Watchman News- Protestant Firebrand Ian Paisley Dies at 88 The Rev. Ian Paisley, the divisive Protestant firebrand who devoted his life to thwarting compromise with Catholics in Northern Ireland only to become a pivotal peacemaker in his twilight years, died Friday in Belfast, his wife said. He was 88. Paisley was Northern Ireland’s most polarizing politician throughout its three decades of civil strife, during which the evangelist’s blistering oratory was often blamed for fueling the bloodshed that claimed 3,700 lives. Yet at the zenith of his peace-wrecking powers, Paisley in 2007 stunned the world by delivering the province’s first stable unity government between its British Protestants and its Irish Catholics. “Dr. No,” as he was widely known, finally said yes — and his powerful U-turn cemented a peace process that he had done so much to frustrate. From the conflict in Northern Ireland’s earliest days, Paisley prophesied damnation for any Protestant politician or church leader who dared to build bridges with the Catholic Church and Irish nationalists. Mainstream Protestant leaders in turn sought to dismiss Paisley as a bigoted crank. Hostile to the establishment, Paisley built his own extremist power base. His evangelical sect, the Free Presbyterian Church of Ulster, labeled the pope as the antichrist and called the major Protestant denominations ecumenical Judases… Read Full Article Watch The Moment Ian Paisley Called Pope John Paul II ‘The Antichrist’ The post Protestant Firebrand Ian Paisley Dies at 88 appeared first on Trunews:. ift.tt/1qrC6wI #trunews #docburkhart
Posted on: Fri, 12 Sep 2014 14:08:46 +0000
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