I’m on a writing deadline this weekend and early next week. More on that later. Also, I’ve been literally glued to the computer watching what is going on in Iran.
In 1517 Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the church house door in Wittenburg, sparking the Protestant Reformation. This liberation of the faithful from the authority of Rome set the stage for the flowering of human freedom that led in turn to the Age of Enlightenment and eventually to the traditions of human freedom and democracy around which most of so-called Western Civilization is built.
It may or may not be coincidental that it is about 1400 years ago that Muhammed the Messenger (Peace be upon him.) recieved his first revelations from God from which was born the faith of Islam.
It is far too soon to tell where the mass movement in Iran will lead. However, I think we can draw one conclusion from them thus far. What we are seeing is the beginning of the end of Islamic theocracy in Iran and possibly on dictatorships throughout the Middle East.
As Andrew Sullivan wrote last night:
We have long wanted and needed a reformation of Islam and Islam’s relationship with politics. The two are connected: without some civil space for dialogue, how can anyone do the intellectual and theological work to forge a new Islam more compatible with democratic norms and individual freedom. Iran is beginning to show us how that can happen.
This will not look like Western democracy, but that’s the point.
This may yet end badly for Iran in the short term. But I think what we are seeing is the beginning of a years or decades long struggle to redefine Islam and the relationship of the people of the faith and their governments. That was, after all, one of the central effects of Christianity’s own (ongoing) reformation struggle. Such a reformation struggle in Islam can come none too soon. It is also most assuredly going to be as messy as Christianity’s.
