B is for bullshit

I don't believe in Creative Design, any biblical stories, hell, the devil, or even my church.

What keeps me 'Christian' is the hundreds of thousands that died over the centuries so that I can be a believer.

I've never questioned so much like I have right now. It's a paradox.

Be cool

Guidelines to overcoming double crossings.

Rule #1
Be calm, analyze the situation and do not respond unless needed to.

Rule #2
Your response should be calm and hiding your true emotions (or thoughts, wants or needs)

Rule #3
Be sneaky never let anyone now what your thinking or planning, be clever and power hungry.

Rule #4
Use whomever you can get for nothing in return, be a winner not a loser.

Rule #5
NEVER show your true emotions to anyone, no matter what.

Rule #6
Understand your closest friends, because even they can turn on you.

Rule #7
The battle is never over unless you win with their ultimate defeat.

A call for all Copts

The Free Copts has reported that the Maglis al-Milli elections are coming up and Coptic leaders are urging registered Coptic church goers to vote!

I urge Copts not to vote due to the voting requirements and because these elections are not free but act as a rubber stamp for his holiness.

Here is my beef with the Maglis al-Milli, from a previous post of mine:

The Coptic Orthodox Church like that of the Egyptian government has been led by strong men who are desperate not to give representation to their oppressed subjects. Not many Copts in the land of immigration know that we like our Catholic compatriots have a parliament one that is in charge of the inner dealings of the mother church. The Coptic Parliament or the Maglis al-Melli, is an institution that was created in 1874 to oversee the affairs of the Coptic community and manage church endowments. Briefly during the reign of Pope Cyril it activities came to a virtual freeze in 1956, but were revived in the 1970s. Al Ahram Weekly evaluates the voter restrictions that are placed on average church goers:

Council elections have been plagued in the past by low voter turnout and many blame the strict conditions for voter registration. Under the council's statutes, voters must be over 25 years old and have either a university degree or be registered as a businessman or land owners. These pre-conditions are dismissed by some detractors as "unconstitutional" and blamed, along with the apathy of many Copts, for poor turnout. Only 4,000 Copts are currently registered to vote.
This council has been in the past been a tool to further the rights of the Copts, but currently it is being controlled completely by our Pope Shenouda III. Presently there are no independent council members, nor are there any opposition members who do not have the backing of our Pope.

Even local church councils in the land of immigration follow this same trend of putting extreme power of the church’s finances in the hands of the priest. For the last twenty years my church has participated in ‘democratic’ elections that would even make President Mubarak blush. Just recently due to pressure from the congregation, mostly from my parents, did my priest allow true elections for the church council, one in which voters were chosen individually from amongst the congregation in true democratic elections.

A Copt's dream

Instead of going to Egypt and Israel this summer and investigating the reasons why Christian minorities feel out of place in these countries, I propose that I start an organization called Copts for Accountability.

What is Copts for Accountability?

Copts for Accountability is an organization of students and young Copts wanting a greater say in the daily affairs of the Church. We urge the diocese to publicly publish all financial statements electronically for all church members to view from the comfort of their homes. Financial transparency is a trait that keeps all organizations in check, making them more efficient in the ways they spend their money.

Why is their a need for financial transparency?

All organizations, charities and corporations have this information readily available to their members, so that they can rest assured that their money is being accounted for. No one is accusing the Southern Diocese of misusing monies donated to them from church members but greater accountability is needed to ensure that these monies go where they are supposed to.

Why do Young Copts need a greater say in the affairs of the Church?

My experiences with St. Philopateer Coptic Orthodox Church in Richardson, TX is one where I believe that monies were misused without the consent of the majority of the congregation. It's not that my priest drives a Mercedes or has a mini-mansion in an up-scale neighborhood, but I believe instead of building a $ 5 million dollar Church some of this donated money could be used to help the poor of Egypt who are converting to Islam on a daily basis. It is our responsibility as Coptic Americans to use our wealth to help those who are less fortunate, something I rarely see in my church back home. There are no movements to do a youth mission, where a group of Copts goes to Egypt and teaches English for a summer (www.copticorphans.com). Instead of being concerned with converting Americans, we should be concerned with strengthening the mother church.

Copts for Accountability is only a dream, something that most likely will not become a reality.

Is this dream too far fetched? please give me feedback.

Copt of the Month

Naguib Sawiris
CEO of Orascom Telecom
Net Worth: $ 2.6 Billion
Country: Egypt
Religion: COPTIC ORTHODOX

Diversity

The diverse cultures that I encountered at the University of Texas at Austin made the world seem larger than what it had previously had seemed. Being raised in an ultra-orthodox Christian home sheltered me from the different religions and cultures that the world has to offer. For the first time in my life I met Egyptian Jews, Muslims and Armenians, along with Israeli Arabs and a couple of Palestinian Christians.

