I have always found the CSM fair and balanced.  It also provides more analysis than many other papers.
 
Arthur
-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]On Behalf Of Brad McCormick
Sent: Friday, April 28, 2006 6:06 AM
To: Christoph Reuss
Cc: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [Futurework] Daniel Quinn: Radical Hair-Shirt Armageddonist

Quoting Christoph Reuss <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>:

> Brad McCormick wrote:
>> Here's a different perspective, from the Christian Science Monitor:
>>
>> "What place for God in Europe?"
>>
>> http://csmonitor.com/2005/0222/p01s04-woeu.html?s=spworld
>
> I think the CSM is exaggerating the relevance of religious debates
> in Europe (but then, what else could be expected from a magazine with

> "Christian.." in its title?). 

One thing that has always struck me about the Christian

Science Monitor newspaper is its general fairness on

ideological and religious issues.  I have never come across

an example of "the monitor" slanting anything in a

pro-religious direction, unlike, e.g., as the article points

out, George W Bush.  Has anyone ever seen anything

in "the monitor" that even looked like it was

pushing the agenda of any religious faith?  Indeed,

I think "the monitor" is one of the least one-sidedly

pro-Israel mainstream newspapers -- not that they

are anti-Israel, but they tell you what the

Palestineans are thinking in a relatively dispassionate

way.  I generally trust "the monitor".  Anyone disagree?

The debates that the CSM refers to


> are about unconstitutional activities and dangers of certain religious
> splinter groups rather than about the relations between religions and

> secularism in general. 

When the new pope was being elected, the 3 main

concerns the cardinals were addressing, according to one

commentator associated with the RCS, were: (1) internal

church governance, (2) relations between the Roman Church and

Islam, and (3)  secularism, especially in Europe -- the commentator

even used a term I found evocative: he said Europe was

increasingly "post religious". 

In this sense it's also strange that the CSM


> article omits Judaism in its first phrase: "Across Europe, the conflicting

> currents of secularism, Christianity, and Islam

How big an issue is Judaism today, compared with

"secularism, Christianity, and Islam"?  The article did not

mention Bahai, Buddhism, TM, The Unification Church,

Hinduism or a number of other religions, either....

I would argue that the most important thing is not

what religion persons happen to believe in, but whether

they think they should judge themselves and others by the

dictates of that religion (George Bush, Osama bin Laden,

the Pope, et al.), or whether they should judge

the tenets of that religion (including its Deity/ies, etc./et al.)

according to their own and others'

rational deliberations (the idea of

Europe, and of any other self-reflectively self-accountable

beings there may be in the universe and in history...).

"Yours in discourse...."

\brad mccormick

are compelling Europeans


> to wrestle with their values as never before."
>
> Chris
>
>
>
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>


--
  Let your light so shine before men,
              that they may see your good works.... (Matt 5:16)

  Prove all things; hold fast that which is good. (1 Thes 5:21)

<![%THINK;[SGML+APL]]> Brad McCormick, Ed.D. / [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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