With palms together,
Good Morning everyone,
May we all share our prayers with those in India suffering so greatly at the hands of extremist terrorists. Such barbarism is difficult to understand and we may be so angry, hurt, and saddened, as to not wish to even try. Often, any attempt to understand terrorism leads to a sense of excuse, but there is no excuse, none.
Who kills men, women, and children, unarmed, and vulnerable and feels justified in doing so? Only those with tortured hearts, those who are filled with hate, and burn with a desire to harm, that exceeds any sense of decency. Such hearts will not be turned by violence. And while individual terrorists might be killed in a "war on terror" the war itself simply adds more fuel to the hate of extremists and breeds more people willing to become terrorists.
I think people who behave this way feel powerless and think in very black and white terms. We ourselves can be prone to this position by witnessing attacks such as those in Mumbai over the last two days. In such circumstances it is easy to set aside our own decency and desire retribution through killing.
As we consider how we would like to track down and kill the killers, we are presented with an opportunity to assess our own spirituality and relationship to our faith and its practices. Christians might ask what Jesus would do, would he pick up a automatic weapon and kill? What would Buddha do? Would he toss a grenade? As Jews, we might ask ourselves what would God have us do? How should we remain holy in His eyes in the presence of such evil?
The problem is much larger than the individual terrorists. It resides in what brings a human being to such an edge in the first place and how do we help him not go there. Fear and gunfire, bombs and grenades will not do it.
What do you think?
Be well.
