.
From a
humanitarian viewpoint, great news in Iraq.
Many of the Yazidi were saved by the Kurds in Iraq and Syria with a hand
from the US food drops and US / Iraqi attacks on ISIS / ISIL chokepoints.
.
Oddly enough Former Pastor and current
“American Family Values” spokesnut Brian Fischer thinks the Yazidi deserve to
die because they are devil worshipers.
He gets this nugget of information from the ISIS terrorists, which in
the whole “the enemy of my enemy is my friend” puts him in odd company. The American Family Association and the most
zealotic of the jihadis are deciding who gets to die – which is a bizarre use of
religion, but internal consistency isn’t the strong point of either sect.
 |
| Standing for Faith and Values says "Let Them Die" |
But this is
where I find the internet amazing and interesting.
.
I did a
little research on the Yazidi. Their
beliefs are fascinating – as far as we can tell. We are dependent on Western “recreations” of
their oral epics. Essentially, the do
worship Gob by following an Archangel – the Peacock Angel. The Peacock Angel is Not Satan (in their
religion so the Archangel through which God appears to man, the whole “Satan”
thing is a corruption of their religion by Islam), but rather an Archangel that
chose between good and evil. Originally
the Archangel chose wrong and was sentenced to Hell. But his tears of remorse put out the flames
and God released him and he now leads the Yazidi along with 6 lesser angels for
the Lord.
.
The ability
to choose between good and evil is key part of the religion. Yazidi believe that they are descended from
Adam (and not Eve). They believe this
because they believe Adam chose good and Eve, not so much. Yazidi also draws on the Roman Mithraic
Mysteries – in with Mithra is the Primary God, and God of the sun and a keeper
of the covenant. (Also a step between
the idea of multiple Gods, and a belief in a central diety.)
.
And this is
where it all gets fascinating (for me).
I listened to classes on early Christian Churches (from 1st
to 4th centuries AD). After
Jesus’ life, churches proliferated with the teachings of Christ and different
interpretations, until the Romans consolidated all Christianity under
Catholicism. (Non-Catholic / Protestant Christianity didn’t reappear strongly
until the 15th Century). The
Yazidi (and the Roman Mithraic cults) were one of the variations of early
Christianity. Declared as heretical by
the Roman Catholic Church, Yazidi none the less follows an early form of
Christianity, where Jesus offered a choice between good and evil, right and
wrong.
.
Then there
is the tie between this early Christian tradition and the Mithra cults of
Roman. The Mithraic church incorporated
a choice of god and evil - an incorporation of the Christian choice -into the
Roman pantheon of Gods. The Mithraic
tradition survived from the first to fourth centuries as well, before the
adoption of the Catholic Cannon and outlawing of other forms of Christianity.
.
 |
| Jajce, Bosnia and Herzegovina. I was there!! |
Delving
deeper in the waters of coincidence, when I was in Jajce, Bosnia, there was a
Mithraic Temple. One of the few existing in the world (lost until 1930). Bosnia was also one of
the early (non-surviving) forms of Catholicism.
Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Catholics fought between each, and
the Bosnia Church (located physically between them) was wiped out. I wonder if the Bosnian Catholic Church
(which lasted until about the 12th century) incorporated parts of
the Mithraic or Yazidi doctrines of choice between good and evil.
.
Anyway – it
is all interesting. And I got to see the
Mithraic Temple long before I had any idea what it was (last December). All of this combines with my sense of morality in an odd "deju vu" kind of way.
 |
| My trip to Jajce last December. My pictures of the Temple didn't come out. |
If there is
a God, (and I try to live as if there is a God), then I believe that God would
give people a choice in acting in ways that are good or evil. People may not align on small things, but we
do agree on many, many large moral questions.
Murder and child abuse are both amoral and wrong. Theft and lying are amoral and wrong –
although lesser moral wrongs murder and child abuse.
.
I also think
condemning thousands of Yazidi, including small children, to death because you
don’t understand or agree with their religion is amoral. Despite what ISIS or the American Family
Association proclaims, condemning them to death (or complaining about saving
them) is not a Godly act – it is a choice of evil.