The University News (Irving, Tex.), Vol. 34, No. 10, Ed. 1 Tuesday, November 18, 2008 Page: 3 of 12
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The University News
November 18, 2008 — 3
Dinner & Discourse: Faith & Politics
Texas state Representative Parker speaks on being Catholic and being political
Stephanie Stoeckl
Contributing Writer
Texas State Representative
for District 63, Flower
Mound resident and
University of Dallas alumnus
Tan Parker spoke at Dinner and
Discourse on Nov. 11, sharing
his experiences as a Catholic
and politician. Parker serves on
the committee of State Affairs,
which handles issues such as
abortion, stem cell research,
border security and illegal
immigration.
" I here's no question that
there's a link between my
views as a Catholic and why I
vote the way I do and the types
of legislation I support and
cosign," Parker said. "I have
to balance the desires of the
people i represent compared
with my own moral compass.
This representative area gives
me flexibility to make decisions
according to my conscience."
Parker and his family are
active in their church and
prayer life.
"When it came time for
me to run for office, my wife
and I prayed and reflected on
whether it was the right thing
for our family to encounter at
the time," Parker said.
One of the areas in which
Parker involves his faith with
his position is in the case of
Child Protective Services. He
plans to launch a campaign in
churches and synagogues to
encourage members of the faith
communities to help families
adopt children out of the state
foster care system.
"You have no idea the
number of thousands of kids that
are in the state system," Parker
said. "It's extremely difficult to
be in CPS hearings all night
long, 12:30 to 6:30 a.m. with
a 15 to 30 minute break. What
drives you to do it is that you're
there to make a difference."
As a representative, Parker
must wrestle with questions
such as, what is the appropriate
role of government with regards
to public assistance?
"Good stewardship is
important—to see that we live
within our means," Parker said.
"I don't believe in additional
taxes at the pump, or any
more business taxes. The Texas
economy is the strongest, most
robust in the country. We're
pro-business, pro-growth, pro-
family."
Parker is also involved in
granting public schools the
option of teaching as an elective
the Bible from a historical
perspective, as well as the
Expression of Religious Liberty
bill, which is meant to provide
the citizens of Texas, especially
students in K-12 institutions,
with more ability to express
their faith in public forums.
None of these developments
would be limited to any one
specific faith tradition.
Parker is both praised and
criticized for his faith and his
political action, but gave the
appearance of simply taking it
in stride.
"I get criticized as a
conservative, as a Christian,"
Parker said. "That's out there
and some of that can get very
ugly. Sometimes it's not about
ideas—it gets very personal."
When asked if he ever
encountered issues on which
he was forced to leave his
party platform because of his
faith, Parker responded rather
that the one issue on which he
Texas state Representative Tan
Parker spoke about the intersec-
tion of his faith and his policies.
Photo from the official
Tan Parker website
might have had to separate from
church teachings was on the
issue of illegal immigration. He
stressed that it was important,
though, to make decisions on a
case-by-case basis.
"Right now, I think the
bottom line is that people agree
now on the need for more
border security," Parker
said. "We have 104 million
more dollars and four more
Black Hawks to secure the
border with Mexico. We
will ask for more money.
Washington has forgotten
Texas as a border state."
Capital punishment
is another issue contested
even among members of
the Catholic community.
Parker currently supports
the death penalty, but is
not closed to the possibility
of one clay changing his
stance.
"First and foremost
I believe in good DNA
testing," Parker said. "The
state should pay for that,
as well as access to a fair
court proceeding. I believe
the death penalty serves as
a deterrent if used properly.
I don't think 15 or 20 years
on death row does. Were we
to move to a system in which
parole was abolished and we
had real jail time, there's the
potential in time that I'd be
open to looking at the issue
further."
Ogilvie to teach class on religion and terror
Mary Schuhriemen
News Editor
In the spring semester of
2009, a hand-picked,
dedicated class of graduate
students and possibly some
undergraduate juniors and
seniors will be able to explore
the link between religion and
terror in a School of Ministry
class taught by Dr. Matthew
Ogilvie.
Inan interviewlast IIIursday,
Ogilvie discussed the nature of
the upcoming class. "It's a cross-
listed class," he said, meaning
that while meant primarily for
graduate students, it is possible
for "some advanced seniors
and exceptional juniors" to
participate in his class. I he class
itself will be discussing what
Ogilvie termed "the dark side
of religion" and its connection
to terrorism. He said that while
it is obvious that religion is one
of the greatest influences in the
world, it has a dark side which
breeds fanaticism and leads to
religiously-motivated terrorism.
