Monday, October 09, 2006

Evangelicals and Kosovo...what the ???

The propoganda war is heating up over the final status of Kosovo and apparently some well known American Evangelicals are taking sides, here, here and here.

I am a little bewildered by these statements from Robertson and Falwell.  As far as I know neither they, nor their staffs, have ever visited Kosovo or spoken with evangelicals in Kosovo, let alone the Albanian leaders of the evangelical church in Kosovo.  I am bewildered that they would either take sides, or allow themselves to be placed in a position where they appear to be taking sides.

The Albanian Muslims and Orthodox Serbs fought a vicious war, but it is a mistake to confuse anti-Serb with Anti-West.  Roberston is quoted as saying: "We unleashed this curse upon the world!". He add that it was "absolutely scandalous that we should permit the establishment of an Islamic state in Kosovo and Metohija by robbing a sovereign state of part of its territory, with the aid of American money to boot."

Islamic state?  What the heck? 

9 comments:

Dr. D's Diagnosis said...

Dude, Robertson is an Evangelical in the same way that I am a Democrat, only on paper. His political acumen is even less impressive. I wonder who feeds him this stuff? He needs to get a real staff who has been outside of the zipcode. But you rock for busting their chops, Way to go FRED! D

Jeff said...

These guys are killin' us. Stop the maddness ;)

bytycci said...

hey Jeff,
thanks for your answer about the Law on religion.
Those things need to be regulated, especially in countries which don't have a Common Law system like the US does. I am just worried that may be in the future religions that are not mentioned in the document will have more difficulty in asserting their rights.

As far as the evangelicals are concerned, I have read about this. Don't you think the Kosovo evangelicals should say something about this? I think it is a responsibility. May be they can make a statement together with the Catholic church in Kosovo.

Best

Jeff said...

bytyqis, thanks for the note. The law as I saw it last outlines various categories of "faith communities" and the procedures for being granted recognition, etc. Hopefully it will be fair for everyone and well-implemented.

Regarding the Robertson issue I do believe evangelicals should be talking about this. On Oct 10th there was a meeting at one of the churches in Prishtina to talk about the issue and what our collective response should be.

Since I'm in the US for a year I haven't heard the results of the meeting but I agree with you.

Thanks for commenting! Also, please keep posting to your blog! I'm using it for Albanian language practice while I'm away :)

Anonymous said...

Not content to mess things up for you guys in Kosovo, pat Robertson has made life difficult here in Latin America with his talk of assassinating Hugo Chavez.

Granted, Chavez needs to go. But Robertson needs to shut his "matraca".

fultonphishmonger said...

Thank God Robertson and Falwell has the Balls to side withthe Serbs on this. There is hope afterall.

Jeff said...

Andrew...I'd forgotten about his 'assassinate Chavez' remark! His 'matraca' either needs some better staff behind it or at least it shouldn't be broadcast worldwide.

sdcheung...would you care to elaborate? I'd be interested in hearing your take.

fultonphishmonger said...

from an earlier email I sent to my List....

While I don't really feel comfortable having Falwell and Robertson
attached to this issue, at least they are doing something right and
haven't put their foot in their mouth yet.

As you can see the aforementioned evangelists do not want independence
because they fear the Muslim threat. I am OK with that. But, what price
are they extracting from the Kosovo for their help in this matter?
(mainly the Chistian Orthodox Kosovo Serbs.) There's always an agenda with
these two.

The Agenda of having a piece of the evangelization pie. The Orthodox Serbs are already evangelised for 1300 years.

Jeff said...

I think I understand now. Thanks for coming back and commenting. The issues revolving around the future of Kosovo are emotionally charged and complex. Thanks for stating your opinion so well.