Common Threads: Muslims and Relativists

Fr James Schall, SJ, on the use of violence to spread one's religion:

...Christian revelation was addressed to reason, hence its attention to Plato and Aristotle. This direction meant that reason had its own autonomy. Something contrary to reason – like the idea that God approved violence in forcing conversion – could not be something God “revealed” over and above reason....

...If this prohibition is so in reason, how was it that Muslim armies and individuals over the centuries, and even today, have found little difficulty in using it? The answer is philosophical. This philosophical justification appears in several forms in history. It is part of our national culture today in the form of relativism and multiculturalism. Basically, it means that nothing objective exists in things. Hence, nothing limits anything. We are “free” to do what we want. This position is generally called “voluntarism,” a dominant species of liberalism...

...In its Muslim form, which seems to be rooted in al Ghazali and in Ibn Hazm, to whom Benedict referred. In Islam, the notion that God is limited by anything, even His own decrees or reason, is seen to be an insult to Allah. Allah can do the opposite of what he commands. He can call good evil and evil good. He is under no obligation to reveal truth to man. And if he does, he can change his mind and will the opposite later on....

The passage which is worrisome is highlighted in the second graf.  We're seeing violence justified by relativism here in the US; it's called "abortion."  In fact, the gods of relativism now require that all US taxpayers finance the violence of abortion through ObamaCare.  "Death panels" are certainly exhibits of relativism, as well.

What's next?