Liberals Talk Turkey
October 08, 2004
The recent tug-of-war over Turkey between conservative Islamic forces and liberalizing Western ones–particularly the European Union–place in stark relief the vexing complexities and difficulties faced by various religionists all over the world in this thoroughly secularized and pluralistic late modern age.In June, President Bush traveled to Turkey to stump for its acceptance and inclusion into the European Union. Bush called Turkey a nation “secular in politics and strong in its faith” and one that has “successfully blend[ed] a European identity with the Islamic traditions.”
For the Bush administration, Turkey represents another beachhead of freedom in the “war on terror.” For Bush, John Kerry, and most other westerners, Christians or not, Turkey’s qualifications in this regard are no different from America’s qualifications to lead that war: secular in politics and strong in faith. Of course, as many have noted, this publication included, the structures of secular politics and economics tend to have a corrosive and colonizing effect on what passes these days for “strong faith.”
Turkey is a prime case in point. As part of Turkey’s preparations to join the EU, it has conducted a thorough overhaul of its penal code, among other things, with the goal of bringing Turkish law into compliance with EU standards. Measures such as strengthening laws against torture were made part of the effort, and in order to maintain conservative support for the reform efforts, Turkey’s long-standing legal prohibition against adultery was codified in the new code.
In July, European Union officials balked at the proposed adultery provision. EU Commissioner for Enlargement, Guenter Verheuhen, called it a “joke,” and threatened that until Turkey fulfilled Copenhagen’s “political criteria,” its application to join the EU would be in jeopardy. Other EU bureaucrats suggested that the anti-adultery law would legally prevent Turkey from joining the EU, as such a law would violate the European Convention on Human Rights. Last month, in the face of Western pressure, Turkey quickly capitulated, to the consternation of conservative Muslims, and removed the offending law from its revised code.
American Evangelicals might be sympathetic with their Muslim counterparts given the battles they are currently fighting to hold the line on traditional concepts of marriage. But Christianity Today has chosen this week to emphasize a different aspect of Turkey’s liberalization. Writing in CT’s “Weblog,” Rob Moll extols Turkey’s “modernization” on the grounds that it is making that country safe for Christians. Moll quotes Verhuegen’s smug approval of Turkey’s “improving situation” and notes the testimony of a Greek Christian living in Turkey that: “Turkish membership in the EU will be the best guarantee for the future of this dwindling community.”
In no way do I wish to trivialize or downplay the significant persecution those Greek Christians have faced in a predominantly Muslim country, but somehow the vision of “Saddleback on the Black Sea” seems to demean the centuries old story of those Christians’ particular survival even more. Moll ends with an American missionary in Turkey who comments breezily that “we are relatively free and we are tolerated now.”
If this is the sum and substance of western missionary zeal these days–to be free and tolerated–(and I fear that all to often it is) then Christians have good reason to question the compromises with Liberalism they are wont to make. When going around, such compromises might only affect a Muslim country’s ability to buttress traditional sexual norms, but, when coming around Western Christians are likely to find themselves hamstrung by their own inability to do the same. I do not propose any answers here to the conundrum. But it seems that conventional Christian opinion has limited its horizons to being a kind of political thermostat: always seeking room temperature between “too secular” and “too religious.” And, well, they don’t call me the “Expectorator” for nothing.
This is Liberals Talk Turkey in The Japery, a part of The New Pantagruel. Previously: Piercing the Veil | Next: Heating Up Hell for Mark Noll and other Non-Voters | TrackBack (0) | Comments (0)
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