The course will begin by
discussing what terrorism is and
of religion's influence upon it
throughout history. Ogilvie will
present the class with examples
of non-Islamic terrorist groups,
such as the Irish Republican
Army, IRA, which has been
active in Ireland, the Shining
Path, a Maoist guerrilla force in
Peru, and theTamilTigers, active
around Sri Lanka. Ogilvie said
that the key difference between
these groups and groups such
as Hamas and the Taliban
is that the former terrorist
associations are not based on a
religious belief. Rather, they are
politically motivated and utilize
religion as a means to appeal to
supporters. The iRA is a perfect
example of this, Ogilvie said,
for while everyone assumes
that the Northern Ireland
conflict is between Catholics
and Protestants, it is actually a
struggle over political control
of the region. "The difference
would be the pope telling the
IRA to bomb the Protestants,"
Ogilvie said, which clearly is
not the case.
Also included in this
section of the course will be a
study of terrorist funding states,
such as Iran and Syria.
Ogilvie said that the focus
of the class would be on Islamic
terrorism, simply because that
is the most prominent form of
religious-based terror in current
times. Terror groups which will
receive attention will include
Al Qaeda, Hezbollah, Hamas,
and the Muslim Brotherhood.
Of course, the syllabus has
not been firmly decided yet as
Ogilvie is still in the process of
accumulating primary source
documents which, he says, will
be central to the course. What
will be discussed is how the
religion of Islam has a dark side
which facilitates terror. Ogilvie
does not believe that most
Muslims would ever consider
terrorism, but that certain
facets of Islamic belief and
practice can and are taken too
far. To begin with, the Muslim
understanding of conscience is
very different than say Catholic
teaching, or of the idea most
people have of conscience.
Whereas most view their
conscience as put in us by God
which allows us to differentiate
right from wrong, to a Muslim,
the conscience is the self, and
that self is in opposition to
Allah, Ogilvie explained. The
Quran operates as Allah's voice,
telling His followers what is His
will. Ogilvie pointed out that
the Quran has the first man
and woman eat fruit and fall
from grace, but the tree they
took the fruit from was not the
tree of the knowledge of good
and evil, like in the Judeo-
Christian Bible. Rather, the
tree and Allah's edict that they
should not touch the fruit was a
random taboo—no reason why
the fruit was not to be touched
other than His command. "It's
like radical Calvinism," Ogilvie
stated, "the human will is
completely bad." Unfortunately
for many Muslims, he
pointed out, the Quran is in a
practically unreadable form of
ancient Arabic, and the vast
majority of Muslims depend
upon the interpretation given
them by their clerics, if a cleric
tells his mosque that Allah has
commanded them to blow up
the Infidels, they are supposed
to suppress their own gut
reaction that the command is
immoral and obey.
Another part of this, Ogilvie
stressed, is the fact that most
westerners do not understand
what Hamas and people like
Osama bin Laden are seeking.
Often, westerners say that if
Hamas is given the Gaza Strip,
terrorism in that region will
end. According to Ogilvie,
that is not true. Rather, radical
religiously motivated Islamic
terrorists want the entirety of
the former Islamic states—not
just in the Middle East, but
much of Northern Africa, parts
of which they last controlled
hundreds of years ago, and
even Spain, which had been
overrun by Muslims during the
Middle Ages and held by them
until the Reconquista. And for
the terrorists, violence in the
contested area is not the only
method. The Bali bombings
in 2005, Ogilvie said, were
directed against Australian
tourists as part of their jihad to
avenge themselves against the
Infidels, as were the Sept. 11
attacks in the United States.
That is, fundamentally, the
reason why Ogilvie decided
to offer this course. "We are
winning the military war, but
we are losing the ideological
war," he said. If by any way he
can help dispel the ignorance
and assist in even a tiny way to
aid the ideological war against
religious-based terrorism,
Ogilvie feels that the effort
he put into this course would
be well worth it. Fie said
that without confronting the
ideological war, the military
war "will go on for centuries."
Ogilvie is planning on
including course-work dealing
with religion and counter-
intelligence interrogation,
notably the interrogation of
the former Hamas leader Sheik
Yassin, the founder of Hamas.
All of the course material
will deal with primary source
documents, which means that
the class is not for the faint of
heart. "If we are talking about
suicide bombing, we will see
pictures of actual bombings,"
Ogilvie explained. He was
able to observe some counter-
intelligence work when he
visited Israel as an academic
fellow participant in the
Foundation for the Defense of
Democracies this past summer.
However, James Bond
wannabes need not apply.
Ogilvie emphasized that he is
not offering a course for future
FBI agents—it is an academic
class on the ideologies behind
religious-based terror. Those
wishing to take the course
must get instructor permission,
which in this case means an
interview with Ogilvie where
he will determine who will be
admitted into the class. "I've
already turned two people
down," he commented.
Currently, the class, being
primarily a School of Ministry
offering, is slated to meet
once a month, Friday evening
and Saturday 8-3, but Ogilvie
is waiting to see how many
undergraduates make it into the
class. If there are enough, he
will try to move the class time
to a weekly meeting.
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Tetzlaff, Mary. The University News (Irving, Tex.), Vol. 34, No. 10, Ed. 1 Tuesday, November 18, 2008, newspaper, November 18, 2008; Irving, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth201487/m1/3/: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting University of Dallas.