Lent renamed “Christian Ramadan” in the Netherlands (but by whom?)

Tim W. sent me an article from the Telegraph with the shocking headline, “Lent fast re-branded as ‘Christian Ramadan.’” In a cover note, Tim said, “Words fail me.”

We know that things are very bad. But is this particular story as bad as Tim thinks? Here is the opening:

Dutch Catholics have re-branded the Lent fast as the “Christian Ramadan” in an attempt to appeal to young people who are more likely to know about Islam than Christianity.

The Catholic charity Vastenaktie, which collects for the Third World across the Netherlands during the Lent period, is concerned that the Christian festival has become less important for the Dutch over the last generation.

“The image of the Catholic Lent must be polished. The fact that we use a Muslim term is related to the fact that Ramadan is a better-known concept among young people than Lent,” said Vastenaktie Director, Martin Van der Kuil.

Like most news stories today, the article, by Bruno Waterfield of the Telegraph, is written in an imprecise (and in this case sensationalist) manner that makes it impossible to know what the facts are. The lead sentence, “Dutch Catholics have re-branded the Lent fast as the “Christian Ramadan…” makes it sound as if the Catholic authorities of the Netherlands have done this. But the second and third paragraph suggest that maybe it was just the Catholic charity Vastenaktie that did it. From the text quoted so far, it’s impossible to resolve the issue, the article being so poorly written.

However, a bit further down in the article there is a sentence that clarifies things:

Vastenaktie organisers hope that by linking the festival to Ramadan they can remind Christians who may be less observant than Muslims of the “spirituality and sobriety” of Lent.

Without actually saying that the charity did the renaming, the sentence nevertheless makes it reasonably clear that it was the charity that did this, not the Church. Thus the lead is mischievous:

Dutch Catholics have re-branded the Lent fast as the “Christian Ramadan” …

That makes it sound as though the Dutch Catholic community as such has renamed Lent, when, in fact, some Dutch Catholics have renamed Lent. A competent, honest, and non-sensationalistic reporter would have written the lead something like this:

A Dutch Catholic Charity has re-branded the Lent fast as the “Christian Ramadan”…

If it had been written like this, Tim W. would have been spared the moment of despair the story triggered in him … and instead he could have despaired about other stories on Islam. Like the one about the British government officially recognizing and giving welfare to partners in polygamous marriages. Like the story about the British government advising the British people never to speak of “Islamic extremism” or “Muslim terrorism.” Like the story—which is every story—about the total absence in the mainstream West of any social or political force that has the understanding and will to oppose the Islamization of the West.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at February 12, 2008 10:11 PM | Send