As an officer in the Arab Student Association I dealt with an even larger number of foreign exchange students from the Gulf and a lot of students of Syrian or Palestinian descent. In the University setting, religion did not come in the way of being a leader in a Pan-Arab organization, unlike our homeland where religion is a major consideration for upward mobility. Although there was a Coptic Student Organization on campus, it was not appealing to me because it was centered on the church, not around the student.

Egypt was once a land where Jews, Christians and Muslims worked and lived together in the same areas. An Egyptian-Armenian, whose parents had immigrated to Switzerland following Nasser’s nationalization of industries, told me that her parents “lived in a country unparalleled in the world, one that was both cosmopolitan and parochial.” An Egyptian-Jew told me “there was a time in which I could consider myself as an Egyptian, but that time has passed.” The rise of Islamic extremism in Egypt has divided this once cosmopolitan country, pitting devout Muslims against secular Christians and Muslims. We should be weary of this trend and fight against it.

A Flock without a Shepard

One might ask how a flock can function without a Shepard to lead the way. Hundreds of sheep that follow the Shepard are weak, vulnerable and can easily be preyed upon by predators. The flock needs a strong Shepard, one who is willing to go the distance to make sure that every member of his flock is safe.

Parallel to this analogy of the Shepard and his flock, is that of the Coptic Pope and his children. The Coptic Orthodox Church which prides itself in protecting the tenets of Christianity through the Creed and being the birthplace of monasticism is on the verge of collapse.

His holiness Pope Shenouda III, came to power after the populist Pope Cyril died in 1971. Pope Shenouda’s III proactive approach openly challenged the discriminatory policies of the Egyptian government by expanding the services and even building new churches without obtaining building permits from the government. His Holiness’s new approach ushered in a bright era within the church, one in which new ideas such as the ‘Protestant’ idea of Sunday School could be accepted and used to educate thousands of children about their religion. During this era thousands of religious books were published, not just in Arabic but also in English and French, reflecting the rise of immigration to the Americas and Europe. The Coptic Church spread throughout the world with new churches being built in major metropolitan areas all around the world. America, Canada, Australia and Europe became the major regions of Coptic immigration.

President Sadat ordered major crackdowns (1979) following great disturbances in Egypt. Mass arrests of journalists, religious leaders, syndicate leaders, political party leaders and followers were perpetrated in hopes of stabilizing a quickly fragmenting society. Even the leader of the Coptic Orthodox Church was imprisoned within the walls a monastery as a measure to show even the Copts who was top dog of Egypt. President Sadat’s paranoia that other groups were secretly plotting against him prompted these harsh measures but they had gone too fat. The man who made peace with Israel in 1979 was assassinated by blood thirsty Islamists.

Five years after the assassination of President Sadat and his appointed Synod, his holiness Pope Shenouda III was finally released from the monastery to rejoin his flock. President Mubarak took on the reins of governance after the assassination of his predecessor Anwar As-Sadat. Mubarak’s rein didn’t differ from that of Sadat’s but became even harsher on those ‘troublesome’ Islamists who wanted to create an Islamic state.

Pope Shenouda came out of the monastery a lot meeker than when he went in. Instead of complaining against the government as his did before, he now worked with the government, instead of building churches without permits, he now urged the President to allow churches to be built, instead of butting heads with the government after sectarian violence, he allowed the authorities to let the inciters of these massacres go free.

The Coptic Church isn’t any stronger than it was before Pope Shenouda’s rule. Our once venerated Church is now filled with corruption and even infested with a clergy that has dhimmitude mentality. We as children of the Coptic Orthodox Church only have ourselves to blame, since we do not ask for more accountability from our Clergy since they are doing ‘God’s will’. We poke fun at Catholics for thinking that the Pope is infallible, yet we never question his decisions because it is simply the will of God. The abdication of Bishop Mathias, the Bishop over the Mahalah district, did not even raise eye brows but only reaffirmed our trust in a Pope that wants to rid any descent within the ranks of the clergy.

Without protest from out Church or any other civilian organizations, Coptic women have been abducted, raped and even forced to convert to Islam. Not a peep has been heard from our ‘infallible’ Pope who comes to America and tells his flock there not to complain about Egypt, because everything there is fine. Pope Shenouda’s monopoly on power has to be broken if we are to move forward in terms of equality, liberty and secularist thought for every Egyptian regardless of race, religion or creed.


Is everything really fine?