Pavens ord og alt det der
En masse mennesker rundt omkring i verden debatterer ivrigt hvad paven mon sagde eller ikke sagde, og midt i al denne diskussion må jeg vel hellere tilstå, at jeg selv føler mig ganske neutral:
Jeg er ganske ligeglad med, hvad Hans Overflødighed sagde eller hvordan det skulle forstås; måske fordi jeg trods alt aldrig har forventet at skulle høre noget særligt, om man så må sige, høreværdigt fra den kant.
Men det er måske også ligegyldigt, hvad jeg mener - jeg er trods alt hverken muslim eller katolik. Jeg iler derfor med at citere nogen, der i hvert fald er én af delene, nemlig den arabiske blog Adventures in Dubai, som mener at kende en storm i et glas vand, når han ser den:
I get the sense that not one of the protesting Muslims has any idea of the context in which the Pope uttered those words (indeed there were questions on the UAE Community blog as to where and when these words had come from).Så - hvis du gerne vil vide præcis, hvad paven sagde, så er det bare at klikke, og fluks får du chancen for at læse hele molevitten. Og det kan du så passende gøre, før du giver dig til at kloge dig i den ene eller den anden retning over hvad du nu mener eller ikke mener om pavens ord ...
Well, he was not standing on his balcony or at a pulpit. The offending words were said as part of a private lecture at a University - they were quoted from an historical source and were not intended to represent the thoughts of the Pontiff himself. The lecture is densely theological, and I've included the full text of it below. If you can understand it, good on yer!
As I understand it, El Papa is arguing for rationality and reason in religion, as opposed to blind faith and authoritarianism. He also spends quite a lot of time slagging off the Ancient Greeks, but I'm not hearing any protests from them. I will admit that his first example was a very bad choice (he would, perhaps, have been better off citing the Spanish Inquisition - the Catholic Church has not exactly been squeaky-clean throughout the centuries).
But here's the point. If an academic cannot be free to expound, explore and explain controversial ideas in the context of an institute of learning, where can he do it? Every day, throughout the world, words are written and spoken in the name of learning that will undoubtedly cause great offence to someone, somewhere. It's that old freedom of speech thing again.
Here beginneth the lecture...
Selv tror jeg muligvis, jeg har bedre ting at tage mig til.