Leon J. Podles :: DIALOGUE

Breivik saw a threat to European civilization and decided to commit a crime to call attention to the danger to Europe and thereby to avert an even greater evil. That is, he killed 80 people so that a whole civilization might be saved. He was a practical exponent of proportionalist consequentialism. He ignored the moral [...]

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In working in my new book, Meek or Macho? Men and Religion, I have been reviewing all the many, many ways that masculine development can go wrong.
Wolfgang Schmidbauer a German psychoanalyst, wrote a book, The Psychology of Terror: Why Young Men Become Assassins. He has these comments on Breivik:
Fanatical criminals like the Norwegian Anders [...]

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The media are describing Breivik, the Norwegian terrorist, as a Christian fundamentalist.
Fundamentalism has a specific theological meaning, and I doubt that Breivik has any strong opinions on the Virgin Birth or Substitutionary Atonement.
What the media seem to mean by a fundamentalist is a person with strong beliefs in a traditional religion of any sort, especially [...]

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Terrorists have used the media to spread their message, from the Unabomber to Breivik.
Terrorist attacks, however horrible, do not threaten society or lead to seizures of power. What they do is draw attention to the terrorist’ message.
The media are in a bind. It is impossible to ignore the destruction of the World Trade Center [...]

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