BELIEVE, THINK, ACT

Mitt Romney

Mitt Romney, a man with the charisma of a wardrobe, is running for the US presidency. As part of his campaign he is visiting three nations which have close connections with the USA: Britain, Israel and Poland. These are countries which influence or contain large groups of US voters and potential donors.

At a donors’ breakfast in Israel, Romney offered his take on the “dramatically stark differences in economic vitality” between Israel and the Palestinian territories.  In his estimation at least part of the reason for the disparity are the cultural differences between the two groups. As well as the automatic cries of “racism” this elicited glee in the media at the supposed gaffe, as Mark Mardell of the BBC told us last night, of “insulting the Palestinians.”

I don’t know if Romney is any more, or less, prejudiced than any of the rest of us, I do know that if I were trying to persuade a bunch of wealthy Jews in Jerusalem to donate to my political campaign I wouldn’t spend a lot of time praising those nice folks at Hamas and Fatah. Romney is a politician and this “gaffe” may well have brought him significant donations in Israel and votes back home.

It is easy to point out that a substantial reason for the disparity in living standards between Israel and the Palestinian territories is the blockade and other restrictions imposed on the territories by Israel. This, however, shores up Romney’s analysis, as the Palestinian terrorism and virulent anti-Semitism which gives rise to the blockade is a product of one of the main drivers of those cultural differences.

There is a larger picture to be taken into consideration. The Palestinian territories are not alone in the Middle East in having high levels of poverty, illiteracy, political corruption, misogyny, scapegoating of outsiders and repressive governance.

Over the last decade the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) has issued a series of studies conducted by independent researchers and scholars from the Arab world. The studies tried to find out why barriers which impede human and economic development persist in the Arab world.

As one would expect the findings blame poor governance, lack of individual freedom and gender inequality.  Precisely the social attitudes Romney summarized as “cultural” deficiencies among Palestinians. It is, however, somewhat doubtful that Mark Mardell would consider the UN to be gaffe prone.

According to the UN what impedes the good governance and economic and social progress of Arab societies are the “political and social flaws and constraints” on human freedom and the individual’s sense of personal security. There is not an Arab nation without what we in the West would consider massive constraints on the individual’s freedom and security.

The UN describes gender inequality as a “main obstacle” to full human development.  Throughout the Arab world more than half of Arab women were found to be illiterate. When we consider that some of the wealthiest nations on the planet are in the Middle East it becomes clear that this is not simply a matter of economic poverty.

Palestinian women have a long way to go before approaching the level of education, freedom and empowerment accepted as normal by the mass of Israeli women. This does not arise from poverty but rather gives rise to poverty and is a product of the ideology which is the source of the other poverty inducing cultural factors.

What the UN fails to stress is the main and determining  ‘cultural’ factor. The Arab world is a Moslem world and many of the constraints on human freedom and gender equality there, as elsewhere, arise from their interpretation of Islam.

What we believe shapes how we think and how we think shapes how we behave.

Ignorance Is Not Bliss

In a recent speech Michael Nazir-Ali, one-time bishop of Rochester, whilst complimenting David Cameron on his speech in which Cameron showed how the political development of the nation is inextricably bound up with Christian ideas, remarked on the difficulties confronting any effort to remake British society:

“One issue is religious literacy in the Civil Service, Parliament and local authorities. What Mr Cameron said about Christian ideas being embedded in our constitutional arrangements is no longer understood in the corridors of power. A disconnected view of history and the fog of multiculturalism have all but erased such memory from official consciousness.”

This came home yesterday as I listened to the Today programme on the likely results in the Iowa caucuses attempting to choose the Republican candidate for the forthcoming US election. In the opinion of the BBC the candidates were hoping “to prevent Obama winning re-election. Instantly the Republican candidates were cast as being only negative, with no more purpose than preventing the continuing incumbency of the media favourite.

Even more interesting was Mark Mardell’s report from Iowa in which he described Rick Santorum as an “evangelical Christian.” Rick Santorum is of course a devout Roman Catholic.

Rick Santorum - Still A Roman Catholic

This could be seen in two ways. It could, like the previous example, be in line with the cultural bias of the BBC and be an attempt to label Santorum with a denigrating label. In the BBC mindset evangelicals are really foaming at the mouth fundamentalists who wish to stone homosexuals and force everyone else to wear chastity belts. If they are Americans they also speak in tongues, marry their sisters and handle snakes. Scary or what?

Mark Mardell, is a leading political journalist and North American editor with BBC News. His assignment is to head the coverage of the year long elections in the USA where religious stance and  affiliation is very important, and yet he was completely unable to tell the difference between a Roman Catholic and an evangelical. This is more frightening than progressive bigotry, it is simple ignorance.

Mark Mardell - Still Ignorant

This attitude is not confined to the UK. Bill Keller is Executive Editor of the New York Times, America’s paper of record. Yet back in the autumn this commentator who has risen to the top of the journalistic tree could write, “Rick Perry, Michele Bachmann and Rick Santorum are all affiliated with fervid subsets of evangelical Christianity, which has raised concerns about their respect for the separation of church and state, not to mention the separation of fact and fiction.”

Whilst many may have their differences with Roman Catholicism it is doubtful that even their most virulent opponent would describe them as a “fervid subset of evangelical Christianity.” Note also the suggestion that because someone is supposedly an evangelical they are unable to tell the difference between fact and fiction.

I would disagree with the bishop inasmuch as we are facing something more than historical forgetfulness or the leavening effect of multicultural relativism. Christianity is not being forgotten by the cultural opinion formers amongst our progressive elites. To be forgotten you have first to be acknowledged; as far as progressives are concerned the subtleties of Christianity need not be understood nor its achievements acknowledged because to do so might be to give them credence in the minds of the hoi poloi.

For progressives Christianity is not to be forgotten, it is to be attacked.