Tag Archives: catholic

01/25/11

Day of the Spear King

Gense-ric (the “Spear King”) leader of the much-maligned Vandals, was one of the last Unitarian Christian leaders in the ancient world. Why would Unitarian Reform want to celebrate the life of a man who sacked Rome, persecuted other Christians, and whose people gave us the word “vandalize”?

The bad reputation of Genseric and his Vandals is a good example of history being written by the victors.

This is not to say that the Spear King and his armies were saints, particularly by the moral standards of the 21st Century. However, compared to the “ecclesiastical mafia” of Trinitarian saint Athanasius* or the cultic totalitarianism of Theodosius “The Great” who declared Nicene Christianity the only permissible religion in the Empire, Genseric was a bleeding-heart liberal of the ancient world.

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03/19/09

Comments on the Pope’s Visit to Africa

Despite AUR’s disagreement with Rome’s trinitarian theology, there is much to admire in a church that contains a variety of traditions, viewpoints, and saintly followings* that allow for diversity under a unifying central vision.  There is much more to Catholicism than the doctrine of the Trinity, a broad range of redeeming characteristics, which is unfortunately not the case for many Protestant trinitarian denominations.

Still, there are occasions for disagreement with the Vatican beyond the misadventures of the 4th Century, when it becomes instructive to show how the views of RCC and AUR differ.  During his recent travels in Africa, while speaking to Muslims in Cameroon, Pope Benedict stated that “genuine religion … rejects all forms of violence and totalitarianism: not only on principles of faith but also of right reason.” Continue reading →