Spoiler alert: \u00a0no.<\/p>\n
But here\u2019s what I\u2019m thinking:<\/p>\n
Obama repeatedly insists that ISIS is \u201cnot Islamic\u201d and calls it, when he\u2019s willing to label it at all, a \u201cdeath cult.\u201d \u00a0And he likes to speak of young people being lured into the cult, as if they can\u2019t help it and don\u2019t really know what they\u2019re doing. \u00a0And he and his spokespeople like to say that these perverted offshoots of religions have happened all the time, to Christians, too, and he tends to imply that it\u2019s just bad luck that it\u2019s Islam\u2019s turn this time.<\/p>\n
I think that what he has in mind is something like the Jim Jones\u2019 People\u2019s Temple cult, except that instead of drinking kool-aid, devotees are barbarously murdering others.<\/p>\n
Some time ago, I read a book about the cult. \u00a0(If it was in the past 1.5 years, I\u2019d pull up the summary I would have written on it, but it was longer ago than that.) \u00a0This is what I remember of a story that was a lot more than \u201cbrainwashed crazies killed themselves\u201d (fair warning, this is from memory and details may be inaccurate):<\/p>\n
First, Jim Jones had his start as a \u201cfaith healer\u201d in a church that claimed to be \u201cChristian\u201d \u2014 but he himself never actually believed; he just found it convenient to let his followers think that he was Christian, but his preaching wasn\u2019t about that, but about two things, primarily: \u00a0racial justice, and his own claimed ability to heal, which he \u201cproved\u201d via plants in the audience. \u00a0Later on, he simply abandoned any pretense of a link to Christianity, and wanted his followers to consider him as God. \u00a0Early followers believed they were founding a new, racially inclusive and just community, others believed that they had been healed or that Jones would someday heal them, but soon enough, many were trapped. \u00a0I remember one family where Jones commanded the dad to sign the bottom of a blank piece of paper, that would later be used to blackmail him, by adding in a typed \u201cconfession\u201d above. \u00a0The wife was a true believer, and the husband was as much trapped by the need to protect his family, especially his children. <\/p>\n
Once they arrived in Guyana, everyone was well and truly trapped. \u00a0They started out enthusiastic about the vision of cultivating this new land, but the land was not especially fertile. \u00a0(It seems to me that Jones also spent too much of the cult\u2019s money, that is, money turned over to him by members, on luxuries for himself, but I\u2019m not sure of the degree, in his case.) \u00a0And Jones raved about the need to follow him \u00a0unquestioningly, and had \u201cdrills\u201d in which he previewed for them their final fate, calling on them to drink from what was claimed to be poison, as a loyalty test. \u00a0When he made the final decision that everyone should die, the inner core were willing to follow him in any case, others, the first ones, complied because they thought this was another test, but when it was clear what was happening, others tried to escape and were hunted down, though some did escape, either by running into the jungle, or hiding, or some sort of \u201cplaying dead.\u201d<\/p>\n
That\u2019s what I remember. \u00a0Bottom line: \u00a0the \u201crank and file\u201d members of this cult were victims, manipulated and trapped and controlled by the inner circle.<\/p>\n
And that\u2019s what Obama is claiming about ISIS and its recruits. \u00a0ISIS leadership is like the inner circle of a cult like the Jonestown cult, and its recruits are not joining up of their own free will with their eyes wide open, but doing so as a result of manipulation and deceit. <\/p>\n
And just as Jonestown had its roots in Christianity but was in no way Christian, so, too, ISIS has Islamic roots but is not Islamic.<\/p>\n
Is that right? \u00a0Does that make sense?<\/p>\n
It goes back to Obama\u2019s, and many ecumenists\u2019 and secularists\u2019 fundamental misunderstanding of religion. \u00a0\u201cAll religions are basically the same: \u00a0love God and love your neighbor.\u201d \u00a0No: \u00a0Jesus said that this was the Law, distilled. \u00a0He did not say this was the core fundamental truth that all religions profess, or even that this was the core fundamental truth about God that he came to teach.<\/p>\n
Christianity says: \u00a0God sent his (divine) Son, Jesus to save us from our sins.<\/p>\n
Islam says: \u00a0God wants us to submit to him in the manner prescribed by the Quran and the example of Mohammed.<\/p>\n
Hinduism says: \u00a0the sort of life you live now, determines the life circumstances you\u2019ll be born into next time around. \u00a0Plus, here are some rituals to gain favor with God\/the gods.<\/p>\n
etc.<\/p>\n
Jim Jones abandoned, or, rather, never believed in the first place, that core Christian belief. \u00a0ISIS absolutely proclaims that they observe the core belief of Islam in its purest form.<\/p>\n
And, by the way, does this matter? \u00a0Surely we can bomb ISIS strongholds whether or not we\u2019re correct about their beliefs. \u00a0But we can\u2019t get a handle on the ever-multipling number of \u201clone wolves\u201d and recruits from Western countries if we\u2019re unwilling to talk openly about what they believe. \u00a0And the fundamental problem that the administration and its favored Muslim leaders are unwilling to address is this: \u00a0it\u2019s simply too easy to transform the Islam that ISIS recruits and sympathizers have been taught in their homes, into the Islam preached by the Islamists.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Spoiler alert: \u00a0no. But here\u2019s what I\u2019m thinking: Obama repeatedly insists that ISIS is \u201cnot Islamic\u201d and calls it, when he\u2019s willing to label it at all, a \u201cdeath cult.\u201d \u00a0And he likes to speak of young people being lured into the cult, as if they can\u2019t help it and don\u2019t really know what they\u2019re […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2209,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[3,13,5],"class_list":["post-29","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-isis","tag-jonestown","tag-obama"],"yoast_head":"\n