Culture Jihad in Tehran

Two Weeks that Shook the World

The story you are about to read begins with an invitation to speak at a conference on Hollywood in Tehran and ends with the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI. As you probably guessed, I feel that there is a link connecting these two events. The link is Islam’s uncanny ability to arrive on the scene when Christianity has failed in its mission. Martin Luther referred to this uncanny ability as the scourge of God. He should know he was the scourge of God in his own way. When Pope Alexander VI aborted the counter-revolution against sodomy and usury which Savonarola launched in Florence, God sent Luther and Islam as the scourge of God to purify a corrupted Christendom. When the counter-revolution against modernity that should have been launched by Vatican II got aborted, God sent the Iranian revolution of 1979 in its stead, and, as the movie Argo indicates, the reverberations are with us still. This is a report about the continuing implications of both fateful events.

E. Michael Jones

South Bend, Indiana

March 2013