlie Hebdo attack, well, sure. Absolutely.
Where it becomes more delicate is if there's another implication here, a broader suggestion that Christian lives don't matter as much in our discourse as other lives, and they're getting shafted in the cultural conversation. That's an assertion of a different magnitude.
If that is the intended implication, I think it's better to come out and say this grievance explicitly, and test it with more rigor.
Or am I being unfair or projecting too much onto your OP?
For myself, I think that while the recent dramatic unleashing of violence against Christians as Christians has been unappreciated or worse, glibly glossed over by some "liberal" media, this oversight is largely a reflection of proximity and cultural parochialism, and not a specific animus against Christians per se.
(Sure, there is snark, but there's no doubt about who's top dog; I'm speaking of an American-Euro context.)
If mass executions and beheadings of Christians were taking place in Omaha or Lille, the cultural conversation would be different. But since the atrocities overwhelmingly take place "over there," these grave events get instrumentalized toward local ends.
I'm not saying this is "right" or "normal." But it is, typical.
We (and I mean folks of all camps) like to think it's all about us.
Where it becomes more delicate is if there's another implication here, a broader suggestion that Christian lives don't matter as much in our discourse as other lives, and they're getting shafted in the cultural conversation. That's an assertion of a different magnitude.
If that is the intended implication, I think it's better to come out and say this grievance explicitly, and test it with more rigor.
Or am I being unfair or projecting too much onto your OP?
For myself, I think that while the recent dramatic unleashing of violence against Christians as Christians has been unappreciated or worse, glibly glossed over by some "liberal" media, this oversight is largely a reflection of proximity and cultural parochialism, and not a specific animus against Christians per se.
(Sure, there is snark, but there's no doubt about who's top dog; I'm speaking of an American-Euro context.)
If mass executions and beheadings of Christians were taking place in Omaha or Lille, the cultural conversation would be different. But since the atrocities overwhelmingly take place "over there," these grave events get instrumentalized toward local ends.
I'm not saying this is "right" or "normal." But it is, typical.
We (and I mean folks of all camps) like to think it's all about us.
7nathanielcampbell
>6 krolik: "Or am I being unfair or projecting too much onto your OP? "
I think you're projecting. I just noticed that it was a major news story that hadn't yet had a thread in our group, so I put one together. Not much more to it than that.
I appreciate your comments on media coverage, and there's more I want to write on that angle, but I don't have time tonight. Rain check, perhaps (as the rain lashes the windows here in Kentucky)?
I think you're projecting. I just noticed that it was a major news story that hadn't yet had a thread in our group, so I put one together. Not much more to it than that.
I appreciate your comments on media coverage, and there's more I want to write on that angle, but I don't have time tonight. Rain check, perhaps (as the rain lashes the windows here in Kentucky)?
