Parallels Between Iran and the Medieval Church?

There are some very interesting parallels between what's happening in Iran and what happened in the Medieval Church in the centuries leading up to the Reformation. There is an analogy that can be drawn between the Supreme Leader and the Pope on the one hand, and the President and the Emperor of the Roman Empire on the other. I think it's a fair analogy. The Pope, at least at points, had authority over the Emperor (and constantly lusted for more). The Emperor eventually became, in large part, a figurehead. You can read the papal bull "Unam Sanctum" of 1302 in which the Pope claimed absolute authority over every human being on earth here:
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/pgc.asp?page=source/b8-unam.html
The last sentence of Unam Sanctum reads: "Furthermore, we declare, we proclaim, we define that it is absolutely necessary for salvation that every human creature be subject to the Roman Pontiff [Pope]." Crazy huh?

In my previous post, I presented evidence that this election had been stolen. Some have suggested, and many in Iran protested, that the election in 2005, in which Ahmadinejad was (supposedly) elected for the first time was also a sham. Who, if not the Supreme Leader, could be behind such a massive fraud?

What if Ahmadinejad is, for lack of a better word, a bit of a puppet of the Supreme Leader, his front man whom the Supreme Leader ensured would get elected in two stolen elections? Then the Supreme Leader would be making a similar power grab as the Pope once did, just not as blatantly. At the very least, we have to admit that if these two elections were stolen, and it is clear that the current election has been, Ahmadinejad is indebtted to Khameini, the Supreme Leader.

More than likely, what happened in 2005 was that Khameini learned that it was bad to have a President he could not really control, namely Khatami, who was a reformist President for two terms prior to Ahmadinejad. I don't think it's far fetched at all to think that Khameini, the Supreme Leader, would have wanted to ensure that someone friendly to his own ideas was elected. Perhaps the words "puppet" or "front man" are too strong, but it sure looks that way to me.

At any rate, the papal claims to supreme authority of the Middle Ages were the seeds of the fall of the papacy and ultimately of the Reformation. While the Pope enjoyed quite a lot of power in those days, it quickly became obvious to everyone that it was evil. Dante, writing his famous work, "The Divine Comedy" about 10 years after Unam Sanctum, depicted Pope Boniface VIII, the author of the bull, in hell. The corruption of the church was widely known, and people began to speak of the need for moral reform everywhere. People began to say that Councils, not Popes, should hold the authority.

At one point, the College of Cardinals elected a Pope, Urban VI, who wanted to reform the corruption of the cardinals, namely their lavish lifestyle. Well, obviously the cardinals didn't like that too much, so they simply moved to France and elected another Pope. Now there were two Popes, and they each excommunicated the followers of the other Pope. Every Christian in the world was excommunicated by someone at that point.

Suddenly the Pope's claims of absolute authority and infallibility looked ridiculous. Suddenly you're forced to the conclusion that he can err. It wasn't long before the little monk from Wittenburg, Martin Luther, began to speak, and the Reformation was born. While I have oversimplified the story greatly, I don't think I've distorted it.

The parallels with what's going on in Iran are unmistakeable. Ahmadinejad sees the clerics as corrupt and living lavish lifestyles. He wants to see moral reform, or at least that's what he's preaching. He thinks the religious elite are fat while the common man is poor and needy, and he wants to do something about it. At least, that's what he says.

Anyway, like Rome in the Middle Ages, people are calling for reform on both sides. Ahmadinejad wants to do away with the corruption of the Ayatullahs, while Mousavi wants to make the state more pragmatic. But both sides are talking about reform.

Meanwhile, Mousavi has the backing of the reformers, but is himself a representative of the old guard. One article paints a picture of a battle behind the scenes that seems to be pulling the strings. You can read it here: http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/06/2009616184556951795.html
It's from Al Jazeera, an Arab run news organization that is anything but pro-West. If anything, they're anti-West. So their analysis isn't biased in the same ways as ours is (but it's still biased). Anyway, I think they're on to something here. If they're right, then what's happened is just like what happened in the Middle Ages. Ahmadinejad is trying to do away with the corruption at the top, and the people at the top don't like it. And just as the College of Cardinals went to Avignon, France and elected a rival Pope, so now the Assembly of Experts has been called for an emergency meeting, and public statements by Ayatullahs have hinted that the Supreme Leader might be removed. The only reason for such a meeting must be to discuss this very thing. If you've read the article from Al Jazeera, then you'll be interested to note that it was Rafsanjani who called the emergency meeting of the Assembly of Experts.

And so, just as the Roman Pontiff eventually lost his strangle hold on the world, so too perhaps the Supreme Leader will lose his strangle hold on Iran. Perhaps we will see a Reformation in Islam analogous to the Reformation in Christianity. Perhaps the Muslim world will begin to change. Perhaps something very important is beginning in Iran that will spread to the rest of the Middle East.

But hear this, O Westerners! Notice that this is happening quite apart from any US or Western interference. The downfall of the Islamic Republic in Iran seems certain, inevitable. The worst possible thing we could do now is to stick our grubby, greasy, neo-conservative paws all over it. Ahmadinejad and Khameini want nothing more than to say that the evil West is behind these events in order to de-legitimize them. We must not give them that opportunity. The Iranian state is doomed! We need to step back and let it fall on its own.

Does my heart break for those who are suffering, bleeding and dying? Absolutely. But how can the West stop it? Seriously, how can the West do anything about it? Anything President Obama or members of Congress say about the current situation in Iran can be twisted to discredit the Green Revolution. They should just remain silent and hope that the government falls sooner rather than